We spent most of our time in Florida hanging out by the pool in the backyard of the house we rented, but I really wanted to spend a day at the beach. After researching where to go, I read that the most amazing beach is Clearwater Beach, near Tampa, the opposite coast that I usually go to for Florida beaches. It was only about 30-40 minutes farther than the beach we normally go to, so I decided to check it out.
It was so worth it. The water was warm. The waves were small. There were tons of seashells. Perfect beach for kids.
The kids had such a fantastic day. On the way there I bought some sand toys at the grocery store, so we built a sandcastle, collected tons of beautiful shells, ran and splashed and played and the kids didn’t want to leave.
At lunchtime I pulled out our sandwiches and warned the kids not to feed the birds, but of course someone did anyway. Then we were getting swarmed by birds and I told the kids “Don’t feed the birds anything!” As I was talking a bird swooped down, grabbed Marion’s sandwich out of her hands and flew away. Several other birds then dive bombed the bird and they fought over the sandwich. Marion looked on the verge of tears for a moment and then we all burst out laughing and shared our sandwiches with Marion. The birds wouldn’t leave us alone for an hour. They are pretty persistent! The kids still had a great time, we just had to be super sneaky when we wanted to eat.
When it was getting towards late afternoon we packed up to leave, but there is a really great playground right by the parking lot! The kids had fun playing on the playground for another hour. I wish we could have stayed forever! We finally left and then stopped for dinner on the way home. Big mistake, as we ended up in traffic in Tampa for an hour, and got back to the house quite late at night. Next time we will just stay for the sunset and head home later to avoid the traffic!
