Flying six people on standby for vacation is totally possibly – if you’re flexible. Five of us flew out of one city and one flew out of another city but we got there and back pretty easily.
On Memorial Day, we flew into Tampa with just one connection. We got our rental and drove 40 minutes to our hotel on the water. The hotel had a restaurant and beach access. We got settled in, ate dinner at the hotel and spent time on the beach that evening. I did a quick run to a grocery store to get breakfast foods and snacks for our lunch on the beach the next day.
Tuesday was a beach day. We spent all day until dinner out on the beach. Some of us got a little sun-kissed, but the hotel offered chair and umbrella rentals. Early in the morning, we saw a manatee swim by heading south to St. Pete’s. Two of our children ran on the beach in the morning, too. For dinner, we headed up to Clearwater and ate at a restaurant on the water. We did a little shopping and then headed back to the hotel.
On Wednesday, we swam with manatees! It was almost a 2-hour drive north, but it was so amazing! We only saw a few and want to go back in the winter when they all migrate to the area. It was fun to learn how to snorkel. I would now snorkel in different locations when the opportunity arises. When we were done, we headed to Tarpon Springs for some shopping and dinner. After we got back to the hotel, a few of us headed down to the beach to enjoy the sunset.
We headed into Tampa on Thursday so a few of us could try paddleboarding. The water in the bay is so calm! We then headed to the Riverwalk and found a Columbian restaurant for lunch. The bread there was so delicious. We went back to the hotel and spent some more time at the beach and got packed up to leave early the next morning.
We had planned on a mid-morning flight, but those got filled up, so we had to switch to the early morning flight with two connections to get home. That only had us home an hour later than our original plan, though. While I love traveling to places where there’s a lot to do and see, it’s really nice every once in a while to just go on a vacation where the goal is to relax and the best place to do that is with the sound of the waves in the background.
