Our Get-Away (Day 3)

We knew it was our last full day of vacation, so we wanted to squeeze in every last little thing we could to do.  I wasn't exactly satisfied with the shells I picked up so I wanted to go shelling again early in the morning.  We went back to where we had the most luck, Honeymoon Island.  We knew the tide was higher in the morning so we got there as soon as the park opened at 8am, hoping to find a better selection of shells.  We didn't realize high tide virtually eliminated the sandy beach, but needless to say, high tide wasn't the right time to go and we left with no shells.  BUT we did have a good two hours to lay on a patch of dry sand and enjoy the sounds of the ocean.  There were hardly any visitors early in the morning so it was very relaxing.  About 10am all the families with kids started rolling in and we decided we'd stayed long enough.

We passed a little antique shop right before we got to Honeymoon Island and I told Kevin I wanted to stop in there on our way out.  The husband/wife shop owners were there and didn't welcome us... Sort of unusually for small shop owners I'd imagine.  Lots of booth owners were coming in and out and they seemed chatty with the owners.  Then they sort of followed us around and said loud enough for us to hear, "What's this on the floor?!"  I looked at the floor because I was in the booth next to them and it looked like sand.  It could have very well come from Kevin or I since we just got off the beach, but I didn't think it did since we rinsed off after we left the beach.  They sat there making a scene about what was all over their floor.  Kevin and I took that as a que to leave and we decided we didn't need anything in their shop anyways.  And if they are so worried about sand in their store, why did they open it a block from the beach?  And why even open a shop in Florida for that matter?  

We didn't let rude shop owners ruin our day though.  We drove another 45 mins past Clearwater to Indiana Shores.  There's a bird sanctuary we visited.  It houses permanently injured birds.  We saw some cute Pelicans and a big hawk and several other birds.

We ate lunch at a Boston Market because we'd never tried one before.  It wasn't great.  Don't stop at one if there's another place to eat!  They mostly serve rotisserie chickens and sides.  The chicken was really, really dry and the sides weren't fresh.

After lunch we drove up the coast back to Clearwater.  We stopped at a few shops in the way back but didn't buy anything.  (The picture above was from the shop complex we stopped at.)  Kevin wanted to go jet skiing on the bay, but we priced it and didn't think it was worth $140 for an hour, so we headed back to our condo and decided to be beach bums.  We stayed on the beach for a couple hours.  It was pretty quiet due to a 5 minute rain shower that cleared out half the beachgoers.  

About 4:30 we decided to get cleaned up and try a restaurant on the strip that caught our attention since the day we arrived in town... Bob HEILMANS Beachcomber.  Yes, that's my maiden name, spelled exactly the same way.  We knew it was a nicer place and I'm so glad we saved it for our last dinner out!

We were served 4 courses.  The first complimentary appetizer included cottage cheese, apple cinnamon butter, corn salsa, and a horseradish beet dip all served with crackers.  Our serve told us to mix the horseradish beet dip with the cottage cheese.  I was skeptical, but it was actually really good!!!

Next was our soup/salad/bread that came with our meals.  We both chose the sirloin soup and it was delicious!  The bread basket was filled with sourdough bread, banana nut bread, and a molasses muffin.  I didn't get a salad but Kevin did.  We were both full after course 2!  It was all SO GOOD!!!

For main courses, I ordered their signature chicken dinner (I was thinking baked, not fried, but it was still good!) with mashed potatoes and broccoli and Kevin ordered a fish platter.

And lastly, we added to our misery by ending with a turtle sundae.  It was delicious but we hardly ate any because we were so full!

This was our most expensive place we ate but it was also the best food we ate!  The restaurant was clean, not overly crowded and we'd highly recommend it to anyone that was in the area!  

After dinner we decided to walk the strip bc we were so miserably full.  Kevin went into the CVS next to the restaurant and bought popcorn.  We took it to the area by the pier so we could feed the birds.  Actually, he fed the birds and I just took pictures!

We were so content sitting there after the birds left that we stayed and watched a bride/groom that had just got married take pictures, sailboats cruise by, and the sun set.  

We called it a night after watching the sun set and had another quiet evening back at the condo.