Clearwater Beach

Saturday, June 19.  Our colds have definitely slowed our pace down, but Saturday we did have an outing -- J and B won't let us sit too long.  Bridgette wanted to go over to Clearwater area to see if she could get some information on diving sites in that area because she is going to be the faculty representative for the dive club at UT in the fall.  Joe and I had planned on making this trip sometime during the week anyhow, but instead we stayed home and coughed.    Anyhow, the beach here, like the other Florida beaches, is beautiful.  This one is very popular, crowded, but there is always room for more.  We took our suits with us but did not get in the water, we just walked out on the pier.  There was a lot of sea grass at the water's edge, and the water was a little murky.  Surprisingly, the murkiness was due to the influx of water coming down the Mississippi from all the flooding in the Midwest.  I had not connected those dots!

We  walked down the beach, then crossed over to the shops/restaurants area and found a place to have lunch.  This was sort of a boardwalk-type area, across the street from the beach itself. 

It doesn't take Joe as long to shop as it does me.
Then we walked over to the harbor.  This is a busy harbor, lots of boats moving around, lots of dolphin-watching and para-sailing boats, some fishing charters, some tour boats.  One fishing boat was showing off today's catch.


There was only one dive boat at the harbor, but Bridgette talked to the dive master on board and got a phone number to call.  The waters around here are shallow so diving is not readily available, but there is a wreck that they dive about 10 miles out.  It was hot walking around the harbor, so we finally headed back to the car.



As soon as we got home, J and B loaded up the dogs and took them to the dog park.  Joe and I stayed home and cooled off.


AND THEN, as soon as they got back from there, it was off to the motocross races at Dade City again.  I opted out of this trip, but Joe braved the heat and went with them.  I was just not up for sitting out in the bleachers in the heat, although a little rain shower went through up there and they said it wasn't too bad (when they got home at midnight).

Sunday Bridgette had to go into her office for a little bit, to get some plants and mealworms ready for Monday's lab students, so she and John took off first thing to get that trip out of the way.  Since Joe wasn't even out of bed yet, we allowed them to go off by themselves.  It was Father's Day, so we met Doug and Barbara at Golden Corral for dinner.  Then we played Mexican Train dominoes for a while before we called it a day.  We survived the weekend, and we can send them back to work tomorrow so we can get back to resting and coughing.