Clearwater Beach

Clearwater Beach is a beautiful place, but bargains can be scarce here. Even the Jolley Trolley, which runs up and down the island and into Clearwater on the mainland, now costs $1.25, up from $1 last year. It is cute and useful, but no longer as good a deal as it was.

Frenchy's on Baymont offers some good deals on its daily specials. On Mondays the burgers cost $2.95, and other days there are other deals --I enjoyed a crab and shrimp salad sandwich and a beer the other day for about $6. The Frenchy's Fish House offers great crab cakes.

The beach looks a little like a bomb hit it in places, so many small motels have been torn down. Just at the Sand Key bridge they are in the process of demolishing a large hotel with a wrecking ball --once that is gone there will be an even bigger open expanse of land in front of the beach. Major condominium and hotel projects are scheduled for most of the vacant land, but the slump in the real estate market means that many are now on hold. I hope the waterfront doesn't end up looking like Aqaba, Jordan, where the skeleton of a hotel that was never completed mars the waterfront vists, or did in 2003.