Dax and Bre in Sand Key

So Dax and I took a much needed, well deserved vacation last week to Clearwater Beach, Florida. About a year ago I got bumped on a flight to Denver and got a free airline ticket, so Dax and I decided to use it to take us on a real vacation. We spent weeks trying to figure out where we wanted to go, and decided that Florida would get us the farthest from here and warmest weather. I called my Aunt Alane who is an ex-Floridian, to get the scoop on where to go. She told us the best beaches are on the gulf side of Florida and that St. Petersburg is a great vacation destination. Dax spent many hours trying to find us a really great place to stay and fun things to do while we were there. We called Grandma Fujimoto to see if she would be up for the challenge of the kids for a week, booked our flights and hotel and we were off.
We dropped the kids off at Grandma's on Friday and headed for Salt Lake on Saturday afternoon. Our flight weren't until Sunday morning, so we spent the evening in Salt Lake shopping at Gateway Mall. We grabbed some dinner at Rumbis and sat outside and listened to some live music and observed all the Salt Lake hussies dressed to impress. We even managed to spot a celeb - okay maybe he's not a total celebrity, but if you've ever watched Flip This House on A&E you may have seen Armondo Montelongo and his house flipping team out of Texas. He's actually kinda of a jerk on the show, but they do manage to turn some really ugly houses into something pretty amazing.





Sunday was a long day of travel for both of us. We took separate flights, since Dax would have had to pay an arm and a leg to get on the same flight as mine, he just booked a cheap direct flight with Delta. I, on the other hand had to get to the airport 3 hours earlier than him and endure a 2 1/2 hour layover in Denver. When all was said and done we both got to Tampa within 15 minutes of each other.
Dax rented us a convertible and with the top down and the wind in our hair we headed for the beach.
I'll spare you with all the minute details of the day to day stuff we did, but I'll cover the highlights.

On Monday we headed to the #1 rated beach in North America - Caladesi Island State Park. You have to take a ferry out to this island and you can only stay for 4 hours at a time. It truly was a beautiful beach with the whitest finest sand you've ever seen and the water was truly delightful at 88 degrees. We swam and played in the water and dove for sand dollars. We managed to smuggle the sand dollars off the island and spent the rest of the night in our hotel room trying to figure out how to bleach them out so we could take the home.







Tuesday we walked the pier at Clearwater and bought souvenirs for the kids and went to to the beach at our hotel. We'd bought some snorkel gear and tried to find more sand dollars, but the water was so murkey that we didn't turn up much. I swear that a fish bit my toe, and after that I was pretty much done feeling along the bottom for sand dollars.


(view from our room)




Wednesday was rainy so we decided to head into Tampa for a day of outlet shopping. We found a really great outlet mall and spend several hours shopping for ourselves and the kids. I of course spent my money at the Gap and Gymboree, and Dax at Polo and Bass. We finished up at the outlets and headed for downtown Tampa for dinner and Dax had bought us tickets for a Tom Petty concert. Let me just say that several firsts happened to me while we were in Tampa -
1 - we actually ate dinner at a Hooters - yes their outfits are ridiculous, and no you don't go to Hooters for the great food.
2 - while at the concert I got offered my first joint by some really friendly stoners
3 - also while at the concert Dax and I witnessed a fairly public sex act taking place in the seat next to us -
All of which added to a really great night and really good music. Even though we were in the cheap seats, the concert was fantastic and hearing Dax sing Free Falling at the top of his lungs in my ear - priceless!






Thursday Dax scheduled us a couples massage so we headed into St. Petersburg for some relaxation. We both thoroughly enjoyed our massages, and I think I've converted Dax permanently - he's ready to schedule another one! We then headed out to the Salvador Dali Museum of art. Dax really likes his paintings, mostly because they're just so weird. We took a really informative tour and it made us both want to come home and read all about him and mostly figure out what he meant by all his weird paintings!





We then headed down to Fort Desoto beach which was also rated #1 beach in America. We swam and dove for more sand dollars and Dax was on a quest for the biggest sand dollar he could find. I bet we picked up hundreds in our quest and brought home 40-50 more. We stayed on the beach until low tide and explored some tide pools and watched the sunset. We walked around the actual fort and climbed to the top where we watched the ships come in. Dax was especially intrigued with the lizards that roamed all over the fort- I was not. He became quite the wildlife photographer.



(Dax diving for sand dollars)






We then jumped back in the car and took a beautiful drive back up the coast to our hotel. There's something about having a hot guy in the seat next to you as you drive with the top down up the beach that is truly exhilerating.



Friday we had intended to got to Busch Gardens for the day before we flew out, but after getting caught in traffic and then getting rained on, we determined for $68 a ticket, we didn't feel like we could get our moneys worth for only a few hours. We found a Hard Rock Cafe Casino resort instead and gorged ourselves at the buffet and played some slots before heading back to the airport.



After the same flight scenario as before, only this time Dax getting into SLC like 3 hours ahead of me, we found ourselves exhausted and missing our kids.

Although I covered all the highlights I really found that the fun really came in doing it all with my best friend. We talked and laughed at dinner for hours and held hands and walked on the beach for miles, and really found what we liked about each other again. I realized how much we need each other and how truly lucky I am to have married my soul mate. Thank you Dax for a week of pure bliss - thank you for all the work you did to make it a week to never forget. Can we do it again next week?