The end of April and May has been the months of short vacations.

I have a great aunt and great uncle in Florida who I really never got to know, living all the way in New York.

At the end of March, my mom said to me that I should consider going and visiting because my great uncle said he wanted to meet me as an adult. Not only was it a chance to visit with family that I haven’t gotten the chance to personally know, it was a chance to go to Florida for a couple days.

I told one of my best friend’s that I was planning on going to Florida in May and that she should come with me. Coming from Florida, she was totally on board and we started planning my trip.

Also joining me was my brother.

We booked through Expedia a flight and hotel package. We were going to stay at the Clearwater Beach Hotel, which sat right over the Gulf of Mexico. Our plan was to get to Clearwater in the afternoon, enjoy the beach for a full day after that, visit with our family and then catch a flight home.

It was May 8, Mother’s Day, that we were leaving for our trip. Now, Frontier is a little stressful. You have to check into your flight online. As I checked in, I saw that my friend and I had carry-on and personal items included, but they were charging me a $200 fee. I reluctantly paid it.

But once we were actually at MacArthur Airport, it wasn’t too bad. I was excited, yet nervous, before the flight. The last time I had been on a flight was 2018.

The flight went smoothly, and before we knew it, we were in Florida.

Immediately stepping out of the airport, it felt like summer. The palm trees lining the street were beautiful and everything looked so clean.

And Clearwater…. I could move there.

After we got there, we checked into the hotel and I turned to my friend, asking “Should we go to the beach? or the pool?”

Honestly, that’s one of my favorite questions to ask.

We went with the pool since it was about 4 p.m. But first, we went to this restaurant called Taco Bus. Taco Bus was delicious! I got a tortilla bowl, and we both ordered two frozen margaritas. Everything was very affordable.

The pool was so nice. It was a salt water pool; perfectly cool on the warm evening. The pool was filled with little children playing and a couple who was having the romantic moment of their lifetime.

“How about those love birds?” I asked my friend as we walked to my hotel room.

We got ready to go to this festival called Sunsets on Pier 60.

We walked down there and there was a bunch of artisans set up on Pier 60. My brother told me that he planned on finding our mom a gift for Mother’s Day, because he hadn’t had the chance to get one since he works a lot. But first, we walked to the end of the pier, paid a dollar to go to the end (because fishermen like to frequent it) and saw the most beautiful sunset. We also saw some cool birds.

When the sun finally dipped below the sea line, everyone started clapping. We all started clapping with them, thinking at first they were clapping at the sunset. But they were really clapping because someone had just gotten engaged.

Afterwards, we went back to where all the artisans were and my brother bought a cross with a bunch of sea shells on it (when he gave it to her, she loved it).

Walking down a bit more, we saw a crowd. So we joined the crowd to see what they were watching, and it was a man saying that he was about to eat fire. And why? One may ask.

“For money!” he said, throughout the show.

He had other tricks. He had three men from the crowd hold up a very tall unicycle so that he could sit on it, then he had a little girl throw sticks at him so he could light it, and juggle it.

After the show, we were looking for somewhere to eat, and decided on a restaurant called Sushi Tu. We all ordered drinks. My brother and friend got a drink served in a watermelon half and I got a shot of sake and beer, where the waitress guided us through a chant and then we had to slam the table so it would fall in. I ordered it twice cause I messed up the first time. I also ordered a mojito.

When we finished dinner, we walked back to the hotel. My brother went to bed and my friend and I went for a quick night swim, deciding that we wanted to wake up very early so that we could see the dolphins on Pier 60 and enjoy the entire day, since we had such a short stay.

We naturally woke up around 6 in the morning and got ready for the beach, with all our stuff so that we wouldn’t have to walk back to the hotel room.

And dolphins we saw, although we weren’t able to get any pictures because we only saw their backs.

And the sunrise was, of course, beautiful.

The both of us then decided to get a spot on the beach. It was a bit chilly out, but we felt it getting warmer and warmer. My brother woke up and got himself a crepe before coming to meet us.

We found a beach cabana with chairs that was put out, but later we found out that we had to pay for it, which was fine because honestly we needed it. It was very hot outside just coming from New York.

Swimming in the water was wonderful. The water was warm and clear. It was amazing being in an ocean and seeing my feet at the bottom of the water. We even saw a fish swimming around.

After a full day of sun-tanning, snoozing and reading (I finished “Silent Winds, Dry Seas” by Vinod Busjeet), we went back to our hotel room to get ready for our evening plans: The Calypso Queen Tropical Party Buffet, a dinner cruise.

We had such a good time on this cruise. First of all, the food was absolutely delicious and there was unlimited wine, beer and punch the whole entire night.

After we finished eating, we went upstairs to stand outside and watch the sunset. We talked to a few people who were on the boat with us, and one lady even asked our friends and I to take photos with her, calling us her “new friends.”

Funny enough, people started clapping again when the sun disappeared under the horizon. That time, the applause was for the sun.

My friend, who was looking forward to the DJ portion of the cruise, started looking around for who was responsible for the music. She found him on the second floor of the boat. Everyone was sitting around, and my friend and I had our nerves dulled enough by all the drinks so we started to dance. We ended up starting a whole party!

I had so much fun that I didn’t want it to end.

At the end of the night, my friend and I walked around the beach, almost crying because we did not want to go home. We were having so much fun.

But the next morning, we ended up waking up early enough to walk around again. This time we went to the same bridge we went over when we first got to Clearwater Beach.

Again, the sunrise was beautiful.

Walking around we reminisced on all the time we had and how we want to come back again. Clearwater Beach then started to wake up, as we saw more people starting to walk around.

We met my brother at a coffee place called Blessed Cup. While waiting for our food and lattes, we posted pieces of papers with our prayers written on it to a prayer wall they had. It was interesting reading the prayers other tourists, and locals, had posted up on there.

Then it was finally that time. Time to say goodbye to Clearwater, but time to say hello to my Florida family.

We got an Uber to take us to Seminole, Florida. On the way, we spoke with the Uber driving about the rising housing costs in Florida, and how it seems New Yorkers are taking over the place.

When we got there, we met our aunt, great uncle and great aunt.

It was a lovely time. We enjoyed a nice, light lunch and ate cookies from Publix. They all shared stories of their travels. I was amazed at how many places they’ve been.

And that was our very short trip to Florida. Two days in total.

When we got back, luckily the weather followed us and we had a few very warm days that week.