The Springtime Escape Part 3: The Original Florida

While the Gulf Coast is known as a tourist and retirement destination, that was not its original character at all. There are two spots along these barrier islands where the original nature of the land is on display -- the small nature reserve in Indian Rocks Beach, and the much larger Fort de Soto County Park at the southern end of the chain.  

The Indian Rocks Beach Nature Preserve is a small strip of land between two residential areas which has escaped development. It's on the inland side of Gulf Boulevard (State 699), facing Boca Ciega Bay. Here, you can see a sample of the mangrove marshes which took up most of the entire chain's eastern side. The mangroves are mighty builders and stabilizers of land, due to their ability to survive and thrive in varying depths of tidal waters. Without them, these islands probably wouldn't exist at all. The beautiful beaches were able to hang on against the ocean largely due to the stability and resilience provided by the mangrove marshes.

The urge to drain, fill, and develop has led to almost all mangrove marshes on the islands disappearing, which makes this one a special treasure. The preserve has an elevated boardwalk leading from the parking area to the shores of Boca Ciega, and then circling around before returning. There's also a side entrance from the 10th Street Park near the bay end of the boardwalk. Interpretive signs explain the life of the mangroves, and introduce the various birds and animals you can see here.

Along the walkway, there are numerous places where you can see the mangroves, and the angled extra roots which they put down into the water to support themselves. It's the ability of those roots to trap and hold soil which allows land to gradually solidify and become habitable for tree species which aren't quite so water tolerant.

There are also a number of mounds like this. These are the remains of early attempts to drain this area as so much of the region has had to be painfully dredged and drained to create solid land out of marshes. Interpretive signs explain how these spoil tips have developed their own distinctive little micro-environments distinct from the marshlands around them.

At the outer end of the walkway, you reach a lookout platform on Boca Ciega Bay, and you can see other small areas of natural shoreline here and there on the landward side. If you can imagine the modern buildings disappearing, you'll have an idea of what most of the landward sides of these barrier islands looked like in their natural state.

You'll also see proof positive that this is still an oceanic environment in the clusters of barnacles attached to the legs supporting the walkway.

The other great place is at Fort de Soto County Park. To reach this one, you have to leave St. Pete Beach via the Pinellas Bayway toll crossing. After crossing the high level bridge, you turn right onto State Route 679 and follow that all the way to the end of the road. Along the way you cross another toll bridge before reaching the park. Instead of collecting a fee at the park entrance, as in bygone years, the park now has parking ticket machines at all the major parking areas. These collect the single $5.00 fee which is valid for the entire day for all parking areas on Mullet Key.

 

Fort de Soto County Park takes up the entirety of several connected keys, of which Mullet Key is by far the largest. The multiple names for different areas of this single island show plainly that it wasn't always a single island. Since the entirety of Mullet Key is pretty much an overgrown sandbar, the beach stretches for literally miles along the island's southern and western sides.

At the east end of the road, the south beach provides a placid and stable environment, looking across the mouth of Tampa Bay  with a view of the graceful Sunshine Skyway which crosses to the south shore.

The entire western shore of Mullet Key is a different matter. Here, the sand dunes are exposed to the open ocean, and provide the essential protection behind which the island can endure. In this environment, change is the only constant. This shallow inlet is a perfect example. It's been violently and completely remade by the actions of the recent storms. I had to look for several minutes to recognize what I was seeing. Only the exposed stumps in the distance show what used to be here.

 

 

The dunes, too, can be severely damaged by storm action, but even more by the feet and wheels of human visitors. The park has had to undertake a vigorous program of replanting vegetation to restore the dunes' ability to protect the land behind them. A sign explains the different kinds of plant life involved, and draws attention to the plant known as sea oats as a prime rebuilder of green cover. 

 

With that information in hand, and with the aid of signs placed by the park staff, it becomes much easier to see how the green cover helps to hold the entire ecosystem of Mullet Key in place.

As you walk along the available trail near the shore, you are quite likely to see some wading and swimming birds in the shallow waters.

 

Fort de Soto Park undoubtedly becomes much more crowded in warmer weather -- the immense parking lots bear witness to that reality. I actually like coming here in the winter, when the lack of crowds helps me to focus on what a special place it is in its own right, and not just as a recreational platform.

The Springtime Escape Part 2: Sometimes You Can Go Back

There's an old saying, "You can't go back again." Often in life it's true. 

But there are exceptions. I love to come back to this Gulf Coast region of Florida in no small part because of a string of favourite restaurants I've enjoyed over the years. I visited three of them this week. All are golden oldies, and all thoroughly lived up to my expectations from previous visits.

One of my other old favourites has sadly gone from the scene, it's place taken by a sports bar which was of no interest to me. Instead, I gave a first go at another long-time place which I'd never visited before.

By the way, if you do not enjoy eating seafood, you can skip right over this post. I'm sure that there are many fine restaurants all up and down the islands, offering everything from pizza to burgers to steak to sushi to Tex-Mex or pure Mexican to French to whatever your heart desires. Since seafood of any quality is non-existent where I live, that's just about all I do eat when I travel to places like this where it is plentiful and tasty! So seafood is my focus.

Taking them in the order they appear from north to south, we'll begin with the new entry from this trip: Frenchy's Rockaway Grill, right at the end of Rockaway Street in Clearwater Beach. All I have to say here is, "Why have I never visited this place before???" But actually, I already know the answer. I did come here once before, on a very cold night back in 2011 with my husband. By the time we got seated, he was just about frozen, and I wasn't a whole lot better off. We had to toss in the towel and go somewhere else which was more "indoors" and better heated. But, as the photo clearly shows, Frenchy's Rockaway Grill (one of six different Frenchy's restaurants in and around Clearwater) is right on the beach -- literally so as the outdoor tables with the colourful umbrellas sit right out on the sand!

This visit was a different story altogether from that frozen night in 2011. It was sunny, the temperature was 23 C (73 F) and even an outdoor seat under cover was comfortable. Now: the meal. Frenchy's has a huge and diverse menu, and it took me some time to scope it all out. I finally settled on a cup of she-crab soup, and a seared tuna salad. The soup gets its name from the fact that it was traditionally made with the meat of the female crab, and with the crab roe (eggs) thrown in. Aside from that, it's a thick, rich cream soup with various spices and seasonings, and usually a dollop of dry sherry. Frenchy's claims this as a signature item with a secret house recipe, and it tasted fabulous.

 

The salad was a generous helping of spring greens and baby spinach, with crisp wontons, wedges of mandarin orange, and six thick slices of rare seared tuna crusted with white and black sesame seeds, all in a sesame dressing, with side dishes of soy sauce and wasabi. The tuna was absolutely top-notch. I had not tasted such wonderful tuna since my visit to Tahiti ten years ago when it was on the menu at every meal in the resort's restaurant. You haven't lived until you've eaten seared fresh-caught tuna along with your eggs and bacon from the breakfast buffet! But Frenchy's gave a first-rate experience, in its own way with this salad -- it's a real winner!

 

The service, too, was outstanding at every point (kudos, Richard!). This restaurant now goes into an honoured place on my must-return visit for the next time I come this way.

 

Next on the way south, and the first of my old favourites, is Crabby Bill's on State 699 in Indian Rocks Beach. At least I remembered to take pictures here (some places I forgot -- bad, bad, BAD!).

At busy times, you're quite likely to find a seat at the long communal picnic tables down the middle of the restaurant, or perched up on one of the many stools at the bar. Be sure to study the random assortment of signs, mottos, old licence plates, and the like on the walls. 

 

 

This is old Florida at its chatty best, and it can be good fun. Last time I came here, I got into a conversation across the bar with a gent on his night off -- he was the bartender from my hotel! On this trip, I was there at lunch time, when it was much quieter, and I had a table to myself. Service was friendly and prompt. Like all their dinners, the grouper comes with your choice of two sides from a list of six or seven. The fish was tender, flavourful, well-seasoned (I ordered it blackened), and a good sized portion. The coleslaw is the sweet green variety, not the vinegar coleslaw of a Montreal or Toronto deli. Mac and cheese? Well, I don't do it very often but this is a great place to break the rule with some of the best I've tasted in a long time -- creamy and cheesy.

 

 

The key lime pie (the quintessential Florida dessert) wasn't off the top shelf but it still had good flavour and a good rich crumb crust.   

By the by, if you're located down at the south end of the chain, there's another Crabby Bill's location in St. Pete Beach. Not to be confused with another local chain called simply "Crabby's",

 

My next pick is Conch Republic on State 699 in Redington Beach. This is one of the two ultimate seafood restaurants of all the many I've visited in this region through the years. The menu is full of interesting touches which allow for a huge range of meal experiences. The key one for me was the opportunity to upgrade any appetizer to a meal by paying $5.99 extra to add a side and a salad. As I get older and my appetite declines, I wish such options were available in more places -- and especially in areas like this where even the appetizers can be pretty enormous. Fried conch strips with a spicy remoulade dip, house-made potato salad, and Caesar salad with absolutely the most garlicky dressing I've ever tasted -- and the croutons appeared to be made in house. The bread was also house-made, I think, and certainly hot out of the oven.

 

But I knew that, even after all that carb-laden main course, I simply had to go for the key lime pie. I've never been handed a bigger serving. 

 

 

I'm ashamed to say I ate it all. As a diabetic, I should have run in screaming horror from almost that entire meal, and I certainly paid for it in spades through the restless, dream-ridden night that followed.

The heartbreak of the week was the disappearance of Sea Critters Cafe in Pass a Grille. With an open-air deck out on the wharf overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway, there was no better place to get that fresh-from-the-boat vibe -- in fact, you could even arrive by boat and tie up out back! Sea Critters always had a diverse assortment of fresh fish, more so than most places, as well as shellfish. Alas for the good old days.

My final old favourite is clear out of the region of this blog series altogether. It's located on the west side of US41 (the Tamiami Trail) just north of the border between Bradenton and Sarasota.

 

All I can say is that, as ever, the Anna Maria Oyster Bar justified every second of the 80 minutes of driving each way, not to mention the cost of gas and tolls (since you have to cross Tampa Bay on the Sunshine Skyway to get there). I first came to this restaurant way back in 2001, when I rented a house in Bradenton for 2 weeks of intensive writing time. I've come back on every visit to the region ever since. 

 

It's a bright, cheery, restaurant with plenty of windows letting in the daylight. The first thing that always hits me is the quirkiness of hanging a roll of paper towels from a coat hanger over the table -- that's your stash of table napkins!

The Anna Maria Oyster Bar has a big, diverse menu, full of possibilities. Since it was lunchtime, I was drawn from old experience to the blackened grouper sandwich. The sides I ordered it with were the side dish winners of the trip, hands down. Their signature coleslaw is a magical treat in itself, as the traditional cabbage salad is flavoured with tiny little bits of chopped pineapple. The combination is irresistible! My second side was their house-made chips, which in Canada are sometimes called "kettle chips." These didn't come out of a bag either. This restaurant knows exactly how to fry up the thin-sliced fresh potatoes so that they are all completely crisp and utterly delicious.

What's that you say? Oh, yes, the fish! Half a pound of grouper, no less, as moist and tender as your heart could desire, dished up on an oversized bun with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and pickles. I knew from previous experience to eat it with knife and fork, as the bun's underside quickly collapses from all that moist, tender goodness. And there was the sole drawback of the experience, as the paper liner in the basket-like dish had no staying power at all when the juice from the fish and the coleslaw attacked it. Otherwise, I was in heaven. 

The grand finale, the house-made dessert of desserts, was a key lime pie that remains triumphantly at the top of my list as the best-tasting example I've ever eaten anywhere. I'm sorry, but I was so preoccupied with the food that I utterly forgot to take a picture of the sandwich. However, here's the pie. 

 

 

After that massive feast, all I wanted or needed for dinner that night was a dinner salad!

 

To close out, here's a map showing the approximate locations of each of these great eateries.

 

 

The moral: when it comes to these restaurants, yes, you can go back!

The Springtime Escape Part 1: Coastal Cities

It's getting to be very old news, this long spell of cloudy, drizzly, foggy, icky weather which now seems to be the new norm for winter in my part of the world. Once again, it's gotten to be more than I can handle, and once again I've turned to my favourite form of retail therapy to help me out. Travel shopping!

A big part of the problem was caused when I had to cancel my planned holiday right before Christmas due to catching a wicked virus which was likely RSV. Well, I'm over that now. I am so over it, and so over this winter.

This one is a bare bones holiday, less than a week long. In it, I will make a return visit to a favourite area of Florida which I have not visited now for six years, the west coast between St. Petersburg Beach and Clearwater Beach. 

 

"Florida!" I can hear people saying. "Lucky you!" 

Well, yes -- but not perhaps in the way you are thinking. There's a reason why the pool is dead empty on such a gorgeous sunny day. It's because the air temperature was only 8 C (46 F). The weather here in January is more comparable to an Ontario spring than anything hotter. That is actually why I like being here. I can enjoy long walks without getting overheated, and all my favourite restaurants and shops are much less crowded.

So is Tampa International Airport, which remains one of my all-time favourite airports due to its relatively compact design and layout. From Tampa International, you can reach almost any destination on the islands in under an hour of driving. I needed just 30 minutes. Also serving the area is the smaller St. Petersburg/ Clearwater International Airport.

And the pool is heated!

 

The long stretch of barrier islands reaching from Clearwater to St. Petersburg comprises no less than eleven separate and distinct municipalities. None of them have a population greater than 10,000 people, while several have less than 2,000. The smallest is Belleair Shore, which was established in 1955 and has a population of just 109 people. Most of these communities are called "cities" (which I find a bit laughable, given their small size) while a couple more modestly stick to "town." These communities are certainly distinct and distinctive in more ways than just in name only.

To get in between these places you travel north and south on Florida Route 699 (Gulf Boulevard), which is the "main street" of all these island communities. Here are the eleven, in order from north to south. The locations marked with the >< have direct road links to and from the mainland via a bridge or causeway.

 

 

>< Clearwater Beach (including the adjacent island of Sand Key):

 

 This is the high-rise capital of the coast. Much of this high-rise construction has taken place in the last decade, crowding out the older and smaller motels and family-run businesses which used to occupy this island. 

 

The white-and-blue Opal Sands Resort on Clearwater's South Beach was under construction when I last came here. It's appears to be already expanding with not one but two new buildings under construction on the inland side of the beachfront road, a construction site which looks as if it could double or even triple the existing generous capacity of the hotel. That's if all the new construction is in fact part of the Opal Sands. Certainly, one of the two new structures is being connected to the existing resort by a footbridge over Gulfview Boulevard.

 

 

The brand-new and definitely eye-catching Hiatus wraps around and completely overshadows an old traditional Florida eatery, one of the very few survivors of the high-rise building rampage: Frenchy's South Beach Cafe. 

 

 

The huge pink Hyatt Regency and the Wyndham Grand just beyond it are also fairly new arrivals. 

 

 

The beach itself is a broad expanse of fine sugary sand, which is well known for becoming airborne and drifting like snow on windy days. The city has to use heavy equipment to get the sand under control on the parking lots which serve the beach area. Even on a cold, windy January day, you'll always find a few people determined to enjoy the beach, and the sizable Pier 60 Clearwater, while they're here.

 

 

Clearwater Beach is the place you should come, not to get away from it all, but if you want to find it all waiting here for you. And the prices certainly reflect that fact.

 

 

>< Belleair Beach: 

 

This town is more devoted to private homes than to visitor accommodations. Gulf Boulevard gets a bit wider here, and there are attractive grassy boulevard strips of land between the street and the sidewalks.

 

Belleair Shore:  

 

This municipality with just 109 residents occupies only the ocean side of Gulf Boulevard for a short distance south of the Belleair Causeway, being surrounded on both east and north sides by Belleair Beach. From the look of houses as shown in satellite photos, the residents here are 109 very wealthy people, which may explains why they felt they "needed" a special municipality all to themselves.

 

 

>< Indian Rocks Beach & Indian Shores: 

 

A dramatic contrast to Clearwater Beach, Indian Rocks Beach and its neighbour to the south, Indian Shores, show many smaller homes and accommodations, and a diverse assortment of old Florida architecture, with many commercial and residential buildings dating back to the post-World-War-Two era or perhaps even earlier. Very picturesque. Note that the road through both of these communities is narrow and crowded to the extreme with limited or no shoulders or sidewalks. Vehicles making deliveries have to stop pretty much right on the road since there's nowhere else for them to go. Drive slowly and with much caution!

Redington Shores: 

 

Suddenly Gulf Boulevard blossoms to four lanes wide, and stays that way. While some high rises appear in this area, most of the tourist accommodations (far more condos than hotels) are in the area of six or seven stories high. These buildings line the ocean side of Gulf Boulevard almost without a break anywhere.

 

 

North Redington Beach: 

 

This area is a little bit less built up, but with similar sized buildings, as well as a number of older and smaller ones. This area is the home of my favourite Florida hotel, the Doubletree Resort North Redington Beach. It's currently closed for renovations, but due to reopen in a month or so. The major change visible from outside is the new pale grey paint. The building used to be painted all in a pleasant shade somewhere between orange and pink, which can still be seen on the balcony dividing walls. The biggest advantages of a small hotel like this one versus the high-rise giants of Clearwater Beach: [1] the staff get to know you and vice versa. [2] In the beachfront rooms you can hear the sound of the ocean rolling up onto the beach with no trouble, especially at night. There is no more soothing sound to help you get a relaxed, refreshing sleep. I can't wait to stay here again!

 

 

 

Redington Beach: 

 

This one is more or less a continuation of North Redington Beach in appearance although perhaps with less high rises.

 

 

>< Madeira Beach: 

 

The condos are getting bigger now, and the shopping is getting a bit more diverse. This view is taken from the crest of the Tom Stuart Causeway looking west. It shows how the areas east of Gulf Boulevard are often built up into a series of "fingers" of land with channels of water in between them, so that homes can have a garage in front and a dock in the back for every house.

As in almost any one of these communities, if you're near the water and look around, you're sure to find a patient fishing bird waiting for a chance to scoop in any snack that comes swimming by.

 

 

The hotel I'm staying in, the fairly new Courtyard by Marriott, is officially listed as being in Madeira Beach, although it's physically located just across the Tom Stuart Causeway in Bay Pines on the mainland. 

 

 

The big feature in Madeira Beach is the tourism-focused "village" and fishing harbour on the north shore of John's Pass, the channel separating Madeira Beach from Treasure Island. 

 

 

Waltz Fish Shak is about as authentically old Florida as an eatery could possibly get.

 

The boardwalk at John's Pass is a great place to walk, and to watch pelicans and the occasional heron or egret waiting for elevenses from the active fishing boats. 

 

 

The "Pass" itself was carved out by a massive hurricane in September of 1848. It needs to be dredged every so often to keep the channel open. A multi-storey parking garage provides ample parking, but it still pays to arrive early before the village gets crammed with visitors.

 

>< Treasure Island:  

 

This one really has a dual personality. The north end of Treasure Island holds many of those classic old Floridian houses from the 1940s and earlier. Drive down the island for a few minutes though, and the scene changes dramatically. Now the accommodations are soaring into the higher price ranges, and the road meanders gently along between many new buildings, lacking only the gigantic proportions found in Clearwater Beach. Traffic is now building up, too, with the higher population density.

 

 

>< St. Pete Beach (including Pass a Grille Beach): 

 

The biggest municipality on the islands, this is where you are most likely to have encounters with the wild and crazy drivers or the drivers whose vehicles move in pairs at slow idle, thus blocking up the entire road. This is one community with distinctive residential neighbourhoods which appear well separated from tourism facilities. You'll also find here the most diverse range of stores and restaurants of any of the island communities. One noteworthy sight in the northern part of this city is the St.. John Vianney Catholic Church, in a modern interpretation of traditional Spanish architecture.

 

Another modern nod to the Spanish tradition is the elegant "pink palace" of the Don CeSar Resort, the ancestor of all the other big resorts on these islands. I can find no reference to a reason for the curious spelling of the name with the capital "S" in "CeSar", since the name of the literary character it evokes is simply spelled "Don César de Bazan." This resort opened in 1928, was heavily used by the U.S. Armed Services during the second World War, then by the Veterans Administration after the war, narrowly escaped demolition when the V.A. no longer required it, and was renovated and reopened in November of 1973 -- since when it has undergone numerous further upgrades and renovations.

 

And finally, when Route 699 ends at the junction with the Pinellas Bayway, you drive on down into the narrow streets and distinctive atmosphere of St. Pete Beach's southern end, Pass a Grille Beach. There are numerous older buildings here, including what may well be the oldest homes on any of the islands. In fact, history is the keynote of the old centre of town, and especially of 8th Avenue.

 

 

And then there's the beach itself, one of the few that has ample visitor parking available nearby -- well, at least it's ample in the winter! This beach shows the definite impact of the hurricanes in recent years, and the critical need for replanting dunes with vegetation to anchor them.

 

 

So there you have it: pick a town, find your place, and settle in for a relaxing winter holiday, in the Gulf Coast's spring-like winter weather. Here's a map to help you get oriented.