Florida Blog!!! 😆😆😆

Dearest blog, I have not forgotten about you. I have simply made about 40 posts that were okay in nature but let's face it- I'm not good at endings.

I'm really not. Looking back on all of my term papers and such you would see some great substance, amazing filler, and then a really sad ending paragraph. 

So yeah, basically, I've wrote a bunch of blogs that I can't finish. And I am so sure that this will be the exact way. 

But, here we go.

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I am so excited! I have arranged a date with my Mom so that we can drive down to visit them in their new home! I miss my parents a lot. It's very hard to be so far from them, because we're so close.

This trip will also be my first real vacation in at least 5 years. Unless you can call traveling to Alabama for 2-3 days and visiting the mountain after family time, a vacation.  Psst. It's not.

This trip will also be the first time I've seen the beach (if it doesn't have salt water it's not a real beach in my book) since 2009- and it has been way too long.

I had spent most of my teenage summers waiting to go to Clearwater. My Grandparents lived in Palm Harbor and we would go down for a visit. 

We would always try to book a stay at the Island Queen on Clearwater Beach. It was a Mom and Pop motel owned by Chester and Mary on a side street. We got to know them extremely well, as my Mom is 100% Polish and so are they. And, Chester is a character. My Dad would stay up late with him drinking Spirytus. That's 192-proof alcohol! 😉 oh yeah- he claims he has never had a hangover on the stuff.

I don't have photos in my phone's possession so here's an Internet pic that looks like something I took years ago. Hah! 

 

They were later bought by some million dollar company to build some condos on the property. I don't think they are finished to this day.

It's really sad.

But yeah, the motel room had a living room and a kitchen. It was really great. 

But I was usually only there to sleep. I knew the entire beach like the back of my hand. Where to buy the best and cheapest souvenirs, where the locals hung out, and even how to find the best internet access before cell phones existed (well for me, anyway).  I would walk from one end to the other and up every side street. 

Clearwater Beach is home to Pier 60. Every night during the summer but especially on weekends- people from the town come out for the sunset festival. They set up booths of homemade items. I can't tell you how much I've wanted to be one of them in recent years. 

The pier just after sunset, in 2009.

 

But anyway,  I'm really excited!! 

To stray from the topic a bit, I've always suffered from wanderlust. Suffered. Why suffered? Because I don't have enough money to travel even though my heart begs for it.

I've always wanted to pack a few bags and jump in the car and travel the entire Route 66. It starts in Chicago, so that really would have been easy.

I have so many places in this country I want to see and nearly millions of places in this world. Basically, it would probably be easier to list the places I have no interest in seeing. You know? 

When I do get to travel, I keep a piece of the place I visit with me. I almost feel like I have a ton of homes away from home. If I were asked to move to any of them at any time, I'd jump right up and go. 

I often just sit around thinking about my other homes and what I did there and wonder what people are doing there right now. Sigh. 

But, back on track a bit, one of those places is the west central Florida coast!

I'm planning on being at the beach on the 9, 10, or the 11th of August. I guess I'll just have to see how that goes. But, I can promise that my heart will be happy when I'm there.

My main reason for going is family time. I'm also going to try and beg for a Disney day- but that might not happen during this trip. My husband and I have been wanting to go for the last few years. Our daily work in the bread industry usually had us talking about how we'd rather be at Disney. 

We'd have deep conversations about what we'd do first. Enchanted Tiki Room vs Tomorrowland? How does one choose? 

My answer: tiki tiki tiki time. TIKIIIIIISSSSS. 

His answer was usually Tomorrowland but only if it was what Walt originally had visioned. It's been upgraded so now I'm not sure how he feels. 

But, I'm sure I'd rather be almost anywhere than a bread aisle ever again. And I'm still not sure about Disney. I wasn't so thrilled during my last visit- with the exception of riding Space Mountain about 5000 times.

We shall see. 😉

But I'm excited!

End Blog. See. 😉