Clearwater, Florida |
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Clearwater, Florida |
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| Busch Gardens was fun, but not extra spectacular. We think this is because we've been to many of the places Busch Gardens was exhibiting already and we were a bit theme-parked out by the end of three weeks. |  |
We left Busch Gardens and arrived in Clearwater just in time to walk
to the beach and see the sun setting.
We then drove around a bit looking for a place to stay. We could not precisely identify which hotel we'd stayed in together about 8 or 9 years before when we'd been in Clearwater, so we just randomly picked one that Tara thought was decorated nicely for Christmas. It turned out to be a nice choice since the family running the place were very friendly. We heard all about immigrating from Italy and stories about customers who didn't pay their Home Shopping Network bills on time (since the daughter who was working the front desk used to work in collections for HSN).
We enjoyed two fun nights in Clearwater and ate at a extra yummy local
Italian restaurant. They served so much for dinner that we had breakfast
and lunch leftovers the next day. Our entertainment consisted of lounging
about the hotel, reading or watching movies like The Wedding Singer or
The President's Girlfriend. We got out to both Waffle House and IHOP +
found a 8 year old video game favorite of Seth's across the street in a
nearby hotel.
| We spent most of the day lounging around our hotel room. The view from out hotel was nice. Seth spent time in the room and Tara sat outside - until it became too cold when the sun went away :-( |  |
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We managed to see the tail end of the sunset each night we were in Clearwater. The first night we saw the sunset as we were driving over the bridge from Tampa towards the coast. We got to the Clearwater beaach just seconds before the sun disk went under the horizon. The second night we waited until the very end of The Wedding Singer and then dashed across the street to see the sunset! It was significantly colder the 2nd night.
The only disappointment in Clearwater was that we didn't get to see
Tara's old work colleague Hugo who had moved to Clearwater when he left
the Education department at the same time Tara did in 1997. But, Hugo had
a good "excuse" for not checking his e-mail and calling us back straight
away - his wife gave birth to his 2nd baby the morning we were leaving.
He called the hotel later that evening and we'd checked out already. We
did get back in tough, though, via e-mail and Tara might even have a summer
job working with Hugo if he gets too much business to handle. He's made
a career out of teaching classes similar to the ones they taught together
at Swiss Bank.
| Category | Rating | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Overall Experience | ||
| Ease of Journey | ||
| Accommodation | 7 | The Hi Seas Motel in Clearwater was very nicely decorated with Christmas lights. That's why Tara wanted to stay there. It was a good choice. |
| Activities | ||
| Coolness |
