After a great night’s sleep, I woke up late by my standards, but still plenty early enough for the day. I took in the view, because who doesn’t like seeing a palm tree first thing in the morning?
And then I got ready for the day and woke Nick up. He got ready and we headed essentially across the street for breakfast at Maggie Mae’s. Maggie Mae’s is in a small strip mall, but it was still early (like 8 am?) so we easily found parking, and got in to Maggie Mae’s with no wait. We were seated outside, with a beautiful view. It was quickly apparent that this was our kind of place. It was a no BS type place with an impressive menu, efficient service, fair prices, and signs about extra surcharges for crabby customers. Nick had some sort of breakfast platter and I had the bananas foster french toast. We both thoroughly enjoyed our breakfast with a view, and knew we would be coming back!
As we left Maggie Mae’s, we could see that a line had already formed, so we knew this was a place to come to when we got up early.
After breakfast we went back to the hotel for a bit before it was time for today’s outing. About 9:45 we headed down to the car, and then I promptly had to race back to the room for our pre-paid parking paper. But...we were launched only 5 minutes later than planned.
Today’s adventure was a trip to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, with a dolphin and wildlife cruise. It was about a 15 minute, very straightforward drive from the hotel, and the drive was our first view of how compact and easy to navigate this town really is. We found parking easily in their garage, and were directed inside after our temperatures had been checked (with those laser style thermometers aimed at the inside of our wrists).
Pre-purchased ticketing is required, so the ticket line moved quickly. We actually got in to the aquarium completely for free. Teachers (and military) are eligible for free “appreciation” tickets. On weekends they can get guests in at a discount. Monday-Thursday one guest also gets in for free and then additional guests are eligible for a discount. I was able to book our appreciation tickets right online, and just needed to show my school ID when we checked in. Since we got in for free, and it’s a place that we kind of like the mission of, I decided to book our dolphin cruise through them. So our day at the aquarium with cruise was $40 total for the two of us.
Clearwater Marine Aquarium is actually a marine hospital. The aquarium is, I think, more of their funding source than their mission. Their goal is to rehabilitate and release as many of the marine wildlife that they rescue as they can. But they have some lifers who simply can’t be released. One of them is the dolphin, Winter, subject of the movie Dolphin Tale (which I still need to actually watch). It’s not a large place, although they have very clearly just expanded. However, there are a fair amount of animals there, and there are lots of “talks” about the animals throughout the day. Lots of opportunities for add-ons (animal meets, etc) too.
The aquarium was enjoyable enough, although it definitely did not take us long to visit. But the real highlight of the day was our dolphin and wildlife cruise. We met for this about 45 minutes after arrival at the aquarium. We were checked in and lined up by party. This aquarium is taking Covid precautions seriously. They had sectioned off the boat into party sizes, with significant distance between each group. We were instructed to stay within our taped sections, and there were probably only 20 of us on this massive pontoon boat. As the party of two for the group, Nick and I were boarded first and sent to the way back of the boat. Picture is of the social distancing markers to show the kind of space we had.
This cruise was fantastic. There was a marine biologist from the aquarium on the boat who narrated, both about the area, and about the local wildlife. The scenery was wonderful, it felt great to be out on a boat, and we did see a couple of dolphins too! And, because I’m sure someone is wondering, since it was an open air boat, with everyone distanced, once we were under way, we were allowed to take masks off if we were comfortable. The staff kept their masks on since they were narrating. It was a great experience, and I’d happily do that cruise again. The cruise was a little over an hour, and truly made our trip.
Once the cruise was over, we checked out the dolphins (and the information about Winter’s prosthetic tail) for a few more minutes.
Then it was time for lunch. After purchasing an ornament in the gift shop (dolphins, obviously), we exited the aquarium (as expected, you exit through the gift shop), and hopped in the car. As we took the first turn to go down a level, we heard from a passing car “dude, is that a Bronco”. This became a common theme this trip. No sooner had we stopped chuckling over that, then we had another adventure as we exited. Nick had set up android auto in the car, so the invisible talking lady was giving directions as we exited the garage. CMA has a staff member at the entrance/exit, helping with the parking ticket machine (your parking is either paid for, or, if pre-paid before the visit, validated when you check in to the aquarium at the ticket desk). I said thank you, but must have hit the “talk” button on the steering wheel at the same time, so as we exited the garage, the Google narrator was telling me “you’re welcome, I always try my best”. By the time we hit the causeway, we were laughing so much we were crying.
The drive to our next parking garage was quick, and, surprisingly, we easily found parking. From here it was a very short walk to our lunch destination, Frenchy’s Original Cafe. Frenchy’s has several spots in Clearwater, but Nick’s co-worker had told him to make sure to go to the OG. So...we did. We were seated outside (under cover, thankfully) just a couple minutes after arrival.
Lunch here was excellent. Very friendly service, great food, great beverages, and after so much time in NH, open air meals were awesome. I had an island mojito (they use pineapple rum and add orange in addition to the muddled lime and mint), which was super refreshing. Actually, I had two. Nick had a rum runner and a Red Stripe beer. He had the super grouper sandwich, cajun style, I had the fried grouper sandwich, and we finished the meal with fried oreos. It was all excellent!
Lunch here was excellent. Very friendly service, great food, great beverages, and after so much time in NH, open air meals were awesome. I had an island mojito (they use pineapple rum and add orange in addition to the muddled lime and mint), which was super refreshing. Actually, I had two. Nick had a rum runner and a Red Stripe beer. He had the super grouper sandwich, cajun style, I had the fried grouper sandwich, and we finished the meal with fried oreos. It was all excellent!
After lunch we walked around the block, checking out some of the shops, including Ron Jon. I needed more flip flops! I also enjoyed seeing the various painted dolphins around town, even the ridiculous Hooters one.
Shopping complete for now, we hopped back in the car and drove back to the hotel. Once there, Nick took a nap and I changed into my swimsuit and coverup, and headed outside. The pool deck was pretty full but I found a bunch of lounge chairs under some palm trees, and parked myself there to read for a little bit.
Once I’d had enough reading (I just can’t focus lately...and it was hot out!), I headed down to the water. I did some picture taking, and put my feet in for a bit.
Once I’d had my fill of sun for the time being, I headed back to the room for some air conditioning and to change back to real clothes. Eventually, we headed into town for dinner at Crabby’s on the Beachwalk.
Parking was not as easy as the previous night, but, we eventually discovered that the Hyatt, which is practically next to Crabby’s, lets beachgoers pay to park in their garage. So we parked there and walked over to Crabby’s, where they quoted us a 15 minute wait and took our number to text when our table was ready. We found a spot in the shade with a cool piece of art to wait the 10ish minutes for our table.
For dinner we were seated upstairs, along the rail. Crabby’s is an open-air place, and we had an awesome view. Dinner was excellent. I had a mahi mahi sandwich, Nick had the key west combo platter (fish and shrimp in a key west sauce), we both had rum buckets, and we had key lime pie for dessert. Prices were very fair and service was good. Crabby’s was an excellent dinner choice.
After dinner we went into Surf Style for a few minutes of souvenir shopping. Surf Style seems to be the souvenir chain in Clearwater. I found myself a Clearwater hat. Then I went across the street to watch sunset while Nick stood in the checkout line for me.
The drive back to the hotel after sunset was quick, with a nice view from the bridge, and, of course, we heard “dude is that a Bronco” again when we exited the parking garage.
For the first time we had to park in the side lot at the hotel, which meant we entered the hotel through a different door. This worked well though, because I discovered our hotel had one of these painted dolphins too!
Once back in the room, we crashed. It was another night of good sleep on that comfortable bed.
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