Day 38 - Clearwater Beach – “I want to go where it’s warm!”

It was finally warm enough for shorts and sandals, in the 80s.  As we stepped off the boat, we met up with Dave from Lumiere.  We first met Dave, his wife Denise, and their 5 year old twins in Demopolis on Halloween.  They were staying in Clearwater through the holidays as they have family there, then moving on as they are Loopers, like us.  Most of the Loopers have moved further south so it was nice to catch up to one of them.

We walked Clearwater Beach on a perfect day – what a difference since I had last been here in the 1970s!  The beach is lined with hotels, condos, restaurants and entertainment.  Pier 60, just west of the marina, has a sunset festival like in Key West, and we planned to stop by later.  We picked up a few provisions at Walgreens, a new 2-story building that is the nicest Walgreens I have ever seen.
 

 

 

 

After a quick lunch on the boat, we walked to the Publix on Island Estates to catch the Jolly Trolley to Tarpon Springs.  For $4.50 apiece, we rode an hour through downtown Clearwater, downtown Dunedin, and up the coast to the sponge docks at Tarpon Springs.  The ride was nice but Tarpon Springs was disappointing, very touristy with shops selling stuff from everywhere but Tarpon Springs.  The only local goods were sponges and handmade olive oil soap.  There were lots of Greek Restaurants and they were highly rated but we didn’t eat there.  The highlight for us was watching a boat unload its catch of fish we think they were mullet.

 

 

 

 

On the ride back to Island Estates, we took pictures of downtown Clearwater.  They have painted dolphin statues, much like the painted Pelicans we saw in Pensacola.  Clearwater Beach is the beginning of the Dolphin Trail, and there is a marker on the beach dedicated to it.  Clearwater and Tarpon Springs were the locations for the movie “A Dolphin’s Tale.”

 

 

 

That evening we walked over to Pier 60 for the sunset celebration.  We saw a father-son juggling act, and the son performed a Houdini-like escape act from a straight jacket and 50 feet of chain in less than 3 minutes.

Back on the boat, we ran the air conditioning for the first time since September.  Finally, we are back to somewhere where it is warm!