Spring Training Trip - Day 39

No game today. The Phillies were playing an away game (Bradenton) so we decided to go to the beach.

There is a state park just north of Dunedin called Honeymoon Island State Park.  The park is on a barrier island (Honeymoon Island) that was cut into two islands by a powerful hurricane in 1921.  The other island is now called Caladesi Island and it has been preserved in its natural state as part of the state park. 

The only way to get to Caladesi Island, which has three miles of spectacular public beaches, is by boat.  The state park operates a ferry service to the island (run by a concessionaire) that transports people to and from the island.  You can stay on the island for 4½ hours and then you must return by ferry.  The ferry runs every half hour and you can return early if there is space.  There is also a large marina for private boats, which are allowed to stay for 6 hours at a time. 

There are also hiking trails on the island, a snack bar, and a small ranger station. There are also picnic tables spread around the grounds.  The main attraction of the island for us, however, is the beach, known for its calm water and lots of sea shells.  You can take as many shells as you want, except for live creatures still living in the shells.  We now have another bag of sea shells to add to our collection.  We are not sure what to do with them all, but you never know when you are going to need more sea shells.  Maybe we can work them into some sort of display with our many Mardi Gras beads.  We’ll see how it all works out.

The island is a destination for female sea turtles which come ashore to lay eggs each year.  Growing up as a sea turtle is not easy. Due to a large number of predators further up on the food chain, only one out of every 1,000 turtles born each year make it to maturity.  Maybe this is good in the scheme of things as we might be overrun by turtles if a natural balance is not preserved. There are also a lot of Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnakes on the island living in the brush (not on the beach).  We didn’t see any of those, which is good.

After returning from Caladesi Island we looked around the rest of Honeymoon Island.  There is a 2 mile long beach on the island that was crowded today, a Monday.  There is also an excellent nature center in the park, showing the history of the island as well as explaining the abundance and diversity of plant and animal life in the area.

It is an interesting story how Honeymoon Island was named.  There was a real estate boom in Florida in the 1940s-1950’s and a developer came up with an idea to promote the area by establishing a “honeymoon resort” on the island.  Small thatched-roof cottages were built and a contest through Life magazine was initiated that would award two-week all expense paid vacations to honeymooners.  Consequently, the island was so named and it stuck.

After returning to the RV, we had leftovers for dinner and went to bed early after a busy day.  Our next baseball game is on Wednesday, so tomorrow we will go to McDill AFB again for a BX and Commissary run.

Day 39 Pictures