Dr. Megan’s Accidental Trip to the Swamp: A Florida Beaches Recap

Speaker 1: 0:06

Hi Megan, hey Sarah, how are you? I'm doing good. So I have a little update. It's just a funny one, it's a cup update. Oh, ok, so you and I are always talking about water bottles and the best water bottles for our kids and for us. And then, funny enough, what was it? Two months ago, we didn't realize and we separately bought the same water bottle, which is kind of confusing, because we bought the same water bottle in the exact same color and we're together all the time.

Speaker 1: 0:57

Mine's a little more banged up, but I was at Whole Foods a few days ago and I'm sure you've seen, like this Stanley cup that's become so popular with all the influencers, and I've kind of stayed away from it because I just felt like, oh, seems basic, like everybody has it. Well, I was at Whole Foods the other day just picking up a few groceries Whole Foods always gets me and they had a huge display of them and my water bottle has been banged up a little bit and I just thought, like I'm here, maybe I should just try it. There's probably a reason everyone loves it. So I just grabbed one in the checkout line and oh, my god, it's amazing. Oh, really, it's like no wonder everyone loves it. I was wrong. So the bottom of it, the base, like fits in any cup holder, but then the rest of it is bigger and it stays cold or hot. But it's summer right now, so I've been having everything cold. It stays cold like 48 hours. The other day I had ice Really.

Speaker 1: 2:04

Yeah, I had ice water in it overnight, and then next morning the ice was still frozen.

Speaker 2: 2:09

Oh, wow.

Speaker 1: 2:10

I know, and it's been like. Of course I like didn't want to love it as much as I do, and it's cute too. I bought the pink one, of course, but it just like fits in my car and I love it. Like running errands, you're always like your water bottle always gets hot in between, like shops or wherever you're going, yeah, and this one just stays cold all day long.

Speaker 2: 2:31

Really I know, is it a specific brand that you bought?

Speaker 1: 2:36

It's the Stanley one.

Speaker 2: 2:37

Oh, it is a Stanley one. Ok, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 2:38

It's a Stanley cup. Have you not seen it? It's like below a.

Speaker 2: 2:43

I've seen it, but I haven't seen yours. Oh no, you haven't seen mine. Yeah, I bought the exact one.

Speaker 1: 2:48

I mean, it's a hefty price point. I think it was like $48. That's a lot, oh my gosh. I love how you gasped. That is a lot for a water bottle. I know right, I don't know, maybe. Yeah, I think it. I should look it up. I wasn't really paying attention to exactly how much it was, but it felt like it was a lot for a water bottle. But my point was it's cute and it is worth it.

Speaker 2: 3:12

Nice, ok, and is it tip-proof? Like your kids can knock it over and it's fine.

Speaker 1: 3:17

I mean it has a straw that comes out of it so it couldn't be held upside down, but the top is pretty secure. So if it just tilts over, it's fine, it's fine OK, but it's not like you can't throw it in your bag type of water bottle, ok, oh, ok, got it. Got it, it's a different purpose. Yeah, I see a lot of people on social media bringing them to work out.

Speaker 1: 3:38

I don't think I would bring it to my workout because, it's got a handle and it's a little bit more of an effort, and if it fell on the ground there it would be a little bit more of an issue, I suppose. But I don't know, maybe you could, maybe my next check-in will be I brought it to Orange Theory and it's great.

Speaker 2: 3:57

Yeah, it will keep me updated. I'm always looking for new water bottles because I try to drink a lot of water throughout the day and I notice if I have a straw I drink more water than if I don't have a straw.

Speaker 1: 4:09

Yes, I remember you telling me that, which is one of the reasons I was going to share this with you. I'm like the straw. I swear it encourages you to drink so much more water.

Speaker 2: 4:19

Oh, that's great.

Speaker 1: 4:19

I'm going to try it, don't you think? Yeah, ok, also, then is that giving you lip wrinkles?

Speaker 2: 4:25

That was my other question. Yeah, I was going to keep that one to myself, but it could give you lip wrinkles, but no more than the one that we already used, right, because that one had a spout. So we're also percing our lips to drink that.

Speaker 1: 4:38

That's true, so it's not like you.

Speaker 2: 4:41

Yeah, I think it's fine.

Speaker 1: 4:42

I'll show it to you next time I see you.

Speaker 2: 4:44

OK, that's what lip fillers for. Yeah, exactly exactly.

Speaker 1: 4:52

OK, so I think it was. It's 40 ounces. I just looked it up it's 40 ounces and it was $45. Ok, Well, if it's the one you use.

Speaker 2: 5:02

You're using it every day. You can't put a price on that. Yeah, I mean you could. It's $45. But, yeah, it's worth it. It's worth it. Yeah, to make you drink more water, that's good, ok, cool.

Speaker 1: 5:16

Thanks for that. Yeah, what's going on with you? How are you?

Speaker 2: 5:20

I'm good.

Speaker 2: 5:22

I just thought it would be nice to sort of bring the audience up to date on like sort of life decisions that we've made recently, because I think it actually sort of like ties into this episode which is about, like Florida beaches.

Speaker 2: 5:36

So we about a year ago decided, before we even started school they started, the kids started school and before I ever met you, we went to Maui and decided we were going to try to make a move to move there and we have throughout the past year, sort of gone through the process of getting the kids enrolled at a new prep school over there. At the same time I became better and better friends with you and so we, through a series of series of things occurring recently, decided to put the kibosh on that move. So it came sort of came down to like May, june and things just weren't really working out. Things like health care were a concern there for us and just being able to have access and things like that, and the things weren't quite working out for my husband's job to move there. So in the end we made the decision to stay put, which is very exciting.

Speaker 1: 6:44

So I was going to be supportive, no matter what I know. I'm really excited. You're not moving.

Speaker 2: 6:50

I know you've been so, so great through the whole thing, because I know it was so sad for both of us to think about leaving each other, but you were supportive at the same time and so I just I want to say thank you for that and for being my friend through all of that. It's been a real I don't know like a washing machine of emotions. You know like it's sort of like sad not to move, but happy also. It's like a bittersweet sort of thing. But in part I wanted to bring this up because the other thing we were considering at the time when we were considering Maui on the back burner has always sort of been moving to Florida, and so we had considered that a little bit, and when I booked the trip that I'm going to be talking about we it was still in the cards, we were still considering it, we were still looking over there, we were still thinking to ourselves is that the best place for us?

Speaker 2: 7:48

I have a lot of family in Florida, which is why I would consider that to begin with, and I dearly miss going to hot beaches. That's just like a part of something I grew up with and something that's like a key part of I feel like who I am is just I love going to the beach and I feel so alive there. So I'm going to talk about that trip today, but in part, the reasons we were looking at the places we were looking at as we were considering moving there, and so that's also been decided. We're not doing that either, so we are staying here. But the reasons why we explored some of these beaches I'm going to talk about is because we were actually looking at these places to potentially move.

Speaker 1: 8:31

Yes, I mean I love that we've done that too, like when we've considered moving somewhere. Is it's so great to go into an extended vacation and see if that really would be a fit? And I know I was going to be so supportive, no matter what we. When we met, it just was like we are going to build a business together. We have the same work ethic and we don't have to live in the same town for that, and I knew we could still do it. But I was deeply going to be like secretly, I was like so sad, I know, but I am so happy that you guys have made a decision that's best for your family.

Speaker 1: 9:07

And I'm so excited to go on vacations to Hawaii together. Yes, I mean, I don't know about Florida. We'll have to see this episode. I may not be selling you on this. I can't wait to hear all about it because I really I mean, as I've said before, I know nothing about about Florida. Like being from California, it's not typically a place that you would visit unless you have family there, Right?

Speaker 2: 9:32

Yeah, I'll. I'm excited to tell you more about it. There are some like amazing things about Florida that I feel like if you're on the West Coast, there isn't a ton of reason to go over there because we have our own beaches here. So, yeah, we'll talk.

Speaker 1: 9:46

Well, I'm so happy that that is the update you've given to me and let's get into it with Shad. Welcome everyone to platinum perspective, the podcast about beauty, travel, luxury and more. I'm your cohost, sarah, and I'm Megan.

Speaker 2: 10:04

Sarah and I are best friends who put the work in to get the most out of life, so you don't have to. So, as we just mentioned, the topic today is going to be Florida beaches, and we are going to be talking about the pros and cons of the West and the East Coasts of Florida, based on a trip I just took there, so I'm going to dive in further with that.

Speaker 1: 10:28

Okay, and I I'm excited to learn about it. I'm probably going to have a lot of questions, because I've only been to Florida once and it was just a work trip and I don't know anything about it. So at first I've got a few rapid fire questions Are you ready? I'm ready. Okay, which Florida coast is better?

Speaker 2: 10:50

The West Coast.

Speaker 1: 10:52

Okay. Well yeah, west Coast is the best, even when it comes to Florida.

Speaker 2: 10:58

Okay.

Speaker 1: 11:02

Number two I'm like so curious about the heat there. I mean, does the summer heat basically kill you?

Speaker 2: 11:10

while you're there. Yeah, it is a thing. It takes a good couple of days, I would say coming from the West Coast, probably coming from anywhere on the West Coast to get used to that heat, and it feels much more oppressive because of the humidity. The humidity there is very, very high. That said, we went around the same time last year in the summer as we went this year in the summer and for some reason the summer just didn't feel as hot, even though it was still blazing hot outside. So I do think you sort of get used to it, your body acclimates. Oh sure, that makes sense.

Speaker 1: 11:44

Yeah, okay, thanks, yes or no. Should I go on a trip to Florida?

Speaker 2: 11:52

Yes.

Speaker 1: 11:53

I knew you would say that.

Speaker 2: 11:56

I'll plan it for you too.

Speaker 1: 12:01

Okay, well, let's start by hearing a little bit of an overview of the trip you just took. If you could share, like where you visited and why you visited those locations and what you did there.

Speaker 2: 12:14

Yeah, sure. So we just took a two week trip total to Florida. We spent the first part of that trip, the first half that first week, checking out two different beach areas, and the second part of that trip, the second week, was spent all at Disney World. Now I learned so much from this experience at Disney World that I think that episode is like a whole other entity from this one which is just going to be talking about these Florida beaches. But we'll get into that a little later.

Speaker 2: 12:49

So I'm going to be focusing on the first week we had out in Florida where we experienced two beaches. The first one is Jacksonville Beach and we were there for three days, and Jacksonville is located on the northeast side of Florida. It's about three hours from where I'm from and where all my family lives, and it's also a place where my parents are having to go a lot right now because of my mom is going to Mayo Hospital for a lot of different complications she's experiencing, and because of that I have sort of been looking at Jacksonville as a potential place that I was interested in understanding more about, maybe to move there, maybe just to understand it a little bit better, because they are going there so often and they talk so highly of it. And then the other four days of the first week we spent in Clearwater. Clearwater is on the west coast of Florida and it's about midway down the state so it's sort of, you know, it's just south of Tampa. So Tampa is one place where we can get to direct, which I love. I want to fly to Florida. If I'm going to fly to Florida, I would love to do it direct. Those options are basically from SFO, going to be Tampa and Orlando and Miami, and so Clearwater is going to be on the west coast and, yeah, it's absolutely beautiful.

Speaker 2: 14:27

So I craved beaches, right, which is why I wanted to check out one beach on the east coast, one beach on the west coast, and I wanted to sort of compare the vibes and compare the beaches. I've been to Jacksonville Beach before but I had definitely forgotten the quality of sand there compared to the west coast, coming from where I live in Florida, which is just northern Florida, where I used to live. We would just go a little bit west of where we lived and we'd be right on some of the most beautiful white sand beaches in all of Florida. Northwest Florida has some of the most whitest, purest, beautiful sand anywhere in the state. It is like you can see straight through the water because the sand is just so I don't know just like the right consistency and beautiful. A lot like Hawaii water, if you're comparing.

Speaker 1: 15:26

Oh wow, Warm like that.

Speaker 2: 15:28

Very warm, almost too warm sometimes, really.

Speaker 1: 15:31

Very, very warm. Yes very warm. Oh my gosh, I had no idea.

Speaker 2: 15:35

Yeah, and so it includes Pensacola Beach, navar Beach, fort Walton and Destin and really any one of the beaches that are along a street called 30A. 30a is known as like a thing in Florida. It's like you're going to 30A, oh, that's where you're going to hit the most beautiful beaches that we have like basically in the state. In my opinion, if you go down further south along that west coast, you're still going to have those white sand beaches in the Gulf Coast and you're going to have Tampa Bay. You're going to have Clearwater Beach, st Pete Beach going further south, and Maria Island, which I have a friend that has a beach house there and her pictures are stunning. It reminds me again a lot of Maui.

Speaker 2: 16:23

Just looking out at that water, the clear blue, it's gorgeous Lido Quay, siesta Quay, fort Myers Beach and, of course, as you go further and further south, if you're looking for a warm place to go in the wintertime, those start to become very interesting, because northern Florida beaches like 30A, where I used to go they have a pretty cold winter. In my opinion, it's not the sort of winter where you'd go out there and be in your swimsuit. You're probably going to be wearing winter clothes without a jacket, but not warm enough really in the winter to like go out there and get some sun or something. The further south down you go, obviously towards Miami, in that area you're going to get a lot more heat, even in the wintertime. It's going to be just much more, I don't know. You're going to get a little bit more of the Florida feel I feel like, even if you're there in winter.

Speaker 2: 17:17

So we went to Clearwater Beach, which is like just halfway down that coast. The east coast is a little bit different. So I just talked about all these white sand beaches in Florida and how beautiful it is. I forgot until I went to Jacksonville, which is on the northeast side of the state, that that sand is a totally different consistency. In fact it's all shells and you're stepping on shells.

Speaker 1: 17:53

Oh no, I don't think I've ever seen a beach that is just shells, it's broken shells. Yes, it's broken shells.

Speaker 2: 18:01

Is there sand underneath that? This is how the sand is made. So, yeah, and so, especially on the northeast side of Florida, that is where you're going to find the most shelly and sort of rocky sand, to the point that when we figured out where to go to the beach which I'll get into in a second that was a whole another feat in and of its own. Once we figured out where, how to get to the beach and where it is, where, like, the access point is, we realized quickly that we need to get water shoes for the kids, because they can't even walk on the sand. It's that. It's that shelly, it hurt everyone's feet. Yeah, one other downside to that part of the state for beaches is that, not on Jacksonville Beach, but in Fernandina, which is a little bit north, and St Augustine, which is a little bit south, many of these beaches allow people to drive their cars directly onto the beach.

Speaker 1: 19:07

Oh, now that's the Florida I've heard about.

Speaker 2: 19:09

Yeah, that might be the Florida you've heard about, and that is something else I had forgotten about. I was going to a beach and I was like, oh, we're just going to go. You know, I was telling my parents I'm going to have to bring all this stuff with me to set it up, and they're like, why don't you just drive onto the beach? I was like, wait, what? How did I forget this part of the beach? Like, how did I forget about this?

Speaker 2: 19:29

So this is a thing only really there and the northeast side, I would say down south, you don't find this as much, but it's another thing to consider, especially if you have kids, because now cars are driving up and down on the beach where your children want to play in the sand and who knows how much they've been drinking, right, because you're on the beach and that sort of thing happens. Yeah, so that's crazy, I know, right. So something to consider Very different, right? So what did you guys do? Well, we went to a beach that didn't allow driving on the beach, at least right where we were. We got the kids, we went to, we left the beach, we went to Target, we got some shoes for the sand so that they could like walk on the beach without like dying, and and didn't really. You know, we found some nice shells while we were there, because it's a shell beach, but we were not able to like make sand castles and stuff like that. You don't want to like sit down and play in this sand.

Speaker 1: 20:29

No. And then when you're in the water, is the same shells under your feet in the water?

Speaker 2: 20:35

They are and you really at least when we were there you really can't even go in the water because the water is so rough. It's very, very rough water, like the big waves, the ocean, the, the beach area where you walk in that floor just completely drops. There's not like a place where it just gets more and more you know deep. It's sort of it's like a drastic change, so you either can be swimming in that water like as strong swimmer or not at all.

Speaker 1: 21:09

Yeah, hold on one second. I'm going to cross Jacksonville off of my list.

Speaker 2: 21:14

I'm going to visit.

Speaker 2: 21:15

Okay, I'm going to talk about the merits of this place as well. But yeah, I mean, yeah, not easy, and I'll talk more about this in a second. But you know there is also not a lot of amenities. Like, it wasn't exactly set up for people to come from out of town and go to the beach. It's more set up for people who live there and have access to the beach because their house is near the beach, or people who live there and want to have a beach experience, join a beach club. That's the other thing.

Speaker 2: 21:50

Oh, a beach club yeah and also I'll talk more about that in a second but that's just the northeast side of Florida. As you go down that east coast, things do get a little nicer. So you drive down south a1a. It goes up and down, up and down the Coast right there and you can go down to Cocoa Beach. Further south is Vero, west Palm Beach and finally you get to Miami and we all know that the beaches in Miami are the white sand, beautiful blue ocean. Basically, as you leave Jacksonville and just start going south, you get nicer and nicer sand. It gets nicer and nicer and nicer. So I've spent a lot of time in Cocoa Beach, for instance. It's just like halfway down the coast and that's like sort of like a, a gray sand. It's like a gray sand. It doesn't hurt your feet or anything like that. It still has shells in it, but it's much easier to be on than like the shell, shell sort of sand which is just like broken shells that you're walking on. Yeah, so those are the two places that I visited.

Speaker 1: 23:05

Okay. So maybe Jacksonville is more like a place where, if you weren't assuming you're having a beach vacation, it might not be too bad. But if you're assuming you're having a beach vacation, Obviously there'll be some challenges there.

Speaker 2: 23:19

Yes, and there are definite workarounds which I can talk about in a sec, but there are ways to have a nicer beach experience there than the one that we had, and now, having been there, I know what that way is. Um so happy to share that with you.

Speaker 1: 23:35

Yeah, well, before we get into that, what are? So you've mentioned these two places, so what are like, the vibes of these town? Because that definitely matters. And, being from California, there's kind of this idea of Florida. When I met you I couldn't believe you were from Florida because I Kind of grew up with this idea of what Florida was. And it was not you and of course that's, you know, just an assumption and kind of a joke, and I'm sure people growing up in Florida have this assumption of what people from California are like and it's there's always comedy around this. Right, we're tree-huggers out here.

Speaker 2: 24:12

Yeah, all the all the stereotypes, yeah.

Speaker 1: 24:17

But what are the vibes of these towns? I'm interested to know that like in comparison. Like you mentioned, um, you know some of the beaches being similar to Maui and I actually didn't even know that before you said that, it didn't occur to me that beaches In Florida were similar to Maui.

Speaker 2: 24:34

They're similar and different. I'll talk more about that, but like actually looking at the quality of the sand and water is sort of what I mean when I say that Okay.

Speaker 2: 24:42

Yeah, so Jacksonville is is a big city in Florida. So Florida doesn't have like a ton of big cities, right Like there's no like Manhattan and stuff like that. But we do have Jacksonville on the north, the north side of the state, and it's if you're in the downtown of Jacksonville you feel like you're in a big city. There's some skyscrapers there, there's a lot of business people there a lot of finance things like that going on there.

Speaker 2: 25:09

About 45 minutes to the east is where you hit Jacksonville Beach, and so where I stayed was actually a little bit south of Jacksonville Beach so I stayed in Ponta Vita Beach and Ponta Vita more proper, not just the beach area, but Ponta Vita. The town is a golf community. It's supposed to be a very like nice part of Florida, you know it's it's sort of catering to the PGA crowd oh, okay, professional golf, and so, like my brother's a big golfer and he, he loves Ponta Vita. So that's sort of why I chose this, as I was thinking about might be sort of like a posh area, I might be sort of, you know, a fun place to see what's going on there. And, yeah, the vibe was pretty interesting in Ponta Vita. I would say again, it's really not set up for people who are going to go visit the beach, it's set up for people who really like to golf. So I'm not a good thing, you were there.

Speaker 2: 26:22

I'm not a golfer. I don't mind golfers, like I think golf's cool, I just don't do it myself. We stayed really close to saugras so I got to see that a lot. But there's a lot of nice communities around there with pools, with like there's like a big pool like in the middle of a neighborhood. It sort of feels like a country club and that's sort of how they've set that area up down there. Great school districts like 10 out of 10 ratings and stuff like that over there. I think that's the best school district in the whole state St John's area, so yeah, so I initially was thinking, oh, let's check that out because it's good schools, things like that. Yeah, and it was.

Speaker 2: 27:03

It was a different vibe than I sort of expected. I sort of expected a little bit more like I don't know, maybe more neighborhoods we would see here where like like gated communities and like everything is maybe set up a little bit more for people to enjoy, and it was a little bit more of an effort from our standpoint. Oh yeah, and then clear water near Tampa. It was a totally different vibe. So like, okay, going back to Jacksonville, back, jacksonville Beach is a little bit more like a biker town too. So Jacksonville Beach we went up to there once and we turned around and came back to Ponta Vita. It was a little bit more of like a rougher Rougher area?

Speaker 1: 27:50

Was there like a sense of anarchy vibe? Yeah, and that wasn't where we were going and that wasn't where you wanted to be.

Speaker 2: 27:58

Yeah, yeah, there it was maybe sons of anarchy sort of vibes there, definitely not like, oh, let's just take our kids out right here and go to the beach. At least the part I saw was not really the vibes I was looking for. The vibes out clear water, like the feeling of being there was so very, very different. It was just beautiful. The there's a serene ocean, like the ocean there is so calm too in comparison with the Atlantic Ocean, which is very, very rough. It's almost like just like swimming in a lake. It's so calm there and clear, just beautiful. It's called clear water because it's so, so clear, like, just gorgeous. There's resorts lining the beach, there's lots of restaurants, there's many, many more amenities. So, lining up and down the beach, there are parking lots right there with a nice restroom facility right there. You know it was.

Speaker 2: 29:00

They made it so easy for you to get to the beach and do a beach day with your kids, rather than Jacksonville Beach where you I mean we had to drive 30 to 45 minutes to find an outlet. When we got to that outlet, there was no bathroom or any facility whatsoever, so it was like you just drag your kids and all your stuff to the beach, set it up, cut your feet on shelves and then turn around and leave In the scorching heat. Whereas clear water, you know, had the beautiful sand. The beach was right there. You didn't have to lug your stuff half a mile to get to the beach, whereas, like even the Mickler Beach Access, which is like the big beach access point in Ponte Vita, even that was like, I mean, walking quite a ways with all your stuff, with the kids.

Speaker 2: 29:49

It was just a totally different experience. So many more amenities at Clearwater, restaurants to eat at. We technically stayed in a place called Indian Rocks Beach, so there's Clearwater Beach, which is like maybe seven minutes north of where we were. We were in Indian Rocks Beach and so again up and down that area, that coast. Right there there's so many outlets. They make it very easy for you to just pop in and go to the beach and there's nice facilities and where we were there were companies that were setting up chairs and umbrellas and you just rented them straight from them and it's like so easy there.

Speaker 1: 30:23

Yeah, that's so nice. That's half of the reason I always love to stay at the Ritz Carlton, because they do all of that for you wherever you are.

Speaker 2: 30:31

I know and that's the nice thing about Maui too right, Like most those hotels I mean all any hotel I've ever stayed out there they do that for you.

Speaker 1: 30:39

Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah, well, so where, where did you stay when you were in? Well, go back to Jacksonville. Where do you stay in Jacksonville?

Speaker 2: 30:47

So in Ponta Viedra we stayed in a four-page room Airbnb very close to Sawgrass that PGA yes place I was telling you about, so let's get into that. This ended up being a swamp part of our vacation.

Speaker 1: 31:07

Rather than beach. What is a swamp? I just I don't think I've ever seen one. Is that just like From the princess and the frog, the movie?

Speaker 2: 31:18

Have you seen where the, where the craw dads no, that movie saying no. Okay, I'm trying to think, yeah, it's sort of like a mixture of water. Sometimes it's fresh, sometimes it's like a A mix between the two, but it's like low lying water with lots of grass and it sounds really safe for toddler.

Speaker 1: 31:42

Yeah, exactly, it's not really Water.

Speaker 2: 31:47

You want to be in for sure, especially coming from, you know, living in Florida, like those are the types of places you would see snakes and you would see Alligators and stuff like that. So I know I chose a house and it was a beautiful house but it packed right up to a swamp and it had a boat access right there for us. If we wanted to go into the swamp we had no boat, what I know. So what we didn't realize, they had advertised it as a waterfront. What they meant by waterfront, I thought might, it might be the inter-coastal waterway. That's what I thought it might be, because I could tell from pictures it wasn't the ocean. But the inter-coastal waterway would be very nice. That's where the boats would be going up and down. I'm to get to the ocean and go, go boating.

Speaker 2: 32:33

This was not that. That was on the other side of the road where we were staying. We were on the side with the swamp, and by swamp I mean huge bugs, I mean mosquitoes. Literally a bug the size of a bird flew into the window while we were inside and hit the window and came like crashing to the ground.

Speaker 1: 32:57

Yeah, wait, a bug the size of a bird like a hummingbird and it was a bug. Yeah, what I've never heard.

Speaker 2: 33:10

I know, um okay, waterfront was actually swamp front. Um, it was. It was my god, yeah, and there was like a big dock out there If you wanted to go in this water. I did see other kids out there in these little Little boats, swamp children. Yes, what kids out there, they would swim in it, they. I mean I saw kids playing in mud on the side of the road. I mean it was just like Like different. You know not what I, when I think on to be drew, I think, oh, posh, beautiful. You know um built up amenities. No, that's not what I, not where I stayed, that's not what I experienced.

Speaker 1: 33:48

Um gosh, it was rough out there rough, so was there no fence line. There was no fence line. You couldn't, your kids couldn't even go outside and play on their own.

Speaker 2: 33:57

No, yeah, we had to watch them. In fact, my, my kids did like the porch area and the the part that hung over the water They'd stick their feet over. But you know, part of me is wondering is there a gator right there? Is it gonna jump up and get them? Because there's nothing there stopping something like that from happening? Um so oh my god Believe.

Speaker 2: 34:20

I'm just telling you about all this. It was crazy Looking back on it. I mean, the house was beautiful. I'll say that they had redone the whole interior of the house and the pool was gorgeous.

Speaker 1: 34:31

There was a pool that I was a beautiful pool, if it did back right up to that swamp.

Speaker 2: 34:36

It was right there. That was the view, was the swamp, and let me tell you about the swamp. So it has a tide and when it goes up and it goes down, when the tide went down, you smell that marsh, you smell that old, decaying stuff.

Speaker 2: 34:52

Wait, I don't know what marsh is, what the marsh is like the footbed of the, of the swamp area, so that water goes up and down with a tide and it'll come up and then it'll go down, and when it goes down you can almost see the bottom of the ground right there, or or altogether it will just, you know, go down into the, the, the marsh area, so that marsh does not smell good. So my husband's like he walked outside one night after it had the tide had gone down. He's like, oh my gosh, you have to smell this. And I was like thinking it's a beautiful flower or something like that. I walk outside, the smell of sulfur and eggs just hits your face right away and it's this decaying smell. It was incredible. Yeah, I was like, oh my gosh, I don't. And he's like why did you bring me?

Speaker 1: 35:45

here. Oh, had he, had he ever been there before.

Speaker 2: 35:48

No, no, oh, I'll take that back. He and I had done Jacksonville proper one night because we flew back and forth between the two of us to Boston, to Florida, to see each other, because he was from Boston. So one night we had spent in Jacksonville, but that was in the city, that's it. He had never seen Jacksonville Beach or Pond of Beach.

Speaker 1: 36:09

Yeah, and he never needs to again. And he, that's what he's like.

Speaker 2: 36:14

Unless we do this differently, we're never probably going to do that one again. My eldest did really like the marsh, though she liked the swamp stuff, Like she was sitting out there with her hat on like cool and she just wanted a fishing pole. She wanted to go fishing and actually if we had a pole there she probably would have caught some stuff out there.

Speaker 1: 36:34

So she liked it. That's kind of cool. Yeah, kind of fun for her.

Speaker 2: 36:38

Yeah, totally different. So let's get on to the food then. So where we were staying was a swamp. We were trying to go out to eat, trying to experience the Pond of Beach real life. I will say the Sarah way of eating is more difficult in this area.

Speaker 2: 37:01

It's such a politically correct way to say it the healthy fresh fish, healthy fresh veggies, inventive. So I mean we both like sort of like inventive ways to eat healthy. That is not something that I was able to find there. I would say the food there was just okay. We stayed right by sawgrass and I would imagine that would have like the nicest restaurants. But I'll say like the food was heavier than what we would prefer. Even the salads were like that we have, like drenched in salad dressing. The ahi tuna was like purple rather than ruby red, just like not up to, I hate to say, california standards. But like you know, the types of food we can get here is just very different than what we could find here at least. And we went to like the major areas that we could get to.

Speaker 2: 37:57

I'll say there are supposed to be very nice restaurants in Pond of Eager Beach, but the problem with those really nice restaurants that are on the beach and with all the amenities is that you must stay at the resort that has those things on property to even have access to those restaurants. So interesting, right? So if I'm looking to a different trip or I'm trying to advise somebody else who maybe wants to go experience Jacksonville Beach, one thing I'd say is go stay at one of the resorts right on the ocean, because those are going to have, I think, nicer. Those got great ratings for the food. The food looked much more inventive and interesting, like, for instance, the Pond of Eager in.

Speaker 2: 38:39

And club is very expensive to stay at. I think you can get like one bedroom hotels there for like 700 bucks, which is like when you come to us and we need three to four of those rooms. That starts to get quite expensive, which is why we didn't do that this time. We got an Airbnb instead. But I would say now, having done this, it was well worth any cost that it would have taken to be able to eat at those restaurants and be on those beaches and have people setting up your chairs for you and having the umbrellas there, and service. We had no service and we also couldn't find it.

Speaker 1: 39:15

One thing they don't do you are selling me on Florida.

Speaker 2: 39:19

By the way, I am booking a ticket I'm going to like go on and on here, but like one thing they don't do, there is restaurants on the beach. Oh, they don't. Why, no, I probably because it's filled up with shells, I don't really know, but there was like. No, I was like, well, that's just, even though we're not staying on the beach tonight, let's like go find a restaurant where we can put our toes in the sand and just experience the water. That's not a thing they do out there. They don't do that. That's weird, yeah, so there was like no beaches actually on the water either. So it was an interesting experience.

Speaker 2: 39:56

I'll say the best food that I was able to find was straight from Publix, my favorite grocery store that they should make nationwide the local grocery store there. Publix is all over Florida. People who are from Florida love Publix. They have a great grocery store there. But yeah, that is just a grocery store. Like it's not like going out to eat. But we went to Publix a lot on this trip, yeah, and then one night we ate dinner right next to an alligator what? Yeah, so we were out. There was like a waterway. It wasn't the ocean, but there was a place that had like restaurants. We ate at two of them at two different nights because we couldn't get into the ones that were in the Ponte Vigeron and Beach or in a club. So we ate at two different restaurants and both times sat right next to this big gator. That was like we were on a deck over the water and the alligators like right there under the deck.

Speaker 1: 40:48

Okay, wait a real live alligator and no people were coming to remove it from the area.

Speaker 2: 40:57

No, he's beloved One restaurant called Sprinkles and the other one called Amromio. He was just hanging out there. He was probably four or five feet long.

Speaker 1: 41:06

This is crazy to me. This is insane, Megan.

Speaker 2: 41:11

My kids were dying. They were so excited to see an alligator. But isn't that dangerous? Well, I mean, where we were, it was over the water and it had a railing there was nothing that was like this thing couldn't like jump up and get to us.

Speaker 2: 41:30

necessarily. It wasn't that sort of alligator anyway, so he's just like hanging around and like going around probably eating all the anything it can find in that water. So that was like one of the highlights. Yeah, and again, like the house was not on the beach. But also we had a hard time finding facilities.

Speaker 2: 41:47

Nicola Beach I mentioned earlier. It's probably the best one that they've got, but it was a really long walk to get to the beach and you're walking on shells. One that we found that was quite a ways away from even where we were staying was South Ponte Vigeron Beach outlet. It's about 30 minutes south of Ponte Vigeron proper, on the side of A1A, and it did have one women's bathroom and one men's bathroom. I would recommend that one, maybe the most of anyone, because at least you have bathrooms there and it's not as crazy crowded as Nicola Beach was. We had people like fighting over our parking spot at Nicola Beach and stuff. It was just way crowded. So but yeah, no matter really where you go up and down A1A, right there, up and down that coast you're going to have some rough stands. It's going to be made out of shells and your kids are going to need some water shoes. But one positive is you can find some pretty shells there.

Speaker 1: 42:42

Oh, I mean, that is really fun to do.

Speaker 2: 42:45

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 42:45

Yeah, we love collecting shells, yeah Well, so what did you learn from this trip, aside from that? You definitely don't want to move there.

Speaker 2: 42:54

Yeah, we learned we don't want to live in Jacksonville Beach or Ponte Vigeron. I would say, if you're going to, what I learned from the Jacksonville part of our trip is that if you're going to go there, just pay more money and go stay at that Marriott that's in Ponte Vigeron or go stay at the Ponte Vigeron in and club. I would say that those are the ways that you have access to all of the things that the people who live there have access to, if you live there and you have some means. One thing that people do in order to have a beach experience is they either join the Marriott Golf Club Resort and Spa, the Saugas Resort, or they join one of the other beach clubs that's available. I looked into how much it costs to join such a thing when I was there and it costs about $30,000 a year to have that beach club.

Speaker 1: 43:44

Oh, wow.

Speaker 2: 43:45

Yeah, okay, there's no day passes. You've got to join.

Speaker 1: 43:50

I love it. You were in such a mindset you were like how long, how much does it cost to join?

Speaker 2: 43:56

for a year. How much is this? Is it worth just paying for? No, it's too much. The answer's no. The answer's no. But do go knowing somebody who belongs to one of those things and then you can go use their pass. That would be what I recommend. Bring bug spray. That's definitely a thing you need over there. I have to say I had some sunscreen issues just in Florida in general, the humidity and the application. We need to put it on all the time for the kids. When we were there, I know you and I went on and on about mineral sunscreen. I bought a bunch of mineral sunscreen. I brought it with me and it wasn't really as feasible. Or just sticky and then sand gets stuck in it, I don't know. Yeah, I just had a hard time figuring out what I would do for clean sunscreen there.

Speaker 1: 44:42

Okay, have you tried new day skin yet?

Speaker 2: 44:45

No.

Speaker 1: 44:46

No, okay. So through our sunscreen episode, we researched a ton of sunscreen brands and clean sunscreen brands and we both shared our favorites, and that is one of my favorite sunscreen brands ever. It's for kids, but adults can use it as well. Actually, I want to take that back. It's not for kids, it's for anyone.

Speaker 1: 45:07

Initially, I want to say it's for kids because it's been really pretty packaging and it smells really good, but it's 50 plus and it comes from Australia, so it's created in Australia by moms and it is just a thick but easy sunscreen to apply and we know just if they're using it in Australia and it works great down there. It's great for the extreme heat that we experience here, so I think that would be a great option for Florida. I actually ran out of mine on my summer trip this past year and I'm going to order some more, so I'm going to get you one too. I want you to try it. Thank you, I love it and we'll go ahead and link it on our Instagram for anyone interested in trying it, because we shared it before and I keep getting a lot of questions about sunscreen and we have shared a lot of options, but that is my number one favorite right now.

Speaker 2: 46:07

New day skin, I'll give it a shot. Yeah, I want to find a clean sunscreen and I would love to recommend one to Floridians because they need it.

Speaker 1: 46:15

Yeah, this one is it's clean. No, it's vegan. It has no parabens, no sulfates and it's reef safe. Oh, so good for.

Speaker 2: 46:24

Hawaii too. Okay, yes, good to know. Yeah, I'll give that a shot.

Speaker 1: 46:31

Yeah, I'll grab you one so you can try it, because you're going to love it. It's interesting how different sunscreens work well in different environments, and when you're going somewhere like Hawaii or Florida. You really need the heavy hitting stuff and we know they need that in Australia, so this one will be great. Did you, going back to the trip and now we deviated a bit did you take any excursions while you were in?

Speaker 2: 46:55

Jacksonville. Yeah, one thing that we took the kids to do one day was go to St Augustine. I don't know if you've heard of St Augustine. Probably maybe in your history classes and learning about Ponce de Leon or any of that. Maybe that's just Floridians. I've never heard of it, I've never heard of it.

Speaker 2: 47:10

When the Spanish came over and things like that. Oh okay, ponce de Leon actually never went to St Augustine. I read about this when I was on my way. I was like, oh, he was never even there. But the fountain of youth they have there, there's a lot of like tourist things there.

Speaker 1: 47:24

Wait, what's the fountain of youth? Now I'm interested in Florida.

Speaker 2: 47:29

There's like a fabled stream of water that I don't actually think any of this is true, but it was storied that Ponce de Leon was on the search for. And Ponce de Leon was a Spanish expedition person who came over in the 1400s and landed in Florida and ended up. He landed way south of St Augustine, so he was never even here to begin with, but St Augustine claims him as theirs. And yeah, the fountain of youth was supposed to be something you drink. Drink this water and you're going to stay young forever. I drank it when I was a kid.

Speaker 1: 48:07

Oh, yeah, yeah, I aged, except it didn't work yeah.

Speaker 2: 48:15

It's a cute little town. St Augustine's like this little Spanish town with like all kinds of cute shops and Old St Augustine has got narrow little streets with little museums, historic landmarks like the Castillo de San Marcos, which is like an old, famous Spanish fort, really old, like really really old, and you can take tours through it and stuff like that. I made Eric do it when we were dating. That had made him drink some terrible Floridian wine.

Speaker 1: 48:45

He's like oh, we're going to get to an education in wine.

Speaker 2: 48:48

Yeah, back in the day, these are the things we did. There's like a famous budge shop I went to when I was a kid and I brought the kids there and we got ice cream and we ate at a really good restaurant there, the Floridian restaurant. I think it's probably the best one they have in the area. We definitely melted in the July heat and left quickly after all that and went home and basically spent the whole rest of our trip in Jacksonville in the pool.

Speaker 1: 49:15

Wow Okay, what an experience.

Speaker 2: 49:18

Yes.

Speaker 1: 49:19

Okay, so lots of ups some downs yeah. But it sounds like now you kind of know how to get the platinum experience next time you go For sure. So you explored Jacksonville and Pontre Vigra for three days and then you got in the car right and you drove to Clearwater Beach Beach. Yes, okay, how far was that drive?

Speaker 2: 49:45

That was about a four and a half hour drive. Okay, oh, okay, from one coast to the other.

Speaker 1: 49:51

Okay, interesting, that's not too bad. No, yeah, okay. And then why don't you share a little bit about? I'm interested in that when did you stay and how was that experience? Because I'm afraid I'm not going to be making it to Jacksonville anytime soon. I don't think it's.

Speaker 2: 50:07

It's not a good fit with you, that's just so. Maybe Clearwater, yeah, yes, so Clearwater was a totally different experience. We stayed in a gorgeous five bedroom three story house on the bay in Indian rocks, right behind the beach. This house it was an Airbnb also, there are a lot of Airbnb's there Spectacular house to the nines, like. Everything was just gorgeous, brand new. It came with water sports, so it came with paddle boards and kayaks. You can get right on those right behind the house, off the dock that they have there. If you had a boat, you could drive it up and park it at that dock. That's right behind the house, oh, fun.

Speaker 2: 50:51

Beautiful. Yeah, there was a putting green in the backyard right next to the pool. The pool was gorgeous. The pool is right on the bay, so you had like a water view while you're in the in the pool. That's like my favorite. That's my happy spot is like in the pool next to the ocean.

Speaker 1: 51:10

That's like the perfect place to be.

Speaker 2: 51:12

Yeah, and it had like multiple master's suites and so my parents came with us and they had their own floor. It was great it came with, and a lot of these houses come with a golf cart and this is not just any golf cart. This is like a mega golf cart that can fit a bunch of people. It's like a party golf cart. It's gorgeous.

Speaker 1: 51:34

It's really nice.

Speaker 2: 51:34

So fun, yeah. And so we were like a two minute drive to the nearest beach access and there's specific parking spots for the golf cart. So the whole family, including my parents, my three kids, me and my husband all would get into this huge golf cart and just drive our happy behinds over to the beach. And it was amazing. We were so happy there. It was just everywhere you went to the beach. There there were facilities, there were companies that were at those outlets where you could go park that were already setting up umbrellas and chairs. You don't even have to carry all of that with you to get to that beach and set it up. It was just great, it was convenient. And then getting to the beach, the beach was just that beautiful white powder sand that I'm used to. On 30a up north it continues down far this south. The warm, blue, calm water was very similar, like I said, to Maui, reminds me a lot of like the Maui beach vibes. We just went into that ocean and we stayed there the whole time. It was great, so fun, yeah, it was so much fun. So, yeah, it was a great experience.

Speaker 2: 52:44

My kids loved riding in the golf cart all over town. They thought that was a blast, rather than Ponta Vigra, where you have to belong to a specific club in order to get to the nice restaurants, all the restaurants here that are at all of the resorts. They're accessible to everybody and you can just go, park and or valet your car and then go to those restaurants and check out any number of resorts that they have up and down. So in Clearwater, which is, we were in Indian Rocks, so Clearwater was maybe seven to 10 minutes north of where we were. That is where they have this big pier and boardwalk and I actually think you would love it because it reminds me a lot of the Santa Cruz boardwalk. It was so vibrant and exciting and there was so much going on there and the beaches right there. The sand extends so far before you get to the water, so there's so much beautiful beach right there, right near the boardwalk and it just felt it was very, very.

Speaker 2: 53:48

I think the big difference for me is it felt so safe, oh nice. It felt like you're walking through, like a pristine, beautiful beach, and it's just so safe and calm and everyone's there with their families, just like a very family vibe, like no misbehavior. I wasn't worried about any refractor or anything like that. It was very, very nice. There was lots of activities for kids, like huge jumpy castles, vendors selling food and things for sale. So, yeah, we took a date night one night and we went out to a really nice restaurant and then afterwards, eric and I would just walk down to that pier. We walked all the way out to the pier and it was just amazing. It was a lot of fun. So, definitely, that sounds amazing. Yeah, I definitely want to go back now and explore some more, and I wish I had had more time at this beach because it felt much more my speed of what I was looking for. Yeah, so it was beautiful, I will say so.

Speaker 2: 54:47

That bay that was right behind us. We saw fins out there multiple times. We had water sports Like we'd gotten sharks. I don't know. Yeah, big fins would come right by our house. Oh my God, what's that? Oh my gosh, my face and big fish are just some big sharks. But that was sort of exciting. But we did go kayaking out there even though there were these big sharks. My eldest is, you know, she's my adventure girl, so we had to go do something like this and have a thrilling experience, and it was a lot of fun.

Speaker 1: 55:18

I love it. Okay, so this sounds like a much more enjoyable time. I love how you reference Maui because of course, that's like my favorite beach ever. I just love how warm it is and safe. It just feels like the perfect family vacation because it's just fun for everyone. You can build sandcastles, you can go in the water, it's you know you're always right by facilities, which you mentioned is so important. So it kind of sounds like this compared to that, would you say. I would say yeah.

Speaker 2: 55:50

I'd say that they're very comparable in terms of, like, the beauty of the beach, the cleanliness, ease of access, more of the amenities. You and I both always look for service, because we have a different. We have kids, you know, and like that service makes it so that we don't have to lug these huge chairs out to the beach.

Speaker 1: 56:15

Sorry, I don't know why that was so funny. I think I always looked for service, even before I had kids. No, we just have an excuse for why.

Speaker 2: 56:23

Yeah, that's true. That's the platinum perspective in us. We do like the nicer things in life and I think you can find that at Clearwater if you're looking for it, and even if you're not looking for it, it's going to be there. I would say the similarities are both are beautiful. They have beautiful beaches. The level of heat is different, and the heat in Clearwater is still a way above and beyond which you would expect any time of the year in Maui. It's just it's very hot Give me degrees Like 100 degrees.

Speaker 2: 56:55

It doesn't even compute. No, maybe like 95, but it's 95 plus humidity. So, like it's like a. It's an estimate I can't even give to you. You'd have to just feel it and then you'd experience what I mean. It's different, it's just a different type of heat. You get used to it, like I said, but you need some air AC.

Speaker 1: 57:15

I think we talked about it before and we thought maybe it was comparable to Costa Rica.

Speaker 2: 57:20

Potentially. I've never been there, but that tropical humidity.

Speaker 1: 57:24

I have, and it's almost like sometimes it's so beautiful and you want to be outside because you're by the ocean, but you need a moment indoors in air conditioning because it's almost suffocating at times.

Speaker 2: 57:36

Yes, yes, it is suffocating. You need breaks inside with the air conditioner, especially with little kids. They just can't take it for that long. But at least if you're on the ocean you get that breeze and you can go in the water. Yeah, and that's what you can do here in clear water. I would say the a big job of clear water is it's probably way cheaper to get to, especially if you're going on the East coast, compared to Maui. So, like we out here in California, maui is pretty close. It's not that far. It's, like you know, five year a five hour plane ride for us If you're anywhere on the East coast. I would say, like I would consider clear water. I think that the yeah, because the price for the airlines are going to be cheaper to get there and you know it's going to have that elevated experience, in my opinion, with the beautiful beaches, enough to where it would make sense and I think you'd save money. I'm so I lived closer, I'd probably go here more often.

Speaker 1: 58:29

So you, you did. You stayed at the Airbnb. But if you were me planning a trip to go there just to go on vacation with my family, would you recommend an Airbnb or staying at a resort?

Speaker 2: 58:44

I would have to explore the resorts a little bit more. I would say, knowing you and seeing this house we stayed in, you would be in heaven. I mean the level of luxury of this house that we had was stunning. It was stunning, I mean just a huge mansion, I mean that's that sounds like my vibe.

Speaker 1: 59:04

It's your vibe, I would be hard pressed to not go.

Speaker 2: 59:08

Stay in one of these big, beautiful mansions on the beach next time, right? And the other thing about Florida beaches is because you can have distance from people. Why not take it Like Maui? There's not like, there's not like a. I mean there's always people around, right, there's. There's not like a lot of coastline there. I mean there's a lot of coastline, but there's also a lot of people. There's not. There's a ton of coastline in Florida and there's not as many people. So I kind of like staying a little bit further away from the major centers of town and being able to just go right out to my own beach and just be. You know less people, less congested. You know less worry about the kids. I can just, I can see them. So I would say I would definitely recommend an Airbnb for you and then, potentially, looking at some of these upscale, really nice resorts that were right on the water, right on the beach, those would be ones I'd consider too.

Speaker 1: 1:00:03

So would it if you were someone you know planning a trip out there, and maybe you're from the West coast or the Midwest or somewhere else entirely, and you were maybe going to take a trip to Disney World for your kids? Would you potentially tag on a few days in clear water, or does that not really make sense?

Speaker 2: 1:00:25

That's what we did. Yeah, I would recommend it because we were able to extend our Disney World trip. But I mean, even if it's just these four days, four days at a beautiful beach, at an Airbnb, you know, and again the cost of going and staying in clear water, like the cost of this house, I couldn't believe it. I mean the price Inexpensive, yeah, inexpensive, Compared to what you would get out here going to Half Moon Bay, for instance.

Speaker 1: 1:00:51

Okay, or Maui. Oh yeah, or Maui. Like 50% less than staying at a resort in Maui. Yeah, for sure Less.

Speaker 2: 1:00:58

Yeah, yeah, less, I mean, so definitely cheaper.

Speaker 1: 1:01:03

And how far is Disney World from clear water it's about.

Speaker 2: 1:01:08

I think it took us two hours to get to Disney World. Oh, okay. It's right there.

Speaker 1: 1:01:13

I like this so like down the line, if there was a. Disney World trip. If your kids are asking to go to Disney World, this sounds like a great add-on, kind of in the same way that when we went to Disneyland, my family stopped and stayed in Santa Barbara for a few nights. Exactly this sounds similar, because sometimes after those big theme park trips, it's so nice to have a relaxing few days at the beach.

Speaker 2: 1:01:39

Yeah it's nice to unwind like that. We did it before Disney this time, but I could easily see doing it after Disney to unwind. Yeah, this is your vibe. You would really like it. Oh, Megan, look at that.

Speaker 1: 1:01:51

You sold me on for that Specifically clear water. Yeah, clear water is the job I had never even heard of clear water Florida before you told me you were going there. Oh my gosh, you had it. That's so funny, oh my gosh. Okay, so just to clarify clear water was a much easier vacation. It was easier with children.

Speaker 2: 1:02:19

Yes, for sure. This was just so much easier with kids. I'm just going to lay it out it access to beach, getting to the beach, the sand, the water, the roughness of the sea it's all easier in clear water. Everything is very close. Beaches are built with facilities that you're meant to use, which is fantastic. Great restaurants we go for the beach. So the more pristine, warm, clean, beautiful the beach can be, the better it is for us, and I think clear water slash Indian rocks area met all those expectations.

Speaker 1: 1:02:56

Okay, I love it. This is all good to know. So, even though you had decided you wouldn't be moving back to Florida prior to this trip, you do think you will go back and visit clear water another time.

Speaker 2: 1:03:10

Yeah, definitely, I already want to go back. It's beautiful.

Speaker 1: 1:03:13

I want to go too. I love it. It sounds great. I love the golf carts. Sounds so fun.

Speaker 2: 1:03:17

Oh, so fun. Yeah, and it's like a thing there, everyone does it, so I love that. Yeah, it's great.

Speaker 1: 1:03:23

Oh, it's so fun. Okay, well, what an adventure you guys had. This is a great Florida beaches education for me, and maybe someone will listen and take away that they want to go to Jacksonville.

Speaker 2: 1:03:38

If you're a golfer and you like pro golf, there you go, go there.

Speaker 1: 1:03:41

Yeah or walk If you love walking on seashells.

Speaker 2: 1:03:44

I like the smell of a swamp.

Speaker 1: 1:03:46

Perfect.

Speaker 2: 1:03:48

Perfect for you.

Speaker 1: 1:03:49

Yeah, if that's you book your trip to Jacksonville. Oh my gosh. Okay, I love this. This was so much fun. I love taking a moment to live vicariously through you and learn all about your home state. What are the major takeaways here for this episode?

Speaker 2: 1:04:11

I think the first one is that the West Coast is the best coast.

Speaker 2: 1:04:18

That's both when it comes to the United States, but also in Florida specifically. I'm just teasing I love the East Coast also, so shout out to the East Coast. I love it out there. I just live in the West Coast now, yeah. Number two is that the Clearwater Indian Rocks area can be considered an easy place to visit with children and just sort of expect that logistics there are going to work out better than potentially other beaches like Jacksonville Beach, as a comparison, if you're visiting Jacksonville, which people go there all the time? It is a beach area. There's a reason to go there. I would just splurge for the Ponte Viggo in and club. Just do it. You won't regret it. You're going to be happy about that. It's not a waste of money. Go, have that access to the beach that you would want if you're on the beach.

Speaker 1: 1:05:10

Perfect.

Speaker 2: 1:05:11

Okay.

Speaker 1: 1:05:11

Those are great takeaways. Okay, you got me a little bit after our Disney World episode and now you got me a little bit after this one. So potentially, I see a Disney World slash Clearwater Beach trip in our future.

Speaker 2: 1:05:27

Oh, I would be so excited, let's do it.

Speaker 1: 1:05:30

I love it. Well, this was so much fun. Thanks for giving me all the details on your vacation.

Speaker 2: 1:05:36

Of course. Of course Happy to, and please rate, like and subscribe and catch us on Instagram and Facebook at Platinum Perspective Podcast. Thanks, thank you everyone. Bye, bye.