Wednesday 03rd January 2007: Road Trip Day One
However, we arrived in Tampa after about an hour or so but struggled to find somewhere to stop and look around - there didn't seem to really be any centre to the city. After getting lost and ending up in what we called the ghetto of Tampa we decided to move on to St. Petersburg.
We stopped off at somewhere by the coast called Fort De Soto and it was absolutely boiling! We looked along the beach a bit and around the fort and I had a rocky road ice cream, which was amazing. Fort De Soto is absolutely beautiful and I will definitely be going back there. You can hire canoes or bikes and follow there nature trails (very nice).
We checked into a Travel Lodge which was nice. We thought we would have to stay at a dodgy roadside motel but this place was so clean and big! We got ready for the evening and walked down the main strip to find somewhere for dinner. We felt like we were on a Spanish island holiday more than in Florida. Clearwater has a great white sand beach, a pier and a main road of restaurants and gift shops.
Orlando is world famous for cheap tacky gift shops which we have all fallen in love with, and Clearwater was no exception! After we had dinner in a diner we mosied around the cheap tacky shops! We also stopped at a candy shop which sold the biggest cookies EVER! Beth and I couldn't resist. Beth bought an oatmeal, raisin and cinnamon cookie and I got a plain chocolate chip cookie, I can't explain how big it was, but no joke it was about an inch thick! Check out my photos to see! We came back to the hotel room, watched Sex and the City while in bed for a couple of hours, then fell into a deep sleep.
Celsey, Beth and I all had today and tomorrow off, so we decided to make the most of it and go away somewhere for the night. We decided on Tampa, so we rented car and I drove. When I first got in the car I didn’t have a clue what I was doing because it was an automatic and I ’m use to driving manuals. It was really scared as well because once I left the car park I was straight on a main road with six lanes of traffic and I got beeped because I forgot that I could turn right on a red light if there is no traffic.
However, we arrived in Tampa after about an hour or so but struggled to find somewhere to stop and look around - there didn't seem to really be any centre to the city. After getting lost and ending up in what we called the ghetto of Tampa we decided to move on to St. Petersburg.We stopped off at somewhere by the coast called Fort De Soto and it was absolutely boiling! We looked along the beach a bit and around the fort and I had a rocky road ice cream, which was amazing. Fort De Soto is absolutely beautiful and I will definitely be going back there. You can hire canoes or bikes and follow there nature trails (very nice).
Then continued driving until we got to St. Pete’s beach and we walked along the beach there and the views were great but we couldn't see much for us to do in the evening so we carried on driving and stopped at Clearwater Beach.
We checked into a Travel Lodge which was nice. We thought we would have to stay at a dodgy roadside motel but this place was so clean and big! We got ready for the evening and walked down the main strip to find somewhere for dinner. We felt like we were on a Spanish island holiday more than in Florida. Clearwater has a great white sand beach, a pier and a main road of restaurants and gift shops. Orlando is world famous for cheap tacky gift shops which we have all fallen in love with, and Clearwater was no exception! After we had dinner in a diner we mosied around the cheap tacky shops! We also stopped at a candy shop which sold the biggest cookies EVER! Beth and I couldn't resist. Beth bought an oatmeal, raisin and cinnamon cookie and I got a plain chocolate chip cookie, I can't explain how big it was, but no joke it was about an inch thick! Check out my photos to see! We came back to the hotel room, watched Sex and the City while in bed for a couple of hours, then fell into a deep sleep.
L to R, Set 1, Pic 1 - Our Car (very nice): Pic 2 - Me in the car: Pic 3 - Downtown Tampa (where we got soo lost): Pics 4 to to 7 - Fort Desoto park with Beth, Celsey and Me (it's so beautiful and quite here): Pics 8 & 9 - St Pete's Beach (very pretty but nothing to do).
Set 2, pic 1 - Beth in the back of the car (I think she may be scaried of my driving, hahaha): Pics 2 to 5 - Our room at the Travel Lodge (not bad for $80): Pic 6 - Celsey & Beth on the Balcony: Pic 7 - Beth, Me & Celsey at Dinner: Pic 8 - Me with my giant cookie (yummy): Pic 9 - Beth with her giant cookie (they were amazing).
