My Free Vacation - continued

You can read the first part of My Free Vacation here if you are interested!

The company provided breakfast for the attendees, not spouses.  The first morning, I asked my husband to bring me a muffin from the buffet and I made coffee using the Keurig in the room. I'm not a big breakfast eater so that was fine. 

On Saturday, the second morning, my husband was too full from dinner to eat breakfast so he made me go to the buffet in his place. I brought him back an apple!

After breakfast, I headed out for a walk alongside the ocean. Clearwater Beach has the whitest sand I have ever seen.  And it stays cool to the touch too. It also has the warmest ocean water - probably due to it being the gulf side of Florida. We always go to the Atlantic side.

Clearwater Beach

After my walk it was back to lounging at the pool. However, I had a little task to keep me occupied, aside from books and crosswords. The company had all kinds of skits and games going on for the attendees. This was to break up the work and make it feel "fun".  There was a printed handbook of all the attendees with their pictures and profiles (bios). There was an answer key with a "fun fact" about each attendee.  It was a Match Game to pair up the fact with the correct person.

Hey, there was no rule that spouses couldn't help!  I truly enjoyed reading the bios and looking at the pictures and I filled that whole darn thing out.

Hotel pool early in the morning - the railing to the right overlooks the gulf

I sat with the woman that I met the previous day and that was nice.  The guys were done around 2:45 pm and had a good 4 hours to relax until cocktails and the award dinner later that evening.

My husband and I were in the hot tub watching a beach wedding, when we noticed a pod of dolphins leaping in the ocean.  It was really breathtaking to see!

The view from the pool railing at sunset - it felt like being on a cruise

That night was the award dinner.  My husband was not expecting to win any awards.

Then it was time for the winner of the Match Game.  Only 28 out of 80 or so attendees handed their sheets in, and apparently only some of them were actually correct.  Out of the correct ones, two winners were selected and my husband was one! He got two prizes - an Amazon Echo Dot and a set of wireless earbuds. I just knew that I - I mean he - was going to win! 


For dinner I had salad, teriyaki chicken, potatoes au gratin, asparagus and broccoli and rolls and butter. Other entrees were short ribs and grouper. That is the first time I have seen grouper as the fish selection at a catered function. Remember the scene in the movie "She's Having A Baby" where Elizabeth McGovern cooks grouper for Kevin Bacon? It goes without saying that I didn't have any grouper.


Dessert was the bomb - instead of a slab of cake they served three mini cakes: one cheesecake, one tiramisu and one lemon meringue tart. We headed back to the room content and satisfied.


I had intentions to get up early Sunday and do everything - pool, beach, hot tub, fitness room - one more time! But no, I had my husband bring me a muffin, drank Keurig coffee, packed up and we caught our Lyft to the airport. 

It was a great free vacation!