TimNDansMom
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2000
DH had booked a 2-night/3-day (Fri/Sat/Sun) golf package, for just himself, over in Brooksville at the very highly ranked Pine Barrens/Rolling Oaks Golf Courses at World Woods Golf Club. Brooksville is not far from the Gulf of Mexico coast and I wanted to see the beach, but didnâÂÂt want to waste my time hanging around the hotel while he played golf, so I had opted to remain at DXL. However, we decided that on Day 2 of our trip we would take a drive out there, for the day, locate the hotel and golf club and drive around the Clearwater/St. PeteâÂÂs area.
After the buffet breakfast in BoatwrightâÂÂs Restaurant at DXL we finally got away around 10am. It seemed to take forever to find the golf club which was way up on Hwy. 98 for any of you golfers. Once DH had checked it out, we continued on our way up 98 to Hwy. 19 south. This seemed quicker than heading back the way we came. We drove into Clearwater and looked for the Belleview Biltmore Hotel, that I had read about in a travel magazine. We finally found it and went in to look around. It appears very impressive from all around the outside, but when you look more closely, there are many areas that need repair. The hotel is very old and there is a small museum filled with historical artifacts and pictures, located off the lobby. It definitely caters to a certain clientelle judging from the expensive cars being parked by the valet. This afternoon there was a meeting of the Art Society and I have never seen so many well-dressed and coifed women in my life! Straight out of the society pages for sure! DH and I had a late lunch in the hotel dining roomâÂÂ-took forever to get our food, but I was glad to have finally visited the Belleview Biltmore.
We then continued our drive down the coast, site-seeing along the way and when we finally got to St. PetâÂÂs Beach, DH took a little nap in the car while I got out to walk along the beach, gather sea shells and watch the sun as it slowly sank in the sky. I took some great pictures of this. Before it got dark, we headed back up through Tampa to Hwy. 4. Let me say here, that it took us forever to get out of Tampa. We heard on the local radio station that there was an accident on Rte 275, so by trial and error we found a way around it and were finally on our way via Rte 4. At one point DH decided (for some reason) to take an alternate route and I discovered (luckily!) that we were headed in the wrong direction! I think, he got mixed up with Hwys. 27 and 192 that we had taken earlier to get to Hwy. 50 and Brooksville and I realized that we were headed for Miami instead of WDW. I didnâÂÂt recognize any names on the signs and I asked him if he knew where he was. He admitted that he didnâÂÂt, so we drove back to where he had exited off Rte. 4, got back on it and finally, we arrived back at DXL, safe and sound. The moral here, is for the navigator to keep his/her eyes open at all times! We went for something to eat at the Cotton Mill and turned in for the night. DH was going golfing on one of the Disney courses the next day and I planned to go to Animal Kingdom for the 8am opening.
Julie
off-site '86,'87
DXL July 00
DXL November 00
DXL 200?
After the buffet breakfast in BoatwrightâÂÂs Restaurant at DXL we finally got away around 10am. It seemed to take forever to find the golf club which was way up on Hwy. 98 for any of you golfers. Once DH had checked it out, we continued on our way up 98 to Hwy. 19 south. This seemed quicker than heading back the way we came. We drove into Clearwater and looked for the Belleview Biltmore Hotel, that I had read about in a travel magazine. We finally found it and went in to look around. It appears very impressive from all around the outside, but when you look more closely, there are many areas that need repair. The hotel is very old and there is a small museum filled with historical artifacts and pictures, located off the lobby. It definitely caters to a certain clientelle judging from the expensive cars being parked by the valet. This afternoon there was a meeting of the Art Society and I have never seen so many well-dressed and coifed women in my life! Straight out of the society pages for sure! DH and I had a late lunch in the hotel dining roomâÂÂ-took forever to get our food, but I was glad to have finally visited the Belleview Biltmore.
We then continued our drive down the coast, site-seeing along the way and when we finally got to St. PetâÂÂs Beach, DH took a little nap in the car while I got out to walk along the beach, gather sea shells and watch the sun as it slowly sank in the sky. I took some great pictures of this. Before it got dark, we headed back up through Tampa to Hwy. 4. Let me say here, that it took us forever to get out of Tampa. We heard on the local radio station that there was an accident on Rte 275, so by trial and error we found a way around it and were finally on our way via Rte 4. At one point DH decided (for some reason) to take an alternate route and I discovered (luckily!) that we were headed in the wrong direction! I think, he got mixed up with Hwys. 27 and 192 that we had taken earlier to get to Hwy. 50 and Brooksville and I realized that we were headed for Miami instead of WDW. I didnâÂÂt recognize any names on the signs and I asked him if he knew where he was. He admitted that he didnâÂÂt, so we drove back to where he had exited off Rte. 4, got back on it and finally, we arrived back at DXL, safe and sound. The moral here, is for the navigator to keep his/her eyes open at all times! We went for something to eat at the Cotton Mill and turned in for the night. DH was going golfing on one of the Disney courses the next day and I planned to go to Animal Kingdom for the 8am opening.
Julie
off-site '86,'87
DXL July 00
DXL November 00
DXL 200?
