There is something so calming about the ocean.

Earlier this month, we accompanied my mother-in-law and one of our sons and his wife on a four-day trip to Florida.

We take this long weekends to get away and Florida is a favorite stopping point.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure we could get a good flight (it’s too far to drive in a long weekend) because of all the disruption due to Joe Biden’s vaccination mandate. American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and others were canceling flights right and left as employees who refused to get vaccinated didn’t show up for work.

However, we managed to book a very inexpensive flight from Tulsa to the St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport on Allegiant Air. We have flown Allegiant many times. The flights are cheap and our (two-hour) flight to PIE was non-stop.

The only disadvantage is that Allegiant has limited flights to and from Florida and our return flight was at 7 a.m. on a Sunday. We had to get up at 4 a.m. to get to the airport, get through security and fly home.

I had flown into the Tampa Airport once before but never to PIE. It is a smaller airport. We exited our plane on a long ramp that had a 180-degree turn halfway down.

With the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, traveling becomes more of an adventure. I was a little concerned that we might not be able book a rental car at a reasonable price.

We like to use Alamo or Enterprise because they seem to have the best prices. We ordered a mini-van because we had five travelers with luggage and we got a Chrysler Pacifica. (I have owned only one Chrysler vehicle and I decided to never buy another one.)

But this mini-van was roomy and had a smooth ride. It was odd because instead of shifting gears, you turn a knob to go from park to drive. I still am not tempted to buy a min-van or a Chrysler.

We booked a three-bedroom condo right on the beach in Redington Shores on the Gulf side of Florida near Tampa/St. Pete. Over the years, we had stayed in various condos along that stretch of oceanfront. We have been in Madeira Beach and in 2020, we stayed in a hotel in Treasure Island.

It rained in “sunny” Florida for most of our stay. It was unusually chilly. It didn’t matter to me much because I didn’t go there to swim in the ocean – just to sit and admire it. Our kids did go in the ocean, which was still warmer that the air.

We were on the third floor of a condo complex called the Sea Oats Beach Resort with a great view of the ocean. It’s expensive but well worth it, especially since we needed three bedrooms for five adults. Our condo, which is privately owned, was completely updated inside and beautifully decorated.

The condo was stocked with board games. Each room had its own TV. The kitchen had a Keurig coffeemaker combo that made single servings or a whole pot. And it was stocked with plenty of coffee pods.

I love seafood and we ate at a different seafood restaurant each of our three nights in Florida.

We started out Thursday night at The Friendly Fisherman in Madeira Beach. We had eaten there a few times in previous trips. I wanted fried flounder but they have trimmed down their menu and they don’t serve fried flounder anymore. I got fish and chips. All the food was pretty ordinary. We probably won’t go back there.

On Friday night, we ate at The Original Crabby Bills restaurant on Gulf Boulevard in Indian Rocks Beach. I had the fried grouper and it was great. The restaurant was packed and we had to wait 45 minutes to get seated but it was worth it.

On Saturday night, we went Dockside Daves in Madeira Beach. On the outside, the building is not very impressive and the inside is even more old looking and worn out. But it is a local favorite and I can see why.

We got some onion ring for appetizers and they were fantastic. Again, they didn’t have fried flounder but I ordered the fried grouper and it was out of this world. And for dessert, we bought a complete key lime pie to take back to the condo. We ate it during a rousing game of Yatze.

Actually, we also ate at Culvers Restaurant, a chain that we frequent in trips to Branson, Missouri, and Mitchell, South Dakota. As always, I ordered an Atlantic cod sandwich – the best fish sandwich I have ever found in a fast-food joint.

It was not the most exciting or the longest vacation every but it accomplished our goal, which was to have a good time with family, eat some good seafood and admire the Gulf of Mexico.