We Go Phanatic with Katie in Clearwater!

March is our month in Clearwater with family.  They have all been coming in like the waves of the Gulf of Mexico pulse onto the sand at Clearwater Beach.

Our daughter Katie was our first visitor.  She flew down on Monday, March 9, we picked her up at the airport, and we all walked over to what we like to call the local "Tiki Hut" for a yummy lunch. Here's a photo of Katie looking forward to TWO Phillies Spring Training games and TWO days at the beach:

After lunch, we decided to drive over to Clearwater Beach and spend the afternoon with the sun and sand:

Rather than fight the Spring Break traffic coming back from the beach, we decided to stay past sunset for dinner.  We chose Frenchy's, a Clearwater tradition, getting our fill of seafood while we watched the other tourists as the sun sank slowly over the Gulf.

Tuesday, March 10, was the first of our two Phillies games, and we were up early.

In Clearwater, no attendance at a Phillies home game is complete unless you precede it with breakfast at Lenny's!  Lenny's has been in business since 1958.  It represents all things Philadelphia and Phillies in Clearwater.  There is no way to describe it, but you can be sure you'll find lots of scrumptious food to eat there.  For example, you can get a Screuben - which is - in natural Philly style - a reuben sandwich made with real Pennsylvania scrapple!

You have to wait for seating at Lenny's.  Here, Katie and Kathy are eagerly awaiting our first breakfast in this extraordinary establishment:

David got in on the act, too:

Lenny's was a short 2-mile walk from our RV campground.  After brunch, we strolled the additional quarter mile or so over to the Phillies' Spring Training home stadium, Bright House Field, to find our seats for the game:

Philadelphians love Citizens Bank Park because it recalls the smaller, more personal ballparks of years past.  Bright House Field is even more so, and offers a close, unobstructed view of the entire field of play.  Here is the view from the grass bleachers in center field --

-- and here is a great panorama of the field from the catcher's point  of view:

The ballpark offers all the Philly-style food you could want, plus a great Tiki Bar sponsored by Frenchy's.  Katie and Kathy wandered up to the Tiki Bar to check out the offerings and came back with a BUCKET FULL of tequila!  Luckily, the ball park sells lemonade to dilute that strong spirit.

At every home game, even in Clearwater, the Philly Phanatic sows chaos across the field.  Here he is hob-nobbing with the umpires before the start of one of the games:

Unfortunately, although Katie and David wore our rally hats, the Phitin' Phils Phell to the Detroit Tigers, despite (or because of?) having Cole Hamels on the mound. (I'm beginning to think my personal nickname for him - "Holy Camels" - is too apt.)

On Wednesday, March 11, we attended our second game, where the Phils soundly defeated Pittsburgh.  We walked up to the motel where we were to meet Kathy's nephew Tom and his wife Michelle, who were flying in from Philly.  However, they had the great misfortune of running into an accident on the causeway between the Tampa Airport and Clearwater, and were forced to reroute, which delayed their arrival.  Katie wanted to have dinner at the Original Hooters, which is within walking distance of our RV park.  So the three of us hiked down to Hooters and waited for Michelle and Tom.  Here, Katie catches Kathy and David enjoying their "Lotsa Tots" - crispy tater tots locked and loaded and piled high with sour cream, bacon, chives, and smothered in gooey melted cheese. Perfect for our low cholesterol, low fat, low salt diet:

Tom and Michelle arrived in time for the entrees, and we enjoyed a wonderful dinner together. Here's a selfy photo Michelle and Tom took at another Phillies game, but we just felt we had to get them into this blog:

Thursday, March 12, there was no Phillies home game, and Katie wanted a second beach day, so all of us - Katie, Tom, Michelle, Kathy and David - headed out to the beach and started our day with breakfast at the Beach Shanty Cafe.  We lolled about in a cabana on the beach and caught up with gossip until afternoon, when Katie had to get to the airport.  It was well enough we left early, because we avoided the heaviest beach traffic and we got plenty of sun in the time we were out there.

We dropped Katie off at the airport, said our fond goodbyes, and wished her safe travels home to Philadelphia, where she was to join her old high school friends in a long weekend of shenanigans and catching up.

We, meanwhile, turned to readying the rig for our next round of guests - the WHOLE MILLER CLAN - who were due to arrive that evening.

But that's another story.