The pictures below are from a few different days. The first few pictures are of Honeymoon Island State Park. You have to pay to enter, but the crowds are smaller. The water and beaches were amazing. There were fine white sands that looked at felt almost like sugar. Prior to sitting on the beach we took a short nature walk and saw some Osprey and a big old tortoise slowly crawling across the road.
We liked Honeymoon island so much that we decided to go back there again in the late afternoon to watch the sunset. Being on the west side of Florida, this area has some pretty great sunset views. As the sun was setting a few dolphins decided they wanted to come close enough to the shore for us to see them. It was a nice way to end the day, standing in the water and watching dolphins swimming.
We hit up Madeira Beach the first day we were there. We also drove into downtown one day and went to the Florida Aquarium courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa. We watched alligator being fed, but Jonathan really like watching the river otters swim and play right in front of us. They would swim to one side of their tank, then launch themselves off of a rock, doing a back flip just like swimmers do in the pool.
Our VRBO was just around the corner from Crest Lake Park. It was a really nice park to be near since the general area was mostly city and people. I went for a run there once, and we took a few walks and/or ate some ice cream there one night. The lake, water feature, and fountain were a nice touch. On a low-key rest day we also went up to the local driving range and hit a few buckets of balls.
