Kite surfer

Saturday
We finally arrived at our hotel at Clearwater Beach, Florida at about 1.45 this morning after an eventful journey. We were really quite fortunate to get out of Cincinnati airport at all, (it is actually located across the Ohio river in northern Kentucky) due to the severe storms, spawning tornadoes, which swept across the Midwest yesterday, especially Indiana and Kentucky, leaving about 40 people dead and dreadful devastation in their wake. Our flight was scheduled to leave at about 7pm, and we had been planning on leaving home between 4 and 4.30. We were watching the storms on the weather map on the TV, trying to decide the best and safest time to leave and the best route to take. In the end, our journey to the airport was uneventful, other than hearing on the radio that the airport had been closed due to severe weather! However, by the time we got down there, it was re-opened and our flight was listed with a 30 minute delay. We had a generous connection in Atlanta, so we weren't too worried. However, by the time we had boarded the plane, the captain announced that Atlanta airport had now been closed due to severe weather, so we sat about another 40 minutes on the plane before we were allowed to take off! By the time we finally pulled in to the gate, we had about 15 minutes to make our connection! Fortunately it was only one terminal over, and we made it - in fact they held it for about another ten minutes for other people to make the connection. Then once they'd closed the doors, the captain announced we had to wait a bit longer for a spare part to be loaded into the hold to go to Tampa! So by the time we got to our hotel room, we were very tired, but also very thankful and relieved!

Due to our short night, we allowed ourselves a bit of a lie in before going down for breakfast. Our room overlooked the water, and while Roger was in the shower I sat on the balcony, enjoying my first sight of brown pelicans and even a couple of dolphins. The day was sunny and warm, though fairly breezy. We decided to spend the rest of the day at nearby Honeymoon Island State Park. Honeymoon and neighboring Caladesi Island were originally part of a large barrier island that split in half during a major hurricane in 1921. The waterway between the islands is known as Hurricane Pass. We spent several hours on the beach, watching the birds and the kite-surfers, with a break for lunch at the cafe, then went for a walk on the Osprey trail, so called due to the abundance of osprey nests up in the tops of trees along the trail. There is also an active bald eagle nest - this was as close as you were allowed to go, bald eagles still being protected under federal law. On our way back to the hotel we stopped to take in the sunset at Weaver Park in Dunedin.

One year ago: Mourning doves