Cape Cod 2013 Day 2

Day 2 of my vacation started out blurry, that may have been the vodka from the night before. All 15 people in my cape house woke up around 9 am to get ready to go to the beach. It was a sunday and the weather was drastically different from the shitty weather the day before. The sun was out and I don't remember seeing a cloud in the sky.

All 15 of us headed to Craigville beach. The beach is about 1.5 miles away from the cape house and cost $20 on the weekend to park (it cost $15 during the week).  A couple of my friends hopped on their motorcycles and drove to the beach, while two other cars followed behind them. 

Joey H. and Jen chilling at Craigville Beach

The beach was packed, the sun was beaming and the water was perfect. I only went in knee deep because in my hungover state that morning I couldn't locate my bathing suit bottoms. My sister Kelly, Steve and a few other friends ventured further out into the water.

While I'm hanging out knee deep in the water, I see Steve throw something at my sister. My sister starts to immediately freak out and basically flashes the entire beach to get something out of her bathing suit top. Apparently if I had walked further out into the water I would have notice several small jellyfishes (they looked like jellyfishes but had no tentacles). I guess Steve came up with this game where he wanted to see how many jellyfishes he could fit in my sisters cleavage. He got one in before she nearly shit herself. 

The beach was a blast and having a cooler filled with several racks of bud light was a nice touch too. Around 4 o'clock most of my friends that rode a motorcycle left to go back to the house and my other friends Bruno, Susan, Sarah, Joe and Stella left in 1 of the 2 cars we brought. The rest of the group decided to leave about 10 mins after Bruno and his group took off. So we packed up and walked to the parking lot. It was in the parking lot were we notice that somehow we had to fit six people with a bunch of beach stuff into a sedan. We squeezed as much shit as we could in the trunk and squeeze all six of us in the car. 

All six of us in the car. Four people were in the back seat with a huge radio

Later on that day we decided to go to the famous Pirates Cove mini golf. We split up into 3 teams. Di, John, Joe, Chris, Stella and myself were a team. Thank god for having Joe on my team because he saved me from being the worst player. I shot 56 he was 59. 

Me at Pirates Cove. They gave me a flag and a hat for being amazing

Most of my friends left later that night and only Jen, Steve, Stella and Joe stayed that sunday night. Erik had invited two girls over that were "friends" with his brother. The girls were a far cry from friendly and did everything they could to avoid most of the people in the cape house. My friend Steve is the type of kid that will do anything and I mean ANYTHING to get a rise out of someone. Steve thought it would be funny if he annoyed these girls all night, and me being the drunken asshole that I am thought that was the best idea I've ever heard of. 

Some of Steve's Drunken Antic to the Anti-Social Bitches:

1. Walks up the basement stairs naked to the kitchen where the girls are and silently grabs a beer and walks back down. 

2. Walks in with his boxers on but has a hot dog in an interesting place. The girls where too afraid to turn around so Steve kept rubbing the hot dog on their arms. 

3. We all were sitting around the table trying to talk to them when Steve pretended to choke on water and showered one of the girls with water. They left promptly after that. 

That Sunday night was filled with more booze and drinking games. Most people passed out early that night because of the rager we had the night before.  Thats Day 2 in the books Day 3 gets even better. 

The end to a successful day 2 at the Cape

Florida's Best Kept Secret

I spent 4 years living in Tampa and have explored many Florida beaches. Almost every beach I went to had something unique about them like the waves, the water color, and the type/color of sand. However, the one thing that almost all of the Florida beaches have in common is that they become wicked crowed. The crowds are huge and during the winter months when the "Snow Birds" come down the beaches can be insanely packed.

It took a day of boredom for my roommate Liz and I to venture up north and check out Tarpon Springs. We both heard that Tarpon Springs was famous for its sea sponges and wanted to check it out. We did the typical tourist thing and went straight to the sea sponge dock. The docks were packed and I was sick of getting my foot rolled over by old people in electric wheelchairs. My roommate and I ask a local if there are any good and quiet beaches around and he told us of a quaint beach called Howard Beach in Fred Howard Park.

The park is pretty easy to find if you have a GPS and navigating your way through the large park shouldn't be a problem. When we first were driving through we thought the local guy was pulling our leg because we were driving through what appeared to be a forest. Out of nowhere the trees ended and a causeway surrounded by water appeared in front of us. The causeway is about a mile long and takes you to a small parking lot by the beach. Be warned, there is a $5 all day parking fee.

Causeway leading to the Howard beach

The beach is almost never crowded, but on the weekends the park is busy with people fishing, canoeing and picnicking. The beach itself is incredible clean, and the white sand is super soft. Large palm trees line the beach providing shade for those who want it.

I guarantee you won't go 5 minutes without seeing some of Floridas amazing wildlife. Every time I went I saw at least 5-10 dolphins swim by. There are several species of birds that call this beach home, so you might want to bring some binoculars for bird watching. Sea turtles and the occasional manatee can also be spotted near the beach. If sunbathing or bird watching is not your thing to do than you can get in the water and try your hand at catching scallops and sand dollars. Don't leave early when you come here because this is one of the best places on the Gulf Coast to watch the sunset. Bring your camera, leave your worries at home and relax at Howard Beach!!

More info about Howard Beach click here

Aerial shot of Howard Beach