Candid Florida

At the table at Ted's Luncheonette

For pancakes and just-perfect eggs, Ted’s Luncheonette has become a favorite along Alt US 19 south of Clearwater. Given the name, I’m sure it’s busy at lunchtime, but I’ve stopped here several times over the years because I love a good hearty breakfast, and that’s what they do. Inexpensive, too, and with that Greek flair you come to expect when traveling in Pinellas County.  A great hometown diner that shouldn’t be missed.

North Loop boardwalk at John Chesnut Park

Two shores, two parks: Lake Tarpon’s a big place that most visitors don’t even know exists, hidden as it is by businesses and residential areas along US 19 north of Clearwater. On the western shore, in Tarpon Springs, A.L. Anderson County Park is a large county park where you can drop a boat or kayak in to putter around the lake, or enjoy a picnic under the cypresses along the shoreline.

For more extensive recreation opportunities, John Chesnut Sr. County Park in Oldsmar grabs a large chunk of the eastern shoreline and offers it up as a wild place to play. I revisited the park to update “50 Hikes in Central Florida”  to discover efforts in progress to replace all of the boardwalks along the lakeshore. The birding is superb here thanks to a screen of natural floodplain forest along the shoreline.

The Peggy Park Nature Trail is at the south end of the park, offering up a quiet walk under the cypress and a stroll along Brooker Creek. Nearby, boardwalks lead from the boat ramp along the shoreline to hidden niches with picnic tables,  a tall observation tower, and covered decks along the lakeshore, perfect for catching a breeze while reading a book or watching the gallinules in the shallows. Thanks to Barbara Bowen, who met me for this visit, I discovered a whole section of the park I’d missed on my first visit, complete with dog park and large playground, picnic pavillions around a large pond, and another hiking loop with a boardwalk through a floodplain forest where birds are bountiful.

Fishing at E.G. Simmons Park, Ruskin

“There’s a dolphin … right there!” The angler, looking to pick up a fish or two for the evening meal, had been moving from spot to spot around the park as I drove through, enchanted with my new discovery. I found her on an observation deck over a shallow lagoon, watching the surface break as a fin sliced past the mangroves.

Ruskin isn’t a place you’d think of for camping, or so I thought until I discovered E.G. Simmons Park. This was another foray off US 41, watching for those brown signs that signify that something natural is hiding around the bend. I’ve not known the eastern shore of Tampa Bay to be a place for hiking, but it’s a paddler’s delight. Clinging to slender mangrove-lined spits of land that jut out into the wide open of Tampa Bay, this particular county park has two campgrounds where you can launch a kayak right out of the back of your space, plus a beach with lifeguard and pleasant playground with a mini climbing wall. Paved trails link various sections of the park, and the winding road system is perfect for an outing on a bicycle with the tots.

The bluffs of Apollo Beach Nature Preserve

Perched above Tampa Bay on crumbling bluffs, the Apollo Beach Nature Preserve wasn’t quite what I expected. Perhaps the name, with its Greek roots, or the recognition of how Jules Verne predicted Florida space travel, albeit it launched from the shores of Tampa Bay, wrapped an aura of romance around the idea of a nature preserve on this residential shore of the bay. It had rained heavily, so streets and yards were flooded and canals overflowing. Following the signs back from US 41 to the water’s edge, I’d imagined clouds of shorebirds on a sunsplashed beach. But no. Preserving a tiny spit of natural Tampa Bay waterfront in an otherwise terraformed landscape, it’s a picnic park, a place to drop a line between the mangroves in the shadow of a power plant, but certainly not a beach. But I met a family taking their kids exploring in the salt marsh, proving that all it takes is a tiny touch of nature in an otherwise unnatural setting for us to connect with the wild, even in a heavily urbanized area.