Carol's Trip to Clearwater, Florida
October, 2009
Carol arriving at the Tampa Airport! Is she surprised or what!
Carol ready to dine at the tea house in Plant City, note the name tag they made for her.
Delicious soup, sandwiches and tea!
Carol being served at the tea house, I'm guessing she is surprised...again!
We took Carol around the many Victorian historic homes in Plant City and this is one of them.
Many of the homes were creatively decorated for Halloween.
Carol's a winner at the NICKEL slots! What would she have looked like if she had won the five dollar slots!?
You can't beat this five bar combo for fun at the casino! Carol's a winner!
All smiles :) "When do I get the cash!?"
Okay now, here's the big ticket prize! $67.74! She's ready to spend it all trying to win more!
What does Carol like the most? The money or the cute man!? :)
A FREE bottle of champagne just for her trip to Florida, courtesy of Bon Appétit Restaurant in Dunedin, Florida.
We ate outside. Drink up sis!
This jpg is from the Bon Appétit web site. Note the fantastic marina around it, and there is also a pier there too.
Some of our delicious entrees at Bon Appétit, they had a special German Oktoberfest menu
which we ordered from.
After we ate outside, we went inside and I photographed a lovely table setting.
Beyond the water is Clearwater Beach.
This is a Florida great American white egret looking for a freebie at Bon Appétit!
Carol spent 15 minutes looking at him in various poses!
The bird is photographed THROUGH the glass of the restaurant so I'm happy it came out at all. :)
Beautiful Clearwater Beach, boardwalk and pier.
Do you need some suntan lotion Carol or would you prefer a handsome life guard! :)
This is a view of the iconic, Victorian 1896 historic Belleview Biltmore Hotel. It is now closed
for renovations for a few years. It is in need of repairs and the roof is covered with tarps.
For more info on the hotel which Ed, Doug and I helped save along with great community and
Belleair town official support.
For more information click here: http://www.SaveTheBiltmore.com
(The name of our nonprofit organization is Save the Biltmore Preservationists)
Here is a photo from our web site:
What no chocolate ice cream for Carol?! But she's happy to try toasted coconut though!
This is a boat at Clearwater Beach that cruises the water, however we took
the "Dolphin Express" a larger boat and safer!
As we cruised along Clearwater Beach, right next to us was the Little Toot boat
which created a fast wake, and the dolphins love to follow it and jump in it!
The second photo is the view from the back of our boat, Clearwater Beach hotels and motels.
Jumping for joy!
The captain of the Dolphin Express said that we had an exceptionally great show of dolphins that night.
I'll say! It was the boat ride of my life!
We were in great danger of being attacked by two miniature pirates who would take all our loot!
They helped to man the pirate boat on Clearwater Beach!
A lovely sailboat we saw from our dolphin boat ride. No cares in the world!
A bouquet of flowers I gave to Carol, flowers are the ones I planted and then picked from around our house.
This is in Tarpon Springs, the Greek community. We had a snack and coffee there,
Carol had a Greek CHOCOLATE baklava of course!
The famous bronze iconic diver statue in Tarpon Springs, where sponge diving is still carried on today.
It was an important part to the development of Tarpon Springs.
Carol just loves to make new friends! :) Here she is at Captain Jack's Restaurant in Tarpon Springs.
Note the boats in the background, the main street of Tarpon Springs is behind the water.
All that partying at Captain Jacks leaves a pooped pooch! No more drinks for him!
A beautiful sunset from Captain Jack's overlooking Tarpon Springs boats along main street.
The bird is a gray heron.
Carol partying it up at Captain Jack's! Oh she loved that scrumptious clam chowder.
That is toasted coconut chicken in front.
We went to the Safety Harbor British car show, here is a racy red MGTD and a beautiful blue MGA.
While showing Carol Safety Harbor, and the historic Safety Harbor Spa and Resort,
we saw a wedding party, love those dresses!
I wonder which one caught the bride's bouquet!?
Too cute for words!
These are pictures taken at the infamous Tradewinds Hotel in St. Petersburg Beach.
When she was 21 years of age, she visited Florida with my parents and stayed at a small but lovely two story motel.
My parents rented the second story of the small motel back then and saw lovely sunsets
overlooking St. Petersburg Beach. So Carol has not seen what has transpired since then.
Who would think that this tiny motel would expand and become the iconic and hugely popular Tradewinds!!
Unfortunately they have built in front of the motel, and the beach is no longer visible from the motel.
This is the front of the motel that is now the mammoth Tradewinds.
Now if we can just find the name of the original motel!
We arrived at the Tradewinds Hotel just in time to see a fantastic SECOND wedding!
Nothing better than a groom in a kilt!
Two swans floating peacefully along the winding waterway at the Tradewinds.
They were quite willing to pose for Carol's peanuts!
Carol waiting for wine at the revolving, rooftop restaurant in the seven story
Grand Hotel on St. Petersburg Beach.
The pink, historic and iconic Don Cesar Hotel is way in the background.
When all else fails in life, just "wine" a bit!
Crabcakes to start a delightful dinner. :) Two crabcakes and there's three of us so we all dug in fast! ;-)
Carol with a luscious but tart key lime pie! Pucker up sis!
The Tradewinds Hotel can be seen behind her.
What a wonderful way to top off a whirlwind vacation!
Love you sis! Glad you had a great time. It was fun being your tour guide! :)
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