April 8, 2014 Day 4 - No rain but wind and fire

So woke up this morning to discover it wasn't raining although it was overcast and the roads were wet. After checking the weather forecast, we determined that if we didn't drive too fast we should be following the storm to our next destination and not be in it. We did come close to catching it a couple times, but at the end of the day we stayed dry and that's what we needed. We drove highway 98 through to highway 19 which took us to Clearwater beach, Florida. Although the rain had stopped the wind did not. This week is spring break for most of the southern states and Clearwater is the central place for an annual sand castle contest. Unfortunately because of the weather the contest was actually moved indoors as several tents were set up along the beach. Our weatherman Julian explains

Overall the day was pretty much uneventful. We made it safely to Clearwater, had a great dinner (best calamari ever) at the Hyatt hotel then back to our rooms for a nightcap and to bed for a good nights sleep. We at least until 11:30 when...

... we were awoken to the sultry tones of our in room fire alarm. So awake we were, dressed we got and downstairs we went (couldn't use the elevators) where we were met with the following sight

Once again we asked our intrepid reporter, Julian to explain the situation.

The final report was that most likely someone pulled the fire alarm and caused the entire mess. After about another 20 minutes we were given the all clear and were allowed back to our rooms.

PS you'll not there are 6 fukawi's in the photo plus myself who took the photo. The missing Fukawi, Jack, made the decision to stay in the room and try to sleep through the alarm.