Laura's Secret Beach

We woke up Friday to pouring rain. We had been planning to go to Busch Gardens. We hung around the apartment all morning, I even did laundry. Then we went to this awesome restaurant called Nikki's which had wonderful omelette's and biscuits and gravy. Jenny wasn't feeling well after so Laura took me and Mike to her secret beach while Jenny took a nap and rested up. It was about a 30 minute walk from Laura's apartment so we took Melvin along. There was a door left on the side of the path which I thought was very interesting. We saw probably a hundred horseshoe crabs, which are very ugly and fascinating creatures. Melvin thought so too. The tide was in so that the end of the trail where the beach would normally be was under water. We waded in and took pictures of a bridge and the view. Laura tossed Melvin in the water to wash him off. On the way up to the beach he found a pile of poo and decided to roll around in it. Dogs are so gross. But I still love Melvin!! Also we got some pretty good video of the dog feeling out those horseshoe crabs. He'd stick his nose out to sniff and one of the crabs would flare up his tail and Melvin would run away. We tried picking them up (the crabs) but they have an iron grip on the sand or something. My favorite part was where the mangrove trees were growing in a smallish sort of covered area. It felt like a little shelter or fort or something.

Afterward we went back to the apartment and decided to go swimming in the pool. Jenny and Laura reminisced about the pool games they would play as children. I knew some of them like Sharks and Minnows and Marco Polo, but there were a few that they had invented like Two Knees Strong. Laura also demonstrated some very cool synchro moves. I was totally impressed. It was also extremely cold even though we stayed mainly in the hot tub.

Afterward we all took showers and went down to Ybor City where there is so much fun to be had. Restaurants, shopping, a movie theatre, all sort of clubs and bars, and this arcade place called Game Works. We went to the Spaghetti Warehouse for dinner and the most interesting thing that happened there was that Mike ate this huge plate of meat, garlic bread, and lasagna. Laura kept giving him this look like "what in the world are you doing?" And it was so hilarious. She would just watch him cut his lasagna in these perfectly equal portions and eat them in one gulp like he was from another planet. Anyone who can eat that much meat probably is from another planet. Or I guess he is just a big guy.

Then we went into this really cool store that sold a bunch of imported products like jewelry, hats and bags, clothes, furniture, incense, good luck objects, musical instruments. So much stuff. I bought some chopsticks to put in my hair. Yes I can wear my hair in a chopstick.

Then we went to Game Works where we played arcade games for hours. Games played include: Ms. PacMan, Ocean Hunters (or something), a horse racing game, ski ball (where we earned the most tickets), and this bowling game where you spin this bowling ball and the ball on the screen rolls around and you try to knock down the pins with it. It was a really physical game and really fun! I actually won by one point, though Mike sort of took turns for playing for Jenny, Laura, and me. We had like 500 points to spend on prizes so we bought play dough, fans, army men, and fun dip.

Another very exciting day! Whew! I am tired just remembering it.