In Tom Martin's The Flightless Birds of Academe, he very poignantly states, "Out of the depths of the modern ghetto of sanitized suburbia these men yearn to be awakened from their idleness of being tethered to television and computer screens". I couldn't think of a more accurate summary of why our recent trip to Florida was a much needed reprieve from our day to day. With that being said we all embarked on our latest adventure.
We went down to Clearwater Beach, Florida, a beautiful location to get some much needed time away. An opportunity to focus on each other and having a relaxing and fun time, no doubt that was what we got.
We arrived in the early afternoon on Wednesday, and found a quaint local restaurant to grab some lunch. I went with the special, I mean come on, what could be more tantalizing than the daily special. It was a fried oyster sandwich, which I must admit was a bit of a stretch for me, as the last time I had an oyster it was of the canned variety in probably 1992. But hey, I was on vacation, why not step out on the ledge. Needless to say it wasn't a completely botched experiment, but I remembered why I don't eat a lot of oysters. My wife in her wisdom went with the Grouper and found it quite satisfying. Everyone in the place was great to us, by that I mean they said a lot of wonderful things about our children, it was indeed a perfect start to our experience.
Quickly we made our way back to the hotel as we had some perfect beach conditions to attend to. Now don't get the wrong idea, remember we have an almost two year old and a twelve week old. For us perfect conditions means cloudy and overcast, with a temp in the low eighties. Much less concern for heat and sun exposure! It was perfect, but strangely enough it didn't play out quite like I thought it would. See we've been preparing our son for this trip for the last couple weeks with trips to the local pool. I thought in my mind that we wouldn't be able to get him out of the warm gulf waters, that wasn't the case at all. Instead he wanted to do anything and everything he could with the sand, in between wild bouts of running around like a category five hurricane. None the less it was a perfect opportunity for him to be free in nature.
We also got the great opportunity to get our daughter introduced to the beach and warm gulf waters, she seemed to enjoy it, but it should be noted she enjoys everything. That is except for the occasional over-heating from being with me for too long.
Which reminds me of how this all worked out better than we had hoped, most of the time we spend together is in the midst of near chaos: meal time, bath time, anytime, you name it, we are going at a fair rate of speed. This provided a great opportunity to spend time simply focused on each other. Nothing is more rewarding or important.
We spent the next three mornings in similar fashion, thankfully the weather cooperated with us everyday and gave us perfect family beach conditions.
In the afternoon we explored the area, going down to St. Petersburg and into Tampa.
During our visit to St. Petersburg we visited their Holocaust museum, which I have to admit was a profound experience for me that I didn't anticipate. I thought that having seen the standard Holocaust movies that I might be prepared to face the grim reality of this awful time in history. That indeed was not the case, as I stood in front of one of the original rail cars that had been used to transport to places like Auschwitz, Dachau, and Treblinka. I could feel the history and wretched experiences flowing out of this car and into me, I was sick to my stomach. That anyone ever faced such atrocities shamed me deeply. It was a powerful experience in the sense that much like many things in my life: I realized the extent to which I thought I understood, versus my true understanding, exposing me to my own ignorance. Truly humbling and something that I would recommend for everyone.
Beyond our trip into St. Petersburg, we also hit Ybor City, in Tampa. This is an old part of Tampa and offered all the charm and elegance one might hope for in such an area. We had a wonderful dinner and enjoyed walking the streets.
It was upon leaving Ybor City that we encountered that wonderful feeling of being a visitor in a new location, getting lost. Not to worry though, a half an hour later we finally found our way headed back to Clearwater Beach. It is important to note that Clearwater Beach is widely known for it's spectacular sunsets, which of course based on our planning we would be arriving back from Ybor City precisely thrity minutes prior to sunset, well you can see based on our thirty minute delay we missed sunset on the pier. While that was disappointing we did enjoy the view from the car headed in that direction.
Lamenting the fact that we missed the sunset we did still hit the pier and found a great community of people out enjoying this spectacular night. Our son played on the outdoor playground and we all had a blast, we sealed the night off with my favorite, ice cream!!!
All in all the trip provided the wonderful material of which all memories are made, opportunity to be together and experience each other in harmony, while pursuing adventure or creating it wherever we are.
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