**WARNING: Ridiculously large amount of pictures!**
For our first summer vacation together as a family, Ryan and I made the decision to road trip to Clearwater, Florida to visit his parents. We had a big, blowout honeymoon and thought that we should try to keep it pretty simple for our summer vacation. We left our house on Thursday, June 30th and headed for Mobile, Alabama to visit Ryan's college teammate and his fiance. We had a BLAST! We've been down to Mobile to visit Bernard and Jenny several times and we were really looking forward to this trip, too. Conveniently, Mobile was a good "halfway" stopping point to Clearwater.
Thursday night, we went soft shell crabbing off the pier of Bernard's parents house. How fun!! We only caught one crab, but we had a great time! Friday morning, we woke up around 4:30am to head out on the boat to go fishing. We anchored up to a gas rig and fished and fished. We only caught croakies and Jenny caught a sheephead. Such a funny-looking fish! We got tired of catching bait fish, so we moved out to some open water and fished for redfish. Bernard put up a big fight with a redfish, but his line snapped after 15 minutes or so of fighting. Ryan and Bernard each caught a black tip shark! Other than that, we didn't have much luck fishing. We had a lot of fun though and can't wait to go back!
Mobile Pictures
Early morning pelicans
Jenny's Sheephead
Blacktip Shark
So after our fun night/day in Mobile, Ryan and I packed up again and headed out to Clearwater. We made it to Mr. Ed and Mrs. Michele's house pretty late that night. The next day, we got up and headed outside to spend time in the pool. We layed low that first day and had gumbo for dinner. After we ate, we decided to head to Candy Kitchen in Indian Rocks for some ice cream. What a cool place! There was old fashioned candy, as well as newer brands of candy EVERYWHERE!
We all got ice cream, and as usual, I couldn't do anything normal. I opted for a brownie sundae...I'll let the picture do the talking. 
On Tuesday, Mrs. Michele and I decided to have a girls day in Dunedin. We stopped first, though, and ate at Ozona Blue Marina. It was a great meal, complete with a raspberry mojito. We trekked on to Dunedin and shopped 'til we dropped! I even brought Ryan back some fudge, but we ate it all right away. :)
Oh, don't worry...I didn't.
On Wednesday, Ryan and I decided to venture out for some breakfast. We found Lighthouse Donuts. Glorious. Absolutely glorious. If you ever go to Indian Rocks, PLEASE go to Lighthouse Donuts. You won't be sorry.
I chose three donuts. Yes, I said three. I got the cinnamon/sugar, chocolate glazed, and a Key Lime filled donut. Ryan picked out a Bavarian Creme, a chocolate cake, and a cinnamon donut. We pigged out and we enjoyed every bite.
I couldn't help but play in the shells and sand. :)
After Ryan and I endulged in our donuts, we drove to St. John's Pass and did a little shopping. Then we headed out to the Indian Rocks beach where it was totally peaceful. We got to enjoy about 8 dolphins putting on an awesome show in the water and some sweet little birds hunting for food.
When our donuts wore off, we packed up from the beach and headed back to Clearwater to eat at Frenchy's Rockaway. It's a beachside bar and grill with a really fun atmosphere and a really fun Key Lime Colada.
If you make it to Frenchy's, please get one of these. They are yummy! For our meal, I decided on grouper bites that were great and Ryan had fish tacos that he swears were the best he's ever eaten.
That night, our trip took a little bit of a different turn. Ryan had been suffering from some back pain and had even gone down with a major back spasm. We decided that it would be best for us to head to the quick care center just to get everything checked out before we headed home on Friday. I'm so glad we did, because the doctor took two tests that determined that Ryan has kidney stones. EEEK! He's doing better now, but what a scare!
Thursday we decided to enjoy our last day on the beach, but we fought the rain for most of the morning. We were still able to snorkel and swim for a little while, but we ended up spending most of the day in the house. That night, we went to dinner with Ryan's parents to an awesome sushi restaurant. They fly in their fish from Hawaii twice a week and it is soooo fresh!
After dinner, we loaded up in the car and took a drive to St. Pete to enjoy dessert at the Villoy Hotel. It was great! We walked around St. Pete and enjoyed the scenery before heading back to Clearwater.
Friday morning, we left Clearwater and headed towards Destin/Ft. Walton Beach to meet up with my brother, his wife, and my sweet niece. We made it in time to eat dinner at Harbor Docks in Destin. It was soooo wonderful! We laughed and laughed at Lindy and her new sounds and facial expressions. Jen talked me in to getting feather extensions. I gave in to the teeny bopper in me and went along with it.
On Saturday, we got loaded up for the very last leg of the trip and headed home sweet home. I was so happy to see my sweet Bella and my family who had been in the Bahamas all week. We had an awesome first family vacation and look forward to many, many more!
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