Saturday 9th May

OK - refreshed a little now!

[07:14]

Doing this tomorrow, so to speak...

Checking out the weather this morning, it was another dry, sunny day. The temperatures were expected to hit 90 once more.

Linda fancies going back to Clearwater to re-ride the Sea Screamer. So we just did a small breakfast of cereal and headed off.

Being a Saturday, the place was packed when we arrived. Indeed we visited three car parks before we found somewhere we could park up for the day. $12 parking.

We headed out to the beach to look for a sun umbrella and some chairs.

We got ourselves one of the big blue ones as seen above. They were all daily rentals, so despite the beach being busy, not all the umbrellas had been taken. We paid the attendant who told us that the area around Clearwater has not seen rain for two months. In fact, they are desperate for the stuff. Everywhere certainly looks dry and very few seem to be using those sprinkler/misters that normally are everywhere in the early morning.

The forecast is for a 30% chance of rain early next week - by then we'll be on our way anyhow!

We settled down for a couple of hours. Linda took the daring route of going 'full frontal' (by that I mean she stayed out in the sun). I hid under the umbrella !

I did pop into the water for a while - sporting my new purchase, a cheapo snorkel set. However, the bottom was just sand and more sand.

'Nuff said. :D

By the time I returned, Linda was deep into her book, iPod playing.

By now even the sand was too hot to walk on. I continued to hide under shade.

Ice creams sound so tempting in this weather, but the big issue is : can you eat them before they melt and run down your hands and face.

Sadly, the answer is : No.

We caught the 4pm Sea Screamer run. The dolphins popped up quite quickly, so the guys then took up out for a bit of speeding. As we were again sitting at the back, we copped the full force of the spray. Although it was cooling, by the time we left the boat and dried off a little, we were both covered in a layer of salt. Ewww. Thankfully my camera survived the torrent in a makeshift waterproof enclosure... OK OK, it was a plastic bag, happy now?!?

To end the day, we decided to have one more cruise around the bay, this time on the Pirate Ship.

This was the sunset cruise. Taking you out 30 minutes before sunset and returning about 90 minutes later. Oddly enough, literally as the sun was setting, the Captain decided to swing the boat away from the sun so people could see a dolphin near by. Bah - I decided to join him on the poop deck (restricted access) as it was the only part of the boat with access to the sun !

You might notice in the photos below I have some odd facial markings, that was just the crew going around drawing beards and moustaches on the guests to make them more sinister. Linda avoided the facial scars and opted for the arm tattoo instead. Not sure what the shop assistant in Walgreens must have thought when Linda went into there on the way back home for supplies. Hee Hee.

Tomorrow we're off on our second long drive, south to Sanibel Island.