Second day in Clearwater (Sorry, thought I'd posted this yesterday)

This morning I went into Starbucks to get a cup of coffee before heading out for my long walk. It was busy, and they had people at 2 registers and a 3rd just taking orders. The third guy took the person in front of me, who ordered one of those silly sugary things they make, and he asked what her name was. "Stephanie," she replied, to which he replied, "With an f or a ph?" She said it was ph, and I was thinking why are you bothering to ask that question when a cashier asked for my order and when I told him my name was Frank, he said, with a totally straight face, "Is that with an f or a ph?" And then he cracked up and said "I couldn't help it."

So on that note, I set off toward Sand Key, a small island just south of Clearwater Beach. I've done this walk before and there's not much there, but the bridge over the bay has great views of St. Petersburg on one side and Clearwater Beach on the other. I don't have any pictures to share because I've done that before on previous walks.

Sand Key is sort of an odd name for a place that has no more or less sand than anything else around here. Everything here is made of sand. They wouldn't call the bay Water Bay. Or would they? The state beach is beautiful though, with bright white sand and an open view of the water. What it does not have, which I couldn't help noticing because of some personal connection to the matter, is any place to go to the bathroom. There's a vast beach with a huge parking lot and the one bathhouse is closed and there's nothing else in sight. So I hereby recommend this beach for short visits when you are slightly dehydrated.

The walk is very nice and takes me by everything on the south end of the island. There's a lot of hotel construction going on. Someone was wondering if that meant there were casinos coming, but there was no particular sign of that. There certainly has been a lack of upscale properties, and I think that niche is at the edge of getting much more populated. Maybe that means next year there will be more choice and better prices.

I've not been able to completely let go of everything, but a long walk and quiet contemplation was good for me. I'm okay all things considered, aside from feeling like I'm getting a cold. My body pretty consistently does this- manages to stay healthy throughout any kind of difficulty and then as soon as things get better it rebels. That's how I ended up with shingles, but this is just a cold.

Once back at the hotel I had breakfast and we went to the beach. It's a very nice beach, as I've mentioned before. We got some chairs and an umbrella and did the beach thing. I sat in the sun and the ladies were under the umbrella. We all read books and were ably assisted by Jimmy from Englewood, NJ, who told us all about his family and how he came to be in Clearwater and also helped with the umbrella. You can't enjoy an adult beverage on most of the beach, but on this one spot by our hotel you can, and they take advantage of it with a mobile bar called Tommy's Tiki Ranger. I had a nice cold beer and my daughter had a combo margarita/piña colada, which is as good as it sounds. After a few hours it was time to get cleaned up and head down to the jauntily named Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota to see the Baltimore Orioles play the Minnesota Twins.

The drive down, which normally takes around an hour and a half at most, took almost two hours and was pretty unpleasant, but eventually we made it and got a parking space right across the street from the stadium. I'd been there before and the one thing I remembered was how friendly everyone was there. And I remembered correctly. Every single person working there was incredibly pleasant and friendly, and the vendors were attentive and funny ("Get your water here, straight from the bottom of the well to your lips.") and the whole atmosphere could not have been nicer. The game went quickly and had patches of action, ranging from home runs to someone walking and eventually scoring without another hit by virtue of 2 wild pitches and a fly ball.

He hit a home run, but it's disappointing that his name is pronounced "scope" and not "shoop."

Fortunately, the trip home was much shorter, and back in the hotel room I learned that, while it is not ideal or easy to cut up and de-seed a pepper with a teaspoon, it is possible. Sort of wish I'd done a video in retrospect; I was pretty impressed with myself if you must know.

So that's a day. Nothing incredible, just a mostly pleasant, uneventful day. Home tomorrow, but that's another story.