Florida Road Trip (Conclusion)
We made the drive to what Waze told us was location of the Holiday Inn Express Clermont SE - West Orlando. I was a little confused as we approached. We turned into what appeared to be a gated resort called Summer Bay Orlando. There was a guard there controlling the crossing arm. I did not see a sign for the Holiday Inn Express so I asked the guard if he knew where I could find the hotel. He assured us that we were at the correct location as he told us it would be on our right as we crossed the crossing arm.
This road trip was turning out to be full of pleasant surprises. We were told at check-in that we would have access to all the amenities on the grounds of this beautiful resort - restaurants, game room, fitness room, walking trails, etc... The resort is located just 10 miles from Disney World. The receptionist also tried to get us to sign-up for a timeshare talk which would have given us $200 of spending money, but I have little appetite for timeshare presentations regardless of the gift. We passed on the timeshare presentation.
We had a standard Holiday Inn room (#1317) with a king bed. It was nice but the surprising thing was that the bathroom did not have liquid soap. It had bar soap instead. We rarely come across a hotel room that does not have liquid soap these days.
We did not have any other plans for the day. We found our way to a running store and a shopping center in hopes of Traci replacing her damaged water bottle. She did not have any luck on that front. The water bottles being sold were either too expensive or just did not appeal to her. For dinner, we had delicious barbeque at a place called Ella Lou's Brews && BBQ. We followed that up with a stop the Publix grocery store next to the resort so that Traci could satisfy her sweet tooth with a slice of cake.
Back at the hotel, we were interested in checking out an event that we were told about when we checked in. The receptionist told us that one of the buildings at the resort has a rooftop bar that is a great viewing spot for the nightly fireworks at Disney. Traci and I found our way to the rooftop bar and then joined about a dozen other guests on the outdoor terrace on that chilly night. Around 9 PM, we began to see fireworks in the distance. We were too far away to consider the show spectacular. We would not go out of our way to see the fireworks from there again. Back in our room, we watched the opening ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics before calling it a night.
The next morning, Traci started the day with a jog on the running paths of the resort, while I enjoyed the complimentary breakfast buffet at the resort. Traci had brought her breakfast back to the room before her jog to enjoy later in case the buffet was closed when she returned. It was a nice Holiday Inn breakfast. The part that made me happy was that the pancake machine was working. There have been numerous times at other Holiday Inns where this was not the case. Breakfast was crowded with families. In fact, some guests, I included, had to eat in one of the conference rooms because all the tables in the breakfast area were occupied.
We checked out of the Holiday Inn Express and then hit the road. It was about a 2-hour drive to get to our attraction for the day - Three Sisters Springs. It is located in Crystal River, Florida. I was excited about our visit. I have always wanted to see a manatee in the wild. When I read that they congregate in the shallow waters of Three Sisters Springs in the winter months, I knew I had to add this place to our road trip itinerary.
Upon our arrival, I was surprised by how unassuming the park is. It is located between a residential neighborhood and a shopping center. Parking is limited. In fact, we were lucky to find one of the park's designated parking spots behind the shopping center. There is a fee for entering the park. Traci and I were excited when we found out that we were old enough for the senior discount.
It was about a 3/4-mile walk on a gravel path from the park entrance to the network of boardwalks used for observing manatees. This was the first time since arriving in Florida that the weather was warm enough that we did not need a jacket. It was not long after we reached the boardwalks that we saw our first manatees. These large aquatic mammals were floating in the incredibly clear water of Three Sisters Springs. The manatees looked like large rocks at first. They would swim calmly lifting their head above water on a rare occasion to take a breath which sounded like a quick valve release of air.
Traci and I walked along the boardwalk. We saw more and more manatees. We eventually arrived at an area where there were probably over 100 of them. They congregate in the springs during the winter months because the water is relative warm and shallow. They venture out once every one to two weeks to feed on sea vegetation in the Gulf of Mexico but then make their way back to the springs because the Gulf is too cold for them in winter.
There were park officials stationed along the boardwalk who were more than willing to share information about the manatees. We saw a group of people in wetsuits swimming with the manatees. You are not allowed to approach them but it is acceptable if a manatee approaches you. They are docile creatures that do not bite.
It was getting close to closing time for the park which was 4:30 PM at the time of our visit. This was a nice attraction for me because I finally had the opportunity to see manatees in the wild.
Our final destination of our road trip was the Tampa Riverwalk. It was about a 1.5-hour drive from Three Sisters Springs. The Tampa Riverwalk is 2.6-mile paved walkway along the Hillsborough River in downtown Tampa. We were quite hungry when we arrived. Our plan was to find a nice restaurant while exploring the area. It took us some time to find parking. The first challenge was all the construction where our GPS led us. The next challenge was finding a vacant parking spot on the street. We eventually succeeded. We found a metered spot and then set off ti find food.
We walked along the water front. The weather had turned chilly now that the sun was going down. Furthermore, the breeze coming off the water had us shivering at times. This kept us from doing much exploring. One thing that baffled us was the lack of restaurants in this tourist area. We asked a lady who was handing out flyers for something (don't remember what she was soliciting) where the restaurants were. She said that we needed to continue walking for about 20 minutes before we would find food options.
Tampa Riverwalk
Traci and I kept walking at a brisk pace in an effort to keep warm. There was not much going on other than a few street performers and solicitors. The one that made me laugh was a group of you men trying to save souls via a rather angry-sounding religious sermon that included cussing!
Traci and I reached the food hall that the solicitor told us about. It was quite busy. The food hall kind of reminds me of a mall food court. Traci and I walked around for a while trying to decide what kind of food we were in the mood for. Traci eventually settled on an Italian. As for me, I ordered from a place selling corn dogs. It was the biggest corn dog that I had ever seen in my life. I did not come close to finishing it.
That was pretty much it for our Riverwalk visit. I did not realize how far we had walked to get to the food hall and thus we had a long walk to get back to the car. We walked along the city streets instead of the Riverwalk just to get a different perspective. The city had really emptied out at that point.
We checked into our final hotel for this trip - Hampton Inn Tampa Westshore. It is an airport hotel. We did not do much other than watch the Winter Olympics on TV.
The next morning, we enjoyed the hotel's complimentary breakfast and then made the 5-minute drive to the airport to return the rental car. You need to take the airport train to get from the car rental to the airport terminals. The nice thing about the car rental building in Tampa is that you can check in for you flight as well as check your bags there. There is no need to lug your luggage on the airport train. We had an uneventful flight home; however, the 12-degree (Fahrenheit) weather that greeted us was a shock to our bodies. Main Page...
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