The Last Few Days

Sorry for the delay in this post, but apparently Clearwater Beach has not reached the 21st Century yet and WiFi is hard to come by. In any case, we are now in Orlando, but we have had a lot of adventures since our last post, some good, some not so much.

The weather here has been mostly wonderful. Friday was a clear cool day that we spent mostly on the beach. Thankfully for me, the beach just a block away from our home away from home, the Camelot, has cabanas that can be rented for the day.

We have discovered our favorite restaurant here—Frenchy’s Rockaway Grill, a block from our beach. Good food, nice people, and geographically desireable. We tried a different place one night to watch the sunset, but it just wasn’t the same. We realized that we have the best of everything right down the street/beach from us.

We are also enjoying the pool very much. An added bonus is that the pool is on webcam, so we called Ada to take a look while we waved to her from the pool. Very cool.

Friday night there was an almost full moon on one side of us as we walked down the main drag here, Mandalay, and a gorgeous sunset on the other. It was inspiring really. I tried to get a picture to give you all an idea, but my camera just did not do it justice.

On Saturday, we went to see the Phillies. We had already met people at the Camelot, and at the restaurant we went to Friday night who had been to see the Phillies and gave us the scoop about how to get the best autographs. Unfortunately, the weather was terrible. We waited for a long time for autographs, but were told the Phillies might not come out before the game at all. But after we got to our seats, there were a few who were there signing baseballs. We were bummed. But we did get the autograph of a Tiger, Mike Hessman, who we hope we will hear about some day, to make it worthwhile.

Anyway, the game began and we got a look at a couple of our heroes, Ryan Howard
and Chase Utley
But then the heavens opened up and the rain came down.
As you can see, we were some of the only people who braved it in the stands for the duration. They eventually called the game and we got vouchers for a game next season. After the call, one Phillie did sign a baseball for us. We wish we knew who he was! He had a jacket on that obscured his number, and we didn't recognize him. And, of course, his scribble was undecipherable. We think that he has the initials J.S.....any ideas anyone?

That night, we took a dinner cruise, and since it was Saturday night, and apparently in Clearwater dinner cruises are a way to have a reception, we were on the boat with not one, not two, but three wedding parties, including James and Megan, who were at the next table.
That's Tom in the foreground.

That didn't stop us from dancing with the wedding party.
We were very tired when we got back home, but we had to be up early to get a full day of beaching (after church) before Tom had to leave.

It was an absolutely perfect beach day on Sunday. The sky was clear, it was about 80 degrees and the water was cool and refreshing. And, of course, we had one more meal at Frenchy's.After we left the beach, we took a little drive south to see what was in the area, and we stopped at an ice cream place where the woman insisted on turning our cones upside down and putting them in cups, with the cones protruding. It was weird, especially since we asked that she not do that. It just fed into the impression that Felicia has that the people in Clearwater are a little off. Except the people at Frenchy's, of course.

We dropped Tom off at the airport, and headed for Orlando. That's when the weirdness really kicked in. When we got to our hotel, they had no reservations for us. A little research showed that our reservations had been canceled by a woman named Ann (?) for some reason. They had a room, thank God, but we could not figure out what happened. The room is terrific, but the place does not include the 75-foot water slide that Felicia thought was part of the package.

When we got to our room on the 14th floor, we opened the doors to the balcony; the view was spectacular. There was one problem with the room,. however, the door to the hallway always slammed shut no matter how we tried to prevent it. We were in an out a couple of times before we heard screaming from the next apartment. Then a women of about 70, with a book in one hand, curlers in her hair, clad in pajamas and with a very mean expression stormed out of her apartment and threatened us with physical violence if we were to slam the door one more time. It was about 9PM and she was upset because we were keeping her up!!! From behind her we heard a male voice saying that we couldn't have both the balcony door and the hall door open at the same time or the door would slam.

Now wouldn't it have been easy for her to just tell us that? We would have been terribly apologetic and always made sure the balcony door was closed. Instead we spent the next hour devising plans of revenge including the tried and true dog (or Meredith's) turd in a flaming bag at her door.

We have calmed down now, but we are still thinking we will do something before we leave to let her know we were a trifle bit displeased with her attitude.

Tomorrow we got to DisneyWorld, the cure for all crabbiness.