We went to the beach today, travelling over to
Honeymoon Island State Park, just north of Dunedin. From there we took the ferry over to Caladesi
Island, a small island managed by the Florida Park Service. The ferry ride
takes about 15 minutes and is just for passengers, as vehicles are not
permitted on the island. There is a public
marina, a concession stand and several picnic areas. You can also rent kayaks, but the main
attraction is a 4-mile beach on the Gulf of Mexico side of the island. It is a great beach for looking for sea
shells as there are many different varieties and a lot of them.
We have been to the island twice before and have always enjoyed dipping our toes in the water, beach walking and just relaxing in beach chairs under an umbrella you can rent while there. To keep the crowd moving I guess, your stay on the island is limited to 4 hours. You can actually stay longer or leave earlier if you want to but your return ticket is only guaranteed for the specific 4 hour time period after you arrived. Other departure times are on a space available basis. During the season (now) the ferries run every half hour so it has never been a problem for us to leave early or stay late. They keep track of how many people depart and arrive the island and the count has to match at the end of the day. The only people who can spend the night are state park staff, maybe a few concessionaire employees and people sleeping on their boats in the marina.
Four hours was about right for us today so we
were back on the ferry at 2:30 pm with our obligatory bag of sea shells found
on the beach. Its’ not like we needed more sea shells but it’s sort of like
going to Mardi Gras and catching beads. Perhaps it’s the thrill of the hunt or
something.
Day 30 Pictures
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