Clearwater- PM

by Carla

Clearwater Beach Sunset

While we spent our days being productive learning about the various places we were seeing, the nights were spent watching sunsets, drinking, relaxing, and having fun. After we unpacked at our beachview hotel room, we decided to watch the sunset before leaving the island for liquor and grocery shopping. We headed to the pier and walked along the beach watching Northern people brave the 60 degree water. Crazies.

Upon reaching the pier, we noticed a little craft fair taking place. It was too cute. The town called it "Sunsets at Pier 60." It had been recently instituted by the chamber of commerce and local vendors and acts could come to the pier and entertain the tourists. There is a band shelter where every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights, one can see a new type of music. A Jimmy Buffet Cover Band was playing the night that we first came across this neat new tradition that the entire community was taking part in. There were young people, old people, and children. It was very well-done. There was a random guy on the pier who would bet you money that he could guess the first letter of your name. A mess. We saw him do it, and then we said we were not gong to get cheated out of $2 for anything! And this was when we met Dave. Dave takes photos all over Florida and mattes and frames them for people to purchase. We ended up getting a great deal on a few pictures and signed up to be on Dave's mailing list. I now receive regular emails from Dave, informing me of his latest find in terms of places to go and things to do all over this state. He was great, and you wanna know why?? Because he was so enthusiastic! So, we listented to some tunes, watched the most beautiful sunset and then headed back to our room to get the car for the grub and booze run.

We stocked up on crackers, water, diet coke (my personal favorite), donuts, bread, and this bag of very berry skittles that never seemed to end. Luckily, the liquor store was attached to the grocery store and Steph went to purchase all forms of bottled Hooch and Jack Daniel's Lynchburg Lemonade. We were ready...for a party for 20 people! How we were planning on drinking all that liquor is beyond me. We left the grocery store and headed for our hotel.

Heidi, Hat and Fry

Dinner was in order by the time we returned and we decided to go to this little tiki bar on the Strip, which is this row of hotels, restaurants, and shops that caters to the tourist crowd. We ate upstairs at the outside bar and looked out over the water while we ate. A Hawaiian man in a floral shirt with his casio keyboard sang oldies the entire time we were there. He even called us his back-up girls. What a compliment! While we were there, various groups of people filtered in and out, and one group remains fixed in my memory. There was this group of older ladies, completely smashed and dancing in an inappropriate manner. They traveled around and plopped tropical accessories on unsuspecting patrons...I was one of them. I quickly removed the large straw hat and gave it to Heidi, who with her french fry pretended to be smoking a cigar. Great picture! Dinner was great, but we wanted to rest before heading out for our big night.

When we returned to the hotel room, we all got dressed to go clubbin' at Ybor City. Make-up, short skirts...you name it. We had a little to drink before-hand and headed out to Tampa once again. When we reached Ybor, we had a difficult time finding the club scene...it seemed as if there were just random bars everywhere you turned. We finally parked (for a fee of course) and walked to the main street of clubs. I was not 21 yet, so our fun was dampened by my illegal-ity. HaHa. We ended up at a club called Empire, where the music was great, the club was great, but the patrons seemed less than par. We were groped, mauled, anything you can imagine and we could not wait to leave. We danced our dances and drank our drinks and then decided we had had enough. We got home, spent some time recounting the evening's ridiculous events, and proceeded to go to sleep. THe next day would be filled with a predictably exhausting shopping venture.

Local Fire Expert

The next evening, following our adventure at the Westshore Plaza Mall, we again went home to watch the sunset and partake of Pier 60's events. We saw a fire-eater (or something like that) and listened to jazz music. Heidi purchased more pictures from Dave, but not at the bargain prices we had received before. Heidi was mad. We saw some magic tricks and played at the jungle gym and then decided to eat at Crabby Bill's. However, once we reached the restaurant, the hideous odor emanating from the building quickly sent us to another place, called Laguna Cafe, I believe. It was cute, the food was great and there was this guy playing a guitar as background music. Very cool.

On our way back to our room, we stopped at this store called Wings, which sells anything from bikinis to grotesque and lurid coffee mugs. And this is where Heidi and I found the one thing we had been searching for for an entire year. We had gone to a party at someone's house, and while we were in the kitchen, we noticed a bumper sticker on the refridgerator that most definitely said "My Other Ride is Your Mom". We know this is completely rude, but it was the funniest sticker I have ever seen, and I was never able to find it. But at Wings, Clearwater Beach, their selection of tacky and crude bumper stickers surpasses anyone's selection and Heidi and I finally purchased our ungettable-get. Too much fun in that store that night.

We went back to the hotel, drank, and yelled at the high schoolers walking up and down, up and down, and up and down the strip from the comfort of our own private balcony. These kids must not have anything better to do. One group of young men tried to get us to give them some of our liquor. We said no. They were underage. Then we walked to the local putt-putt, completely drunk and giggly. It was great. I, of course, lost while Steph and Heidi came in first and second, respectively. That was great fun, but I unfortunately was not able to capture on film the image of Steph holding onto Heidi's legs as she leaned full body into the "lake" to retrieve her lost ball. Good times.