Florida: Day 1

Prepare for a flood of pictures with beautiful beaches and reminiscing of my trip to Clearwater, Florida. I figured if I took it one day at a time that I would spare you from a monstrous post with way too many pictures to look at in one sitting. But I do expect a few comments, especially since my husband can rack up 18 comments with a single post!!! Just kidding. I was able to go because I won a partial travel scholarship to the Social Marketing in Public Health conference. Yes, I worked, learned a lot, and have some new ideas for improving my marketing skills but I also played a lot. Typically I get sent somewhere like Atlanta, GA (no offensive, I'm sure parts of Georgia are lovely) where there's nothing to do but work and sit in the hotel. So when my boss said I could go to Florida I was thrilled! I tried talking Jeff into coming with me but something about the 95+ degree heat and very, very high humidity didn't sound like fun to him. I really wanted to someone to go exploring with and found my mom and sister more than willing to come and have a five day girls week extravaganza, something we've never done before.

The first day I was alone and after sitting on the plane all day, checked in, threw my suitcase on the bed, and took off for the beach. I couldn't believe how much gorgeous white sand there was, how warm the water was (when you grow up playing at Bear Lake whose water is freezing until it starts to snow and then you can't go to the lake, you think twice about diving in to any open body of water for fear of turning into an ice cube), and the seashells that were everywhere (and not the whimpy kind you find at Bear Lake either, these ones were huge). I hunted for seashells, watched some birds playing in the water, relaxed, and thought to myself this is just the life! The view from the hotel was awesome... Gulf of Mexico to the West and Tampa Bay to the East.
After grabbing a bite to eat, I decided to venture to Pier 60 to watch the sunset. Not only would it give me a leg up on souvenir shopping, but it would help me figure out how to tell my mom and sister how to get around the fastest and cheapest. Hence the Jolley Trolley. The Jolley Trolley is an open trolley, sort of like the ones I would imagine are in San Fransisco that loops up and down Clearwater Beach. I'd heard that everyone heads to Pier 60 for the sunsets and it was definitely the place to be! The sun was this bright orange-pink and seemed to just melt into the ocean. Music, shopping, swimming, and even a surprise visit from a "wild" dolphin just off the pier (I put on my Facebook profile that I had seen a wild dolphin and boy did everyone think that was funny. Jeff said he tried to hit on me that's why he was wild. I just meant I saw one in the ocean and not in captivity.) didn't disappoint for my first day in Florida.