Sunny Florida

Last week, we spent an amazing few days in Tampa and St. Pete Beach Florida.  Since I have so many pictures and we did so many things, I  decided to create several posts about the trip.   This one will be about the first few days...

Day 1:
On Monday, we headed out at 5:30 a.m. to John F. Kennedy National Airport in NYC to take our plane to Florida.  We thought we had given ourselves enough time, but after getting lost trying to find the Long Term Parking Lot, we ended up arriving at 7:50 a.m. for an 8:30 a.m. flight.   The employees from Delta Airlines made it known that we were much too late for our flight, and so they found another one for us to take at 6:50 p.m.  Long story short--we ended up spending the whole day in the airport, and we were charged $150 for the flight change...

Still we made the most of our wait...

First, we rode the air train for about an hour.  (Lewie never got tired of pretending he was the conductor.)

Conductor Lewie telling us about the train (wearing my sunglasses, of course).

Then we found a Delta Lego Plane in one of the stores.  I helped him put it together,
and Lewie pretended to fly the plane everywhere--including behind Daddy's head.




This is Lewie driving a plane.  I'm so glad I wasn't on that flight!

Then, we waited for another hour, and another hour, and another until it was finally time for us to board our flight.   I've decided that I will stay in a hotel over night before missing another flight again.  Airports seem like a lot of fun until you're there with a five year old for the next ten hours...

We arrived at the Sirata Beach Resort in St. Pete Beach, Florida around 10 p.m. that night.

Day 2: 
We decided to treat ourselves to a fancy breakfast at the resort, and then we planned for a day of adventure at the beach...  My husband chose to rent a jet ski for a half hour, and I chose to go parasailing.  Lewie, who never wants to miss out on all the fun, decided to do both with us.  The really awesome story is that the owner of the water sports place, Captain Dave, allowed Lewie to parasail with me for free.   It was definitely a fun experience!

Chilin out at the Tiki Bar for breakfast.

Waiting for our chocolate chip pancakes...

Jet ski time...

A photograph of our hotel while I waited for the jet ski crew to return.

My two adventurers.

A forced smile.  Lewie was upset that his goggles flew off his head!

Aye Aye Captain Lewie.  Mommy is all set to go parasailing...

A pleasant surprise.  Captain Dave allowed Lewie to come with me even though we didn't sign him up...

Me and my little trooper.

Up, up, and away...

A wedding at our hotel.  I couldn't resist snapping a picture of their shoes...

A little pool action.

Good catch Daddy!

Our beautiful pool--simply paradise.

Time for the beach water slide...

Definitely much slippier with water.
 

A little water action.



Back to the Beach...
 

"Lewie, you have to take a picture with Mommy too!"
 

Castle wrecker!
 

Don't float away Daddy!
 



Our day ended with this amazing sunset.   I'm not sure where we found the energy to do so much in one day, but I definitely know we made up for the time spent in the airport.  Our next few days consisted of a vist to LEGOLAND, which I'll reserve for my next post...

 

Thank you all for your wonderful heartfelt comments last week!