A Super time in Titletown!

St. Petersburg

February 2 - 13, 2021

So far in our travels, we've covered the Atlantic coast of Florida, central Florida, and Southern Florida. Our first stay on the gulf coast of was at Fort De Soto Park.  The campground offered beautiful waterside sites if you make your reservations early enough.  Our campsite was not waterside, but still was fantastic.  Amazing sunsets were only yards away and there were plenty of live oaks and palm trees around for setting up the hammock.  The campsite was very large and private!  Honestly, we keep forgetting it's winter.  This certainly doesn't feel like the winter I know!

Fort De Soto Park has a nice dog park which provided Frankie with lots of activity. It also gave her the opportunity to get good and dirty, which in turn gave us the opportunity to give her a bath several times!  In addition to the campground, the park has historic Fort De Soto at which you can take a self-guided tour, and a beautiful pier where you can catch a ferry to Egmont Key.  Egmont Key is a preserve and you are certain to see as many gopher tortoises as you want, stunning beaches, as well as the ruins of Fort Dade.  The park has bike trails to wherever you want to go!

We spent time on as many beaches as we could find!  St. Pete’s Beach, Fort De Soto beaches (East Beach and North Beach), and Egmont Key Beach were all worth visiting! Being on the gulf, the sunsets wherever you go are nothing less than stunning.

Bird watching has never been of much interest to me until we spent time in Florida.  The wide variety of birds are fascinating!  We enjoyed watching both brown and white pelicans, great blue herons, a great horned owl, nanday parakeets, yellow bellied woodpeckers, ospreys, egrets, anhingas, limpkins, black-and-white warblers… I’m gaining an appreciation for the avid bird watcher and beginning to understand their passion.  (Kids, if you are reading this, I just gave you a hint for a mother's day gift!).

Being in the Tampa area at the time of the Super Bowl was a complete accident; however, it really added to my interest in the game  Being here for the first time a team played in their hometown for the Super Bowl and witnessing all of the excitement was fun.  We even came across the ESPN game watch tent while we were strolling on St. Pete’s Beach!

Attractions we enjoyed outside of the park included the Pass-a-Grille area, Sunken Gardens, and Boyd Hill Nature Preserve.  Each so very different from each other, but we found each of them fun!

We did go out for a few meals.  The Brass Monkey was by far my favorite dinner spot.  We were able to be seated on the second-floor patio with a table-side view of the sunset.  The view was spectacular and the food quality matched the view perfectly!  Café Soleil is a fun little spot for coffee, brunch or lunch.  I highly recommend their quiche!  We enjoyed dinner at the Hurricane Seafood Restaurant which has rooftop deck with anther stunning view of the gulf sunset.  The food was nothing to complain about but also nothing to brag about.  All offered outdoor dining with tables spaced enough to feel safe Covid-safe.

Vegetation that seemed unusual and prolific in this area is the strangling fig tree.  It starts out as an air plant, seemingly innocently resting on the branch of a host tree.  Before long, it sends out shoots which when reach the ground, take root.  Eventually there are enough of these shoots that the host tree is “strangled”.  We saw these trees everywhere we went.  

Before we knew it, we were out of days to do any further exploring of the area.  We never even made it into Tampa.  I guess it is always best to go while leaving you with the desire to come back.  This is definitely the case here.  The sunsets and white sand beaches were much loved!

Up next:  Crystal River, Florida!