Sunday October 7th
We're off for some breakfast before our trip over to the Gulf Coast. We intend to stop off at the local shops to get some supplies as the trip is about 2.5 hours long and we cannot check in before 3pm.
We want to get a couple of cheapo deck chairs that we can load up into the car, plus a cool box of some description for the chilled drinks and food.
[17:17 EDT]
Breakfast was quite nice with what appeared to be a magic orange juice glass that never ran dry! We had the buffet there. Afterwards we has a quick walk around the hotel grounds then back to the room to pack. We checked out then drove over to the 192 in Kissimmee. Here we went to a couple of shops to pick up some basic supplies including the two deck chairs (both for under £20!)
Our final stop was in a Starbucks where we picked up some drinks to tide us over on the drive to Anna Maria. during the drive, the temperature reached 92' outside - luckily, the air con didn't fail!
The drive over took two hours and was pretty uneventful. It was just after three that we arrived in Anna Maria, it's still very warm and humid, even now as the sun is starting to set.
We need to pop over to a Publix or a nearby Walmart to pick up some food that we can store in the fridge here. The place where we are staying has a kitchen so we can use that to make breakfast and stuff for the day - rolls and the like.
[21:42 EDT]
Before we drove down to the Publix, we walked over to the beach to look at our first holiday sunset. To be honest, it was a bit of a wash-out as the sun was obscured by some low lying clouds as it set. However, what drew my attention was the massive storm clouds that were passing over to the South of us. You can see it at the end of this short video.
There's also a bit of it at the end of this timelapse that I set up on the balcony of the apartment.
We went down to a nearby Publix to get our week's supplies. By the time we got back out it was raining steadily and we could see lightning out over the sea. Only issue with that was that I had my camera out on the balcony at the same time, recording the above timelapse. Fortunately, but the time I got back to the apartment, the camera was wet but still functional.
I think we'll be out on the beach tomorrow!