And not a speck of sunburn in sight.

We are, obviously, back from our Florida vacation. Other than it being hot as horse shit on pavement down there, I think we had a good time.

The only way it could have been better was for there to have been fewer people in the theme parks...because pregnant women don't like tourist groups bumping into them nonstop. More in the extended entry.

The flights into Tampa were pretty uneventful, other than the fact that my left ear never uncorked itself during the quick descent on the Miami - Tampa route. We stayed at the Radisson in Clearwater, where surprisingly the rooms have those Sleep Number beds. I'm a 35. Scott is a 55. The room was decent-sized and clean...that is after I got them to trade us out of the smoking room they booked us into.

We went to Busch Gardens in Tampa on Friday. There were lots of people with strollers and the animals were all either listless or asleep because of the heat. We rode two of the water rides which were safe enough for a pregnant woman because they didn't require belts or harnesses....and they didn't turn your ass upside down.

On Saturday we went to St. Petersburg to the Salvador Dali museum (which would have been a lot more enjoyable if not for all those fuckers standing way too close to me - SHIT, FUCKING MOVE! The art's on the wall, not on my back!) There were some works there by other famous Spanish artists (Picasso, Gris, etc.) which I enjoyed seeing. When I go to art museums, I like to move slowly around the gallery looking at everything in detail and reading the placards. The museum had back-to-back tour groups going through which made any kind of contemplation impossible, but I still think it was worth the price of admission.

I would have liked to have spent more time exploring St. Petersburg, but we only had three days there, so we crammed in what we could. We had a late lunch at Too Jay's where I had half of a pretty darn good vegetable lasagne (half because eating for two doesn't mean two giants).

We went to Clearwater Beach to watch the sunset in the evening which was quite relaxing...other than trying to find parking.

I think Sunday had to have been the hottest day we were there. Scott, who used to work at Disney (heh heh, foodservice), wanted to go to Animal Kingdom. I thought I was going to die at one point from heat exhaustion. I love how Disney parks are so family-friendly and they make it easy for kids and adults to ride the same attractions. I hated feeling like I was in a stroller roller-derby, though. I just knew at one point one of those things was going to go right into my shins.

To be frank, heat exhaustion or not, Animal Kingdom has the edge over Busch Gardens Tampa. It's a much more expensive experience, but everything in the park seemed so thoughtful. Standing in line for certain rides was like being in a little microcosm of some Himalayan villiage or safari office - the props were outstanding.

So, we're home now. I definately want to visit a few more Disney parks in the near future, but hot damn it'll have to be in the fall or spring when it's not sweltering.

You can see all the vacation pictures in my flickr account.

Posted by Tiffany at July 19, 2006 11:12 AM | TrackBack