Ringin in the New Year Out-of-Towner Style

We were offered the chance to break free of the chains of parenthood to celebrate New Year's Eve.  Apparently, as young adults, we should still want to go out and get crazy on New Year's Eve.  So, off we went.  Since we are here in Indian Rocks Beach, we dont really know anyone or any place to go.  Our options consisted of what we could see.   Oddly enough, the Holiday Inn on the water is somewhat of a compound that included multiple outdoor bars and live music.  We started there around 9.  We were seated in the farthest corner of the outdoor seating, away from everyone.  That was ok, since most of the attendees were middle-aged dorks in town for the bowl games.  They were all super excited to hear the cover band rock out with 'margaritaville', 'american pie', and other classics.  We had a few drinks (Katie had a Big Bamboo, which consisted of 14 kinds of rum, a piece of sugarcane, cocoa, and a partridge and a pear tree).   I also ordered a pound of shrimp, which made everyone's (mostly mine) hands smell lovely, even after wipes.   Luckily we had an entertaining waiter, who tried to give us suggestions on where we should really be that night.  We left the Holiday Inn, thinking we were heading towards some of his suggestions.  It turned out we were heading back towards our condo, which was fine for me.  I hate walking and the unknown.  We ended up stumbling upon Crabby Bill's, which is a landmark seafood restaurant in Florida.  It is a big restaurant with indoor and outdoor seating, and an open air bar.   We remember that their sign boasted of a big NYE party, so we went in.  It was quite the mixed crowd.  Some clear locals in varying states of dress (from total white trash to girls all dressed up with clothes you would normally wear to far more formal occasions).  I couldnt believe some of these women were wearing full-length black dresses, makeup, with their hair done up.  If you were going to go through that much effort, couldnt you find a better destination that a tacky tourist destination?  Anyway, we were about the middle of the road as far as dress, which was fine with me.  Drinks were cheap, which was great.  We eventually scored a booth, and proceeded to criticize the clientele.  As we got more intoxicated, the conversation got livelier.  Katie thought it would be hilarious to play 'truth or dare', but noone would do any dares, so it became 'truth'.  We tried to get Katie to ask this woman of questionable morals if she was either wearing underwear or pregnant , both equally amusing questions, but she declined.  We moved on to the truth game, and it was Nick's turn to ask Laurin a question.  Apparently Nick (Katie's boyfriend) is not familiar with this game.  His question to Laurin was "Which baby was born first?  Sanna or Riley?".  We all broke out laughing at that question and the game kind of ended at that point.  Soon after the bartender alerted us to the fact that there would soon be a breakfast buffet.   I found that odd seeing as how this was a seafood restaurant that I didnt think served breafast.  He said it would be $6 and would come out soon.    We were intrigued, but not that hungry.  About 10 minutes later, we found out the buffet was now free, and coming soon.  We were more interested at this point, especially since the food coming out smelled quite good.  We were amazed to see that they spread included smoked salmon and asparagus on bagels. biscuits and gravy, breakfast burritos that were quite good, pancakes, sausage, eggs, potatoes, some kind of potato-filled empanada, and much more.  My mild intoxication caused me to eat way more than I needed.  See the picture of some of the carnage.  Soon after, it became midnight, we watched the ball drop, finished our drinks and went home.    I couldnt have asked for much more in a New Year's Eve.