April 12-25, 2024

After a one night delay because of the Tornado warnings, we made the beautiful drive down to the Tampa / St. Pete coastline. Glenna and I were on our own as Ron and Kathy headed down to the Villages to visit friends. The hightlight of the drive was going thru Ocala, Florida. This beautiful horse country had miles and miles of horse ranches with over 1200 horse farms, 50 breds of horses and 35,000 thoroughbreds as part of the 75,000 horses in the area. Don’t want to be the one that has to cut the grass but it sure was pretty driving by these pristine properties. This horse capitol of the world has the largest number of horses than any other county in the USA.

Checked into our the St. Pete KOA for the next 6 nights, settled in and set up some plans for the week. Dinner and tour of Clearwater beach with friends Allan and Denise proved to be a spectular day. Driving over the bridge to the beach with clear views of the aqua colored water and the white sands were a sight to see. Clearwater beach is always voted as one of the top beaches in Florida and one of the top beaches in the world. Dinner at Frenchy’s Rockaway Grill on the patio eating some local favorites like Grouper sandwiches, ceviche and of couse a cocktail to celebrate our reunion with friends. A walk down the beach towards Pier 60 and viewing the sunset with a few thousand others that pack the beach every night to see this stunning event from Mother Nature. Music, sandcastles, food trucks and local vendors filled the beach providing endless entertainment for the locals and tourists.

When Ron and Kathy rejoined us, we checked a bucket list item for Ron. Dinner at Bern’s Steakhouse in Tampa did not disappoint, this famous steakhouse has over 900,000 bottles of wine and a dessert room like no other. Started of with an Old Fashion (their signature drink) and proceeded to enjoy our steaks accompanied with French Onion soup, salad, baked potato and asparagus, all included with your steak choice. A nice bottle of Vinatieri wine paired perfectly with the prime beef choices. After dinner our professional waiter Mitch, set up a tour of the kitchen, wine room and a trip to the dessert room. This 6000 foot kitchen was a real treat to see, lots of moving parts as the chefs in different food stations cranked out these excellent culinary delights. The wine room was musty, dimly lit with bottles of wine dating back hundreds of years. No samples here but amazing to see what is the largest private collection of wines in the country. The dessert room had over 48 private eating areas all made from old wine barrels and piped in music from the pianist playing in the upstairs lobby. We sampled a couple gourmet, all in house made desserts including Ron’s favorite Banana Cream Pie and a Choclate Lava Cake with hot fudge, all were delicious.

A coulple more MMT’s around Clearwater then off to St. Augustine while Ron and Kathy heading down to the Everglades and Vero Beach to visit friends. Checked into the St. Augustine KOA, set up camp and went into town for the Hop on Hop bus tour of downtown St. Augustine. Lots of history and is the longest continually inhabited European-founded city in the United States, beautiful beaches, old streets filled with bars, local eateries and shops. Friday morning we had a special MMT (magical mystry tour) down to Datona Beach and visiting the famous Daytona 500 race track and museum. This 55 minute tour gave us the opportunity to drive on this 2 1/2 mile oval track, walk the start finish line that surprised us by being an 18% grade. The museum was filled with auto, air, and boat memorabilia including this years Daytona 500 winning car from William Bryon. Short drive over to Daytona Beach, brought out our beach chairs and enjoyed sitting and people watching, waves rolling in sitting on the white sands of Florida.

The afternoon took us into St. Augustine where we checked out the local St. Georges street full of shops, bars and local food establishments. We went into the Prohabation Kitchen that was recommended to us by our friend Fred who frequented the area back in his work days. Live music and a great bar was the local scene with very friendly bartender and a perfect old fashion to top off the day. 

Saturday April 20th was moving day so we packed up and headed towards Hilton Head, South Carolina. Nice easy drive north thru Georgia and on to the island. Checked into the Hilton Head Motorcoach RV Resort, set up and spent the rest of the day hanging out. Sunday was a golf day and we were so happy to be going to visit some old friends from our Poway days. Art and Linda live in Bluffton, just a few miles off the island in a wonderful golf community Berkely Hall CC. We arrived at their house and took the tour of this spectacular house and property and then off to the South golf course. Fun times on the course with old friends, Art hasn’t lost his touch shooting a 72 that could have been a 69. Linda, Glenna and I did ok as well trying not to get to close to the alligators that were sunning themselves on the shores of the many ponds. Dinner at the club catching up on old times and what the future brings to us all. Spent the night with them and another round of golf on the North Course today. Equally as beautiful and this proved to be a bit tougher than the South Course. Still had a blast, cards and dinner at the house afterwords followed by a movie then off to bed. Art is the breakfast / dinner chef and gave us some very good meals while there. 

Back to the island to meet up with Ron and Kathy, spent some time relaxing by the lake, reading and just hanging. Wednesday we went out to dinner with Art, Linda, Ron, Kathy, Glenna and I to the Fishcamp on Broad Creek restaurant overlooking the marina and waterways. Great dive bar and a local favorite with oyster, hushpuppies and grouper as some of their specialities.

Thursday was a MMT day as we drove over to Beaufort, SC. Lunch at a local BBQ joint that was just ok and hopped on a horse drawn carriage tour for a ride around Beaufort. Beaufort was chartered in 1711 and is the second oldest city in South Carolina next to Charleston. Stopped at the local farmers market and seafood store in Bluffton on the way home and had a nice seafood dinner at the RV’s next to the lake. We will be in Hilton Head a few more days then off to Charleston for our next 5 nights seeing friends and enjoying the great places in Charleston.

Clearwater Beach

relaxing evening at the Hilton Head RV Resort

Kathy and Glenna getting Arts clam linguine

carriage tour in Beaufort

Fishcamp on Broad Creek

Harbor Town on Hilton Head Island

Pat and Glenna lunch

lots of big gators at the golf course

Glenna and Pat at Daytona

Sunset at Clearwater Beach

never disappointed here

Linda and Glenna at Berkely Hall CC

Art and Pat

Fox Squirrels on the course, the largest species of tree squirrels.

moving day!!!!!

Parlor Donuts in St. Augustine

great wine at Berns

Two full time butchers working dinner shift

dinner at Berns

Pat, Denise and Allan on Clearwater Beach

on the patio at the RV Resort

Glenna at her happy place in St. Augustine

seafood dinner

Ron and Pat shucking oysters

old fashion cocktails Prohibition Kitchen

beautiful flowers and trees in South Carolina

great oak trees everywhere

beach time

Daytona tour

wine room tour at Berns Steakhouse

huge part of St. Augustine

lunch with Jim Duffy in Clearwater

Clearwater Beach