The Moss Crew Does Indian Shores

We returned to the St. Petersburg, Florida area for our annual family beach vacation. These trips are usually only three days long, to minimize time lost at work. I'm hoping that, with my new job, we will be able to take longer vacations in the future. 

We stayed at the Barefoot Beach Resort on Gulf Boulevard, technically in Indian Shores, Florida. It was awesome! I think this will become our annual spot. When I was a kid, I remember staying in the same condo in St. Augustine every year. It was wonderful, as a kid, to be able to walk to the beach whenever we felt like going! I'm happy to have been able to do that with the kids this year, versus driving twenty minutes to beach, finding parking, unloading the car, etc. Ugh, it's exhausting! We just piled all our beach crap into a wagon, safely stuffed Ollie down in it as well, and took off for the beach.

This place was way fancier than I expected, it was a pleasant surprise. They put us in a room right next to the pool, and the fishing docks! 

The first evening, we ate at The Pub, which was just down the road from the condo. It's set on a marina. The food was SO good. Adrian got blackened Mahi Mahi. The boys got grilled cheese (a flipping $6.00 grilled cheese!) and chicken fingers. I got....wait for it....you'll never guess.....a burger. It was really good, though. The boys' dinners were served on souvenir frisbees. Very cool! We ate outside for a couple reasons. One, we're at the beach and you can't get that same salty breeze at home and, two, Oliver.

We then headed to the beach. We just couldn't wait until the next day for some sand between our toes. It was nearly sunset and the water was so calm and warm. Just lovely! Oliver, of course, loved it and was literally just screaming with excitement and joy. The boys played in the sand and surf while I, of course, photographed everyone. Gotta capture those memories!

This was our third trip to the Tampa-St.Pete-Clearwater area as a family, and we'd done most of all the attractions we cared to do (except the Pirate Cruise, still trying to warm Daddy up to it. Maybe next year.) So my main goal this year was to squeeze in plenty of good beach time. I think I succeeded. And I was better with the sunscreen this year. No sunburns, yes!

Of course, I found some birds to photograph. I was shooting this one Snowy Egret like a paparazzo. 

He was fishing, and I saw him catch one but I didn't get a good shot of it. There was a group of girls just behind him taking a group photo and I'm sure at least one of them was thinking I was a looney bird while I sat in the sand with my huge zoom lens fixed on the bird. I enjoy it, though. He was a pretty little thing.

Then we went back to the condo for some down time, and there was this pretty big thing.

She was beautiful. She was hanging around the fishing docks where another family was fishing, waiting on scraps I'm sure. She let us get pretty close to her a few times before flying off, just to another spot on the docks, still near to the fishermen. Jack and Julian got near her so I could get a photo of the size comparison.  

Daddy and Julian did try to fish a few times during our stay, but they had no luck. Still I think they enjoyed spending time together, oldest son and father.

We spent Saturday morning at the beach before heading to the boardwalk by St. John's Pass so the kids could shop and spend their money, and so I could eat at Bubba Gumps again. Love that cajun chicken sandwich! They decided they wanted to buy hermit crabs with their money, so they did. They are now hanging out upstairs in the boys' room with Hammy and Kare Bear, our two hamsters, and Squeaky, the class guinea pig that I agreed to keep over the summer. I call their room the Moss Boys' Critter Corner.

That evening, we ate at Jimmy Guana's. It had a really fun atmosphere:  live band, game room, mini golf. We all shared wings and fries. The boys are on a big wing kick right now. Good stuff. They'd never played "putt-putt" before so that was a real treat for them. They were really serious about it, but Ollie was just throwing his ball and beating it with the putter. We all had a good time, though,  and after a big dinner and lots of sun throughout the day we returned to the condo and crashed.

So, compared with other trips, this was a really low-key vacation. And we loved it that way. It's finally occurred to me that I don't need to squeeze sight-seeing, attractions, this, that, and the other into every waking moment of our vacations. It's too much work and stress and it really takes away from my enjoyment of the trip. It's tiring enough having to pack everyone's bags, clean the house pre-trip, drive us there, unload our crap, vacation, re-load our crap, drive us home, unpack and clean the house post-trip. I tried to just relax and enjoy the time with my boys and husband while we had it. We really let the kids and our moods dictate our schedule, it was nice and simple. This place has become my family's "St. Augustine." I think we will return here every year and make lots of great beach memories together, just like I did with my family when I was a kid. Until next year, St. Pete. We love you!