Family Vacation to the Beach!

Carter enjoying himself on vacation!

This past weekend was our first attempt at a vacation since having Carter.  Our last vacation, California, was over a year ago, and if you know anything about Ryan and I, you know that we have been going a bit stir crazy not going anywhere! We love to travel.  If you can believe it, Parrish doesn't exactly offer every cultural and food experience we crave.  Actually, I believe it offers none! We originally planned on going to Savannah, GA, but with Ryan's interview schedules, we eventually had to cancel.  So we decided to go someplace close and over a weekend so that we wouldn't have to reschedule should another interview come up (and it did!).  

We stayed at the Marriott Suites Clearwater (http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/tpams-clearwater-beach-marriott-suites-on-sand-key/) in Sand Key (just south of Clearwater Beach).  It was an absolute perfect place for families.  The rooms are all-suites, so it was nice having a separate room (with plenty of space) for Carter's pack-n-play.  They also have a giant pool that was gorgeous. We didn't try anything of the food at the resort, just a frozen drink by the pool, but they were grilling hot dogs and hamburgers on Saturday that looked good.  The hotel is right next door to a shopping center of shops and restaurants too.  We didn't end up going to the beach itself (a golf-cart ride away), sticking to the pool instead.  The hotel was an easy drive to lots of restaurants and shops.  

View from front of our room

View from balcony

Pool

Day 1, Saturday: We were able to check in early, thank goodness, because it would've been a pain to try to feed and change Carter if not.  Our room was on the 6th floor and had a beautiful view of the pool and intercoastal/bay.  After getting settled we changed and went swimming.  The pool was crowded, but everyone was very friendly, so it was a lot of fun.  Carter was the star of the pool with his cool shades and hat.  After napping we decided to drive down to Indian Rocks Beach and go to Slyce Pizza Bar for dinner (http://slycepizzabar.com/).  It was an excellent choice.  We ordered garlic knots as an appetizer (no vampires would come our way!) and for dinner we each ordered a different half of pizza (great option instead of compromising).  My half was Greek with sausage, feta, kalamata olives, basil, and spinach.  Ryan's had meatballs, mushrooms, and ricotta cheese.  Just as our pizza arrived, Carter decided he had had enough and started to fuss.  Luckily we were just able to get our pizza to go and we enjoyed it back in the hotel room and watched baseball. 

Yummy garlic knots

Pizza from Slyce

Day 2, Sunday: Ryan's birthday!  We started off the day on a great note, Carter slept until 6:45!  We've been having trouble lately getting him to sleep through the night, so it was a wonderful treat that he did.  Aren't babies supposed to sleep worse on vacation? Since he was up, we decided to go for an early breakfast next door to the hotel at Maggie Mae's.  It was your basic breakfast spot.  We both had pancakes.  They were good, but didn't knock our socks off by any means.  After breakfast we went swimming for awhile and enjoyed the fact the sun wasn't at full strength and most people were still sleeping.  After Carter napped, we went to Frenchy's Original for lunch.  It was far less crowded than their sister restaurant on the beach.  I had a grilled grouper sandwich that was really good and Ryan had fried flounder.  We did have an "interesting" end to our meal, Carter decided it was a good place to go "number two," and proceeded to blow out his diaper and made a mess of himself and my clothes too.  It took an entire pack of travel wipes to get him clean.  Needless to say, we went back to the hotel room to change and clean up! We made reservations at Guppy's down on Indian Rocks Beach for Ryan's birthday dinner.  After dealing with the snotty receptionist, we enjoyed a nice meal.  The food was good, but nothing stellar, not sure if it was worth the price.  I had grouper picatta and Ryan had a filet.  By the time we left it was absolutely packed with people waiting for a table.  Carter fell asleep in the car, thus putting a kink in our plans to swim one more time.  But we decided to go anyway, so we brought him down to the pool in the stroller and sat in the lounge chairs drinking champagne and waiting for him to wake up.  When he did wake up, he had a blast in the pool.  

Mommy and Carter in the pool

Daddy and Carter

Daddy and Carter at Guppy's

Day 3, Monday: After a wonderful weekend, we had to head home.  Ryan had a 10:40 am interview with the district so we had to leave early.  Our trip was capped off by a not so pleasant car ride courtesy of our baby boy.  He cried the entire hour and 15 minute drive home.  But even still, we are encouraged to try to go out of town again.  Maybe Disney??