This is the lobby of our hotel that we got on Priceline. It was brand new Marriott and was really cool!
Hotel Room. We were supposed to have a king room but since but the hotel was nice enough to let us checkin early since our plane landed at 9am.
We started out our trip by heading north to Tarpon Springs, Fl. This was a public park called Sunset Beach Park and a local beach hangout. It was in a residential area.
Sunset Beach Park
Driving south from Tarpon Springs
Driving into Clearwater Beach
Downtown Clearwater Beach
We spent our first day exploring a lot of the coast line. This was a Draw bridge slightly south of Medeira Beach.
A few of the amazing houses we saw.
Interestingly there was a Dunkin Donuts Convention at the Hotel. They had these huge inflatable things all over the parking lot!
Day two we decided to head south to some of best beaches in the area. To head south we had to cross the Sunshine Skyway bridge. This bridge goes over Tampa Bay from St. Petersburg to points south. I am obsessed with bridges so this was really exciting for me!
This bridge is the world's longest bridge with a cable-stayed main span. It is 5.5 miles in length.
The bridge has a large middle section to accommodate cruise ships and other large vessels.
Each end of the bridge has a large fishing pier.
The middle section of the bridge.
View of the southern fishing pier and out into the gulf.
This is Turtle Beach. It was not very commercial and it had a very different type of sand. Michelle called it salt and pepper sand.
Turtle Beach
Looking north from Turtle Beach to Siesta Key Beach.
The water was amazing!
Michelle finding some cool sea shells.
Next we headed to Siesta Key Beach. It has been rated one of the number one beaches in the world. First we had to have an ice cream break! :)
Siesta Key beach was HUGE! It was a pretty amazing place.
Siesta Key Beach
Finally! Why we took the trip. So I could see the pure white sand! Interesting note is the sand is very cold on your feet even in the hot sun.
That is our new house being built! :)
Part of downtown Siesta Key.
More of downtown Siesta Key. We had dinner at this awesome tropical bar and grill. The food was great!
Waiting for the sunset. This was at a public beach slightly north of Siesta Key park.
Wow!
Does it get any better than this??
The next day we went kayaking in Dunedin which is north of Clearwater Beach. We wanted to go to Caladesi Island which is only accessible by boat.
Looking across to Caladesi Island
This is Caladesi Island. It was an amazing place. It is a completely natural beach. No grooming takes place and it is a nature preserve.
Sorry the pictures are bad...we left the camera in the car so I had to use my Blackberry!
This was the water around Caladesi Island. You could walk the whole way across to the land in the distance and only get waste deep.
That night we went to downtown St. Petersburg for dinner. It was a really cool city. Most all the neighborhoods are on canals and there were lots of great boats!
This is where we had dinner.
The pier is in the distance.
Standing on the pier you could see Tampa in the distance.
It was really windy that night and lots of sailboats were out in the bay.
Apparently you could take rides on this pirate ship. It was closed when we were there.
St. Petersburg skyline.
Looking back at St. Petersburg from the top of the pier.
Another great tropical grill we had dinner at! We got to eat outside and it was a lot of fun!
The next day we headed south again to Bradenton, FL. This was first stop slightly south of Bradenton at Coquina Park. We just finished lunch in this picture.
We really liked this beach. It was in a residential area so there were lots of locals there. Nothing commercial about the area at all. The sand was great too.
Since this is a public park they try to keep the beaches as natural as possible. The water was amazing here as you could walk out a long way and see straight to the bottom.
Michelle looking for sea shells.
I still can't get over the water!
Check out how far people are standing in the water.
It was a beautiful day. The water was very calm and you could see forever.
Next we drove further south to Longboat Key.
Blue water!
We made a stop at one of the public beach access points on Longboat Key. There was hardly anyone there and it was a great beach.
Looking north towards where we came from in Bradenton.
Ok...Michelle had the camera for once!
One of the neighborhoods in Longboat Key.
We headed a little further south to Lido Key Beach.
This is downtown Lido Key. It was a pretty upscale area.
One of the condo buildings in Lido Key.
At the end of the road there is a huge park and public beach. We really liked it here as it had great views.
This is the public beach. Again it was a large beach so there was lots of space to spread out.
Downtown Lido
More of downtown Lido.
A massive house in Lido on the inter-coastal waterway.
We headed back north to our hotel. This was crossing the bridge into Sarasota, FL.
More of Sarasota.
Some boats parked outside of Sarasota.
We thought this building blended in with the sky.
Here is a shot of Tropicana Field.
We really need to buy a boat!
On Saturday night we decided to head to Clearwater to walk around and watch the sunset. Since Clearwater is pointed directly west we were told it was the best place to see the sunset.
As you can see Clearwater was a very busy place. It was one of the most commercial areas down there. We didn't really care much for the commercialism but it was a neat place to see.
Downtown Clearwater.
They had these flowers all around. Michelle really liked them. We have no clue what they are but they are pretty!
Clearwater Beach. It really was a good beach despite the commercialism. The sand was very fine and white and there was a lot of space on the beach.
Looking north on Clearwater Beach
A large condo building.
There was a wedding on the beach.
What a great place to get married!
Looking south towards St Pete Beach.
The building that is under construction was a Hyatt Resort.
There was a neat pier that had a bunch of local vendors and a good spot for fishing. This view is looking north off the pier.
This was the view from the ice cream shop. Of course we couldn't pass up an opportunity for more ice cream!
What a great way to end out last night in Florida!
The locals were right. This was a prime spot to see the sunset.
Till next year!
