Beach Visit!

We set off yesterday to pay our first visit to a beach on Florida's gulf coast. Rain was in the forecast, but we decided to chance it. Our destination was Fort Desoto Beach near Saint Petersburg, Florida. Fort Desoto was recently named America's Number 1 Beach by TripAdvisor, so it was a natural first choice for our trip.

Alas, not to be. When we got there, the rain was pretty steady. We got out and explored a little anyway, but with no sun, steady rain, and a strong breeze, it was just not good beach weather, so we got in the car and headed back north, hoping to drive out of the storm.

We found sunny weather at last in Clearwater, near Tampa. As an aside, the Philadelphia Phillies train in Clearwater during the off season, which I knew, but I still didn't expect to see signs with the Phillies Logo. A bit out of place that far from Philadelphia. :-)

The Clearwater beach was excellent. We both really liked it, even though the Gulf of Mexico doesn't produce the same caliber of waves as the Atlantic coast.

Overall, we had a really good trip, and like I pointed out to Shelsy, it was a fun opportunity to explore our new home state a little bit.

Here's a video of our day. Note the clip of the tiny, beach-dwelling fish at the end. This was all shot with Shelsy's underwater digital camera. Enjoy!



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