Well, after a glorious five plus weeks away, we are back in the frozen north.  Although we had a great time down south, for the first couple of weeks, winter followed us!  Visiting Billy and Lori and our Grandkids in Raleigh, North Carolina, Susie and I woke one morning to a temperature of 17 degrees!!  A couple of days later in Charleston, South Carolina, we woke one morning to find the temperature at 37 degrees!  Even later that week, during our stay in Savannah, Georgia, the morning temperature was 47 degrees!  Then came Florida!

We had 3 weeks in a condo right on the Gulf of Mexico in Indian Rocks Beach, a wonderful place we stumbled on last year, that’s located just south of Clearwater.  We looked out the sliding doors of the living room, and there was the Gulf and a beautiful beach!  Unfortunately, for almost the entire first week, we sat on the couch in the living room, looking out at the beach, with the heat on and blankets across our laps!  Oh boy…looks like we made the wrong choice coming the last Saturday in January!

As I said, we literally stumbled on to Indian Rocks Beach last year during our swing through Florida, and the plan was hatched to return in the winter of 2019.  Unlike a lot of the towns up and down the Gulf Coast of Florida, IRB is made up mostly of homes and small condo buildings, feeling a lot more like a Florida beach town of old, rather than a modern interpretation.  Eventually, Mother Nature shined on us, and we had many lovely days with warm temperatures, and really got to enjoy the beach and pool!

For me, one of the real changes of staying on a Gulf Coast beach, was the fact that what looks like the “Ocean” was to the West, rather than the East!  Growing up on Long Island, and now living at the beach in Ocean City, the “Ocean” has always been generally to the east of us.  Now, here we are, still on the east coast, but on the Gulf Coast of Florida, and the “ocean” is to the west!

One thing that I can not deny though, is that staying on the Gulf Coast, facing to the West, made for some great sunsets!  Be them via our iPhones or our Nikon digital SLR camera, the pictures are memorable!

Take a look at some of our favorites!

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We loved our time in Indian Rocks Beach…so much that we’ll be back next February for the whole month!  Let’s hope Mother Nature is nice to us!