5-24-02, Tampa Bay, Florida.

Slept in again and oh was it good, probably until noonish. Played on the site a bit until my I started "craving sustenance". We went to a seafood place called Crabby Bills, on the recommendation from George O, right next door to our hotel (as mentioned in a previous post). The place is a full service restaurant downstairs and upstairs is an open air balcony with ~10 tables and a bar. Of course we had to try upstairs, with the view overlooking the ocean. Very nice for "scenery"...if you like ocean views that is. Anyway, we were served by a friendly waitress named Amy who brought us some Oysters Rockefeller and some deep fried conch fritters. Well, we had very similar conch fritters at the hotel the day before (I know, sorry I forgot to post it) but were they good, served with this Honey-Key Lime dip/dressing that was fantastic. The Oysters-Rock were awesome. The cheese/hollandaise/spinach combo left this taste, so good that I could have eaten a dozen of em. Luckily, my eye's weren't too big and I didn't.

So much for the appetizers. Both of us wound up liking the same choice on the sammich menu so we both opted for the deep fried soft shell blue crab. It was two whole crabs served on what looked like a fresh potato Kaiser roll. Unfortunately it didn't have any sauce on it, so, me being me, had to slather it with Crabby Bills Hot Sauce (you know I wouldn't be able to leave that alone, though it tasted like a combo of tobasco and Franks. Was a great after the sprucing up.

Anyway, being the slackmasters that we are Dan decided to take nap but he would find me if I had wanted to check out the pool or beach. Which I did.

I wanted to find out about the snorkeling trip and went for a walk on the beach in search of the "Cabana Guy". I had the camera because I wanted to snap some pics of the hotel and my book so I could read by the pool. Well, as I'm taking a shot I see in the viewfinder, a guy and girl huddled over another girl laying on a chaise lounge in the open sun. The looked somewhat nervous and frantic. I snapped a couple more shots and headed in that direction because I was worried. I approached them and asked if she was alright. They said she was, the guy gave me a thumbs up and said she had too much to drink. I figured ok, but from the look of her I was still worried. I meandered around and they tried to get her up. She was limp as a dishrag and couldn't stand up and I thought, alcohol poisoning with sunstroke, sounds very dangerous. I asked them again if I could help carry her to some shade and they said no. I walked away again. Then I saw someone else, a guy, who I later found out was named Carlos, go up to them and seemed like he was asking the same thing I was; is the girl alright. They waved him off too and he continued down the beach, walking toward me. I talked to him and he said he was worried as well. This had been going on for 45 minutes or so and the girl was still unresponsive. Carlos said he was going to get someone. I started toward them again and noticed that the guy and girl had walked away from the girl on the chaise with a cell phone in his hand. I could see the girl laying there with her arms laying limp at her sides and her eyes, facing right into the sun, were half open. She was laying flat and started gurgling in her throat. I took her head and upper torso and turned in to the side and she hurled (sorry for the description) onto the sand - but not a deep muscular thing, just rolled out of her. I held her that way and shaded her from the sun when I saw her friends coming back. They said she was alright and I backed off. They thanked me and then tried to get her on her feet and she just crumbled. But at least I could see she was now trying to respond, but when I looked into her eyes, her pupils were so tiny I could hardly see them and she was just softly moaning. I have never witnessed that before and as worried as I was, became more so. I again offered to help carry her off the beach and they said no. At that point I saw a police explorer headed down the beach. I waved to him and he headed our way. I backed off and listened to them tell the cop that she was fine, just a little drunk. The cop started on his way and I stopped him, saying that she had been mostly unresponsive for almost an hour and they had been trying to revive her and that they should get someone out here for her right away. He got out and said he was going to call an ambulance, when we heard on the radio that someone (Carlos) called 911. Cop said he was onsite and that yes they needed assistance. I have to say that in under 5 minute the ambulance was there. They took one look at her and immediately gave her an IV. Her blood pressure was dangerously low and they hooked her up to a EKG and Oxygen. They gave her 3 shots that I have no clue what they were, but she did become more responsive. At one point she started throwing up again and then again, passed out. The EMT's revived her and kept working. All in all they worked to get her stabilized for about another 30 minutes or so before taking her to the ambulance. The EMT's said he didn't think it was just alcohol, that there was something else involved but not sure. As they drove off, the other girl that was with her started crying, the guy went with the girl in the ambulance. They took her away, I went upstairs, never turning a page in my book nor finding out about snorkeling. But, I'm glad help came for the girl because I didn't think she was going to make it if they just stayed out there like that.

Anyway, for dinner we went to the top of the hotel, which is a rotating restaurant/lounge with live (LOUD - I'm sorry guys, but you don't need it amp-ed) music performed by the group High Tide, which was so loud, our waiter, Franz, was giving us hand signals for our drinks. Dan got the grouper w/ a white sauce with artichokes and something else that I don't remember and I got the "Strip" and Lobster (if I'd known it was going to be the size of my thumb I wouldn't have ordered it). The steak was good and so were the grilled veggies, but it was not a memorable meal, aside from the cool view from the top and the fact that we could say we tried it.

That's about it for my excitement today.

Miker