Beach Day @ Ft. De Soto Beach

The best thing about having family and friends visiting is that they all want to go to the beach. I took my friends to Ft. de Soto Beach 2 weeks ago. This beach is a little farther away than most of the Tampa Bay area beaches, but after the tropical storm Debbie in June most of St. Pete Beach are still in bad shape. We are getting ready for another storm heading our way, Isaac, apparently it could be a category 1 hurricane. We have to go buy supplies today just in case that the storm comes our way on Monday or Tuesday. Hopefully, we will get some sunshine during the long weekend and Isaac's path will turn away from us in the next few days. 

Covered in Sand Head to Toe

Ft. De Soto Beach Park

Touring the Daytona International Speedway

Last June as part of a conference that I attended in Daytona Beach, I went to the Daytona International Speedway. At first, I wasn't really excited to go since I'm not a race fan. The other option was to play golf, so I went to the tour. The speedway is almost a mini City, there is even a hospital inside. 

The group was taken in a behind the scene tour for 90 minutes. We were taken to the Drivers Meeting Room, the Garages, the Victory Lane, and the Press Box located above the Speedway. Andre, my husband, was jealous that I went to the speedway. He loves to play Gran Turismo on PS3 and I felt like I've seen this place before. I promised to take him there someday. The tour is $22 and even if you are not a sports fan it's a nice experience.

The color seats are a trick for the camera to appear full when the 150,000 seats are sold out. 

Press Box

View from the Press Box

Victory Lane from the Press Box

Summer Day @ Fort de Soto Beach Park

Debbie, a big tropical storm visited Tampa last June. After reading the papers we thought that the beach was destroyed. My sister and I wanted to go to our favorite local beach, Sunset Beach, located south of Treasure Island near St. Pete. We decided to go to Fort de Soto because the articles didn't list this beach as one affected by the storm. The beach was a little dirty, but other than that it looked like nothing happened.

The beach was not too crowded probably because everyone thought that the beaches were in bad shape after the storm. There is a new $5 fee to get into the park so I'm sure that there are less visitors because of that. 

Ft. de Soto Beach

Ft. De Soto Fishing Pier

Protected Turtle Nests

Everytime I go to this beach I want to walk to the fort. However, we always park too far away and with the extreme heat all I want to do is relax. This time, we parked very close to the fort and before I got lazy I walked towards it. It was nice to learn more about the history of this place. 

Ft. De Soto Beach

I wanted to wait for the sunset, but it is extremely hot in the Summer and we couldn't stay any longer. We need to bring a big umbrella next time to take breaks from the sun. Fort de Soto has been named to America's Top Ten Beaches list by Dr. Beach numerous times. In 2005 it was number one in this list. I never heard of Dr. Beach before living in Florida, but this beach really deserves the title. 

Day 9, Part 2: Santiago De Chile

After our visit to the Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos, we walked towards La Peluqueria Francesa for lunch. This was another recommendation from Kyle. The food was amazing! We both had a steak in a carmenere wine sauce. The restaurant is also an antique shop, I believe that many items are for sale. The place mats have a map of the historic neighborhood where the restaurant is located.  We didn't have enough time to walk around the neighborhood. We spent too long in the museum and we wanted to go to La Moneda before it got dark that day. There is an old fashion barber shop connected to the restaurant. Andre went in for a shave. He had never had one before and I was happy to watch him being pampered. 

We took the subway towards la Plaza de Armas. I used my point and shoot camera for the pictures below. I love my DSLR, but getting it in and out of the bag is a pain. 

Plaza de Armas

We were happy to see the downtown after visiting the Museum in the morning since we had learned so much about Chile's history. I was thinking about the video of the attack showing La Moneda being bombed and what it must have been like. The Salvador Allende statue outside the building made me sad. Allende died the day of the Coup d'etat inside La Moneda. 

Salvador Allende

La Moneda, Presidential House

La Moneda

Another cute Chilean street dog

After our last full day in Santiago we went back to our hotel. As we walked towards the hotel, the sky was pink. Since we had a long flight the next day, we decided to go to bed early. Our trip to South America was amazing. We were sad to come home but at the same time we needed to come home. Just a week before this trip, we found out that we are going to be parents. The trip was a little difficult for me since my energy levels were very low and the typical pregnancy symptoms were rough. I am glad that we took this trip right before our life changes 100 percent. Next time (and there will be a next time) maybe I can actually drink a lot of wine and bring a dog back with me.