We spent two nights in Clearwater so that we could have a day to check out Clearwater Beach. The girls and I headed that way right after school work was done the next day. It was windy but we wanted to give it a try. We settled on one side of the boardwalk and the kids got busy playing in the powdered sugar sand.
Pretty soon a family showed up, walking back from lunch. One of their boys was holding a bag of chips. Immediately the seagulls descended. It was awful. Maddy was terrified. They went away for a few minutes and Maddy went back to playing. We brought a cooler of food as well but made sure not to open it on the beach after that craziness. Maddy had one more close call with one chasing her. She threw her sand toys and dove into the sand hysterical. I felt so badly for her. Molly and I got to her as quickly as we could. We then packed up our stuff and moved up to the playground area away from the beach. The girls had their lunch there and then we tried the beach again on the other side. The beach is supposed to be fun! They went back to playing until more seagulls appeared on that side too. One lady was under attack. She was on a beach chair. She had an umbrella up blocking the front of her and towels wrapped all around her. It is a beautiful beach but we had had enough. We packed up and headed back to the boat.
That was it for us and Clearwater, but we promised we’d come back when the Wilsons arrived. Molly and I took a long walk early the next morning and spotted the boat from the causeway.
Beautiful morning (except again windy!) to move the boat to Gulfport. Mike met us at the slip to help us get settled. Gabi came by next and drove me back to Clearwater to pick up the car. We had a great reunion dinner that night with Tim, Mike and Leann and Gabi and John. All friends from our first Loop. It was great to catch up with everyone! And since we planned to spend at least a month at Mike and Leann’s marina in Gulfport we knew we’d get to spend plenty of time together.
As promised, when the Wilsons got to Clearwater we came back to visit! Twice! The first time the girls and I drove up for the afternoon for a playdate. We took the girls to the beach and spent a lot of time at the playground. We finished off the afternoon with ice cream before we had to head back to the boat.
We were able to make one more trip over that weekend so Ben and Bobby could hang out as well. We headed to the beach for an hour or so and then took a long walk around and ended up at a great restaurant further down on the beach. After walking back to their boat it was time for goodbyes again. But….we knew they’d be coming to Gulfport and we’d get to show them our island and hang out a bit more before too long!
