As usual, I was awake pretty early (albeit, after sunrise, surprisingly) so I got ready for the day and went for a walk, taking pictures of the resort exterior, the ocean, and even slightly into the park our hotel was next to (Sand Key Park). It was a beautiful morning.
Once my roaming was complete (and I was thoroughly pissed because I’d left my fitbit in the room!), I went back to the room to get Nick moving towards breakfast. Thankfully, he was a good sport about being woken up for food.
When Nick was ready we drove over to Crabby’s. At this hour, we easily got parking in the small “south beach” lot where we had parked the first night. Apparently people don’t really hit the beach before noon in FL in April. There were 5 other cars in the lot when we parked (and one of them had NH plates!).
Needless to say we had no wait for breakfast at Crabby’s. Breakfast was just as good as dinner the night before had been. I had a mimosa and the “country benedict” (amazing biscuit, fried chicken strip, poached egg and southern white gravy) and Nick had some adult beverage involving milk and chocolate, and the “pigs in a blanket”, which was essentially sausage links fried in pancake batter. We loved breakfast, and knew we wouldn’t need to eat again until dinner, which worked very well with our intended lazy day.
After breakfast, we headed back to the car, stopping for a palm tree picture along the way.
When we got back to the hotel, we lounged for a bit, and then I changed into my swimsuit and headed for the pool. At this hour, I actually was able to find a lounge chair truly at the pool. I read for a bit, then got in the pool to cool off, then read for a bit, then went down to the ocean to cool off. The ocean felt AMAZING. It was super shallow and calm too, and the water was stunning today, so in some ways, I sort of felt like I was at Serenity Bay at Castaway Cay. I was definitely missing the Konk Kooler though!
Eventually I made my way back to the room, stopping for pictures in the hammock with palm trees in the background along the way.
Once back at the room, I did some sunburn analyzing, and chilled in the air conditioning for a bit. Then it was time to get ready for dinner.
We drove back to the North Beach parking garage, where we easily found parking. Then it was off to Frenchy’s OG, because lunch the day before had been so good. Today the open seats were either in the sun, or at the bar, so we sat at the bar. Dinner was just as excellent as lunch had been the day before. I went with the Island Mojito (x2) again because it was just that good. Nick went with the special of the day, which was margaritas for $3 something (x3). We split the really fun shaped pretzel, because when a place does their logo as a pretzel, you have to do it, he got the Super Grouper, fried, and I had a grilled grouper sandwich. Excellent meal!
After dinner it was off to Pier 60 to check out the sunset celebration. The celebration was a bust, but, we got some great views, and I got a picture with another one of those painted dolphins.
Having wandered as much as we wanted, we went back to the car and drove back to the hotel, where I actually convinced Nick to watch sunset with me. Three days into our time here, and he still hadn’t made it to the backside of the hotel. Needless to say he was a bit amazed by the size of the place and all the hotel offered. We were extremely disappointed, however, that the pool bar did NOT stay open until sunset like the paperwork about restaurant hours during Covid said it did. Sunset was wonderful, but some pictures of fruity drinks at sunset would have been fun too!
After sunset, having decided that the next night would involve another round of rum buckets to end vacation strong, we headed out onto the balcony to enjoy the last bit of light with the White Claws that we’d purchased the day before. Now here’s a story I forgot in the previous chapter. We bought these White Claws in the hotel store Monday morning on our way back from breakfast, when we stopped for some bottled water. It was say 8:30 in the morning. In NH, we buy beer, wine and things like White Claw in the grocery store, and then actual liquor is sold in state operated liquor stores, most of which reside on the side of the highways, to supply our southern neighbors with cheap alcohol, after they pay our tolls. If a store, grocery or liquor, is open, you can buy alcohol. Apparently that’s not the same in FL. When we went to cash out, the cashier had to check the time, to make sure it was late enough (after 8 am if it’s not a Sunday...after 11 on Sundays) to sell us the cans of White Claw. You learn something new each time you travel? So anyway, we enjoyed the last of the light, the view, and the White Claws.
And then we crashed for the night, because all of that sunshine makes a person tired!
No comments:
Post a Comment