Vacation 2011 - Part 3 Tampa, Florida

On the fourth day of vacation, we finally made it to Tampa. Normal people could have made it in a single day. Not us. We made a side trip here, a detour there; but, we made it nonetheless.

The main reason we are in the Tampa area is that both the hubs and I have family here. The aunt and family I helped move to Tampa from Charlotte back in April are here. The hub's sister lives here too. So in between visiting with them, we did a little sightseeing, found a delightful restaurant, and looked at real estate. It was more of a drive-by look, but a look. Here are a few of the photos from our Tampa visit.

This fella was "fishing" near a pier in Dunedin.

We didn't see him catch anything. Not even sure what he was trying to catch.

This is me and the hubs on the same pier. I set up my tripod, composed the hubs in the pic, pushed the button, jumped in the photo, and voila! Group shot! lol

Walking off the pier, I turned around for one last look and saw this:

Then we went into Dunedin. Such a quaint little town. Lovely shops. We decided it was time for a bite to eat and chose this restaurant. Cafe Alfresco. Delicious food. Exceptional service. We liked it so much, we ate lunch there. Then took the hub's sister there for dinner. We were delighted with both meals.

The next day, we were at Clearwater Beach enjoying family, sun, warm breeze, sand between the toes, and food. These are my two favorite pics from the day.

Riding on a jet ski sounded like fun, but didn't really have the time for that. I definitely had time for sitting on one of these enjoying the warmth of the sun on my face.

Three days in Tampa flew by. It was sad to leave but we had reservations and much more to see and do lay ahead.

Like this beautiful state park. This is Blue Spring. A fabulous winter resort of the manatee. They migrate up the St. Johns River to Blue Spring because the water at the spring stays a constant year round temperature of 72 degrees farenheit. We walked along the board walk taking a couple photos here and there. We didn't see any manatee, but we did see this handsome fella.

We also took the opportunity for another photo shoot of us. I love having a tripod.

The Thursby family acquired this property in the mid-19th century and built the large home you see below. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection acquired the park in 1972 to kick-start its Manatee Protection Program.

It was a leisure day of enjoying the park, the wildlife, and each other. Thank you so much for stopping by and visiting. Stay tuned. Next week.....Biketoberfest. Have a fabulous week.

Peace and Joy,
Susan

Colossians 3:16 (NKJV) Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.