I awake from good dreams in a king-size comfortable bed with a perfect room temperature and natural light outside. We feel less tired, sore, and dried out after getting away from Imperial Beach which is suffering from a Stop the Stink! movement. People are tired of not being allowed in the water, but it’s ok for them to sit on the poo-covered sand and breath in the poo-filled air, especially on foggy nights. When we first moved here in 2012, there were so many signs that everything caused cancer that we ignored them, but poo kills and makes people sick and we can’t wait to move.

Not only that, our skin is softer. I’m not sure if that’s from more filtered water and the humidity but I’ll take it. It’s crazy the amount of rent and taxes people are willing to pay to live in a city with such a low standard of living (from my poor by California standards perspective), though the city is trying to clean up the trash on the sidewalks downtown now and push the homeless to other states. We are here because the military told us to be, but we begged to be anywhere else, and by this time next year, we will have a lot more freedom in the choice of where to call home.

Anyway, Caleb sets up the tent so it can dry out from the three nights ago when we last slept in it. We’ll take Addison with us to REI to get some food for our return trip. Across the street is Whole Foods, so we wander in and try samples of lobster bisque, gummy vitamins, and sparkling apple cider. Caleb finds a cheese trio with crackers and honey in a Whole Foods insulated bag so it must come with us. Addison falls asleep on the way to Keystone Farmers Market and Caleb scares her awake by screaming as I park. It startled me and I was awake.

Caleb will wait in line for boiled peanuts while Addison and I go pet the dirty cows and then we return to the house to wait for Fallon to get off work. When she’s done, we go to Sunset Beach, the western terminus of Gulf Road, so the girls can put their feet in the water. This causeway and the special events building were completed in 1926 for $65,000. The Armistice Day festivities brought 2,500 people to this “Pleasure Pier” with dances, receptions, and weddings held until the building burnt down in 1963. Off in the distance is the cast-iron Anclote Key Lighthouse.

It started operation in 1887 and was manned until 1942 when the Coast Guard took over for WWII. The light was automated in ’52 and decommissioned in ’84. It was restored in 2003 and now has a park ranger residing on the island, three miles offshore, to keep an eye on picnickers who arrive by private boat or charter. The birds are fun to watch and chase, and we notice raccoon tracks in the sand. Once we circle the island we get a drive-through tour of Fred Howard Park and the beach at the end of a one-mile causeway with a $5 parking fee.

It’s definitely the off-season as we are one of a few cars taking a look at the empty beach that attracts nearly two million visitors to this 155-acre state park, most of that being trails with gopher tortoises and fox squirrels, and the two playgrounds back on the mainland. This park is named after a former mayor, first elected in 1945, who also served on the Pinellas County Park Board for over 30 years. We’ll spend at least an hour in the car driving to MacDill AFB to buy discount (save $7.63 per adult) Florida Aquarium tickets for Sunday.

The neat thing about their base exchange is that it contains a tattoo parlor. I knew the Air Force had different physical testing standards and this shows there’s more to this branch than I realized. There’s no time for tattoos or further exploration as we looked up dinner plans on the way here and Whiskey Joe’s is about half an hour from here. We’re parked behind a line of cars waiting to turn left into the parking lot, but a truck absolutely refuses to move until we drive down the street and u-turn after others showed us this faster route given the obstacle.

Fallon parks and is approached by an attendant who tells us this lot is valet only, so not sure if he was going to repark her car or just take her keys and return the car after our meal. I’ll tell Addison, “Let’s get inside and hope the food isn’t valet too” while Fallon parks the car in the paid lot next to this one. Fallon was craving chargrilled oysters so Caleb bought some for the table too and since the girls braved a taste, I grabbed one. I usually have more table etiquette but I thought it was gross and tried to choke it down with chips and just ended up putting that mixed wad into a napkin.

The girls thought it was funny to see me act like that and I’m glad they’re up for trying new things and won’t take my behavior as a way to act in the future, unless they’re trying to get laughs. I prefer to play with my food and dangle it deliciously or slurp it loudly into my mouth for consumption. The vegetarian options are a signature salad and a bowl of Mac-n-cheese. I would’ve gotten the salmon but it was topped with a crab cake, which might have been better than so many shrimp options, which are a hit-or-miss seafood item and the other fish options came with shrimp sauce.

I chose the blackened chicken sandwich with key lime aioli as a way to have dinner and dessert as we had plans for sweets later. There’s a sugar scrub in the bathroom, which usually has me buying a tub of it on the way out the door, but I still have some at home. Addison acts like it’s the last jar of scrub and so she washes her hands a few times before we leave. She also has the smallest wallet here. I do enjoy the way the scrub leaves my hands feeling super soft and clean and wonder if I should exfoliate more. Fallon takes us along on some post-dinner furniture shopping: sitting on outdoor couches and looking at pet chaises.

We get a half dozen glazed donuts and a hot cocoa each to keep our hands busy while we get driven around to look at the neighborhood’s holiday decorations – strung lights, seasonal inflatables, and yard ornaments to name a few. We get out of the car and pretend to look at manatees that we know are sleeping, but want to stretch our legs before getting home. This won’t be enough after over four hours and some 150+ miles in the car, so I change from dirty jeans into clean sweats, and Caleb and I take a left. We find more sparkly-lit yards and some frogs hopping about on a darker sidewalk.