Madeira Beach

On with the Florida posts...

My family stayed at small town called Madeira Beach which was about a one minute walk from the ocean. It's a quite place with a lot of local fishermen and others who live by way of the water. Our rooms overlooked the bay which fed into the ocean and we often found ourselves sitting on the balcony looking out for animals. I briefly saw the tail of a manatee and was ecstatic. One day I will visit Florida during the winter so I can feed the manatees lettuce. They are the coolest animals if you ask me.

This beach must have been hit hard by tropical storms because it was full of kelp. Bunches of them would smack you while you swam and tricked you into thinking they were animals. It started to clear up as the week progressed and I was able to get a few runs in and sit and breathe in the smell of the ocean which was really nice.

The city boasts their boardwalk called St. John's Pass. There are a bunch of tourist shops with little trinkets and restaurants. It's a nice place if you get the chance to walk around. There are a ton of ice cream shops including a well known one called Kilwins. There is also a entire store full of goats milk and olive oil soaps and sponges. It was so much fun to walk around and smell just about everything. The pier is not too busy and the bars seemed kind of dead but I did get to sample out some amazing wine at a wine shop and sat outside drinking their wine freezes.

Just remember, always grab a flag before you cross the street so you don't get hit!