First Week in Florida - Indian Rocks Beach and Clearwater Beach

I went through some major jetlag/culture shock/season confusion after arriving in Florida. I couldn't believe we had driven from negative temps, overcast, and snow to 70 and sunny clear skies. I joked with E that we literally drove through every season on our way here. After a week, we've adjusted to the amazing weather and I'm not sure how I will convince myself to make it through another Iowan winter. It's not even the cold that gets me. It's the sun. Thankfully the weather has been mostly clear skies since we arrived because we decided to rent a 1 bedroom apartment from a friend. It may sound crazy, but I am really enjoying the small space. We spend most of the day outside of the apartment anyway, so who needs a large area?! (Note: I don't think I could make this work easily in DSM.) The apartment has a walk in closet, so that is where X sleeps, M gets the bedroom, and E and I sleep in the living room on a mattress that we post up Murphy bed style each morning. The living room and eat in kitchen have plenty of space, so I have zero complaints. Maybe I will become an expert on minimalistic living. The apt has a great outdoor walking path and pond with sweet little sunbathing turtles that we see each afternoon. It's about 15 minutes from the closest beach and we sure have taken advantage of that each day. 



Indian Rocks Beach: less crowded, no public bathrooms (that we have found), but plenty of restaurants to visit, mostly a walkout beach for time shares and rental homes, free parking (we've been lucky so far!)

My favorite thing about this beach is the sunsets. It is breezy at night, but we are still comfortable in shorts and the boys have been wearing their suits and life jackets without complaint. We've been packing dinner for the boys each night and sneaking over here after nap for the last few hours of sunshine each day. We get our workout in running with the boys or walking the beach, playing soccer, volleyball and even doing Peloton workout videos while the boys play. We have thermoses that we pack with real dinner, so the boys aren't asking for more when we get home and can get right to baths and bedtime. M like E is a big stickler for hot food and won't eat a cold hot dog, let alone cold chicken or steak, and the thermoses don't collect as much sand as our beloved silicone bento boxes.




Clearwater Beach: very crowded, expensive parking, huge sand area, playground, pier, boat tours, concessions, restaurants, walk out area for large resorts, better for kids' swimming/splashing than Indian Rocks, inflatables that cost and arm and a leg, penny crusher

The boys and I visited here on a whim simply to go to their penny crusher. Did you know there is a website that lets you locate all penny crushers in an area?! We didn't do the beach the first day and just explored the pier and playground. X continues to be quite the daredevil on the playground and just climbs and climbs. Clearwater Beach is a touristy spot, but the playground and beach are great! This beach has so much sand, sofrom the parking lot to the waterfront is quite a trek. It makes for a shallow beach and the boys were all about swimming in the water. Shout out to the superstar who loaned us a brand new life jacket for M. He can 100% swim, but it gives me peace of mind to know if he was pulled by a wave or fell that he would float. Our second visit here we found a LIVE clam that turned out to be a scallop. We were shell hunting as part of homeschool that day and M picked up just like any other shell. It was our entertainment for the whole day. Watching it swim in the bucket was hysterical and sadly I didn't get a great video. M started picking up the ladies from the yoga class on the beach asking if they wanted to see a clam then proceeding to tell them all about it.




Location: Pier 60, Clearwater, FL 33767, USA

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