Title

Archive for the 'things to do' Category

Disney less than two hours from Pinellas County

Disney's BoardWalk

We spent a few days at Disney World near Orlando last week. You may feel that a discussion of the Mouse House has no business on a blog that talks mostly about North Pinellas real estate, but if you live in Palm Harbor, Tarpon Springs, Dunedin, Clearwater or any other community in or around Pinellas County, sooner or later you are going to spend some time at Disney.

What to do at Disney used to be a simple decision, because when you visited Disney World you visited the Magic Kingdom. Then came Epcot not long afterward.

Yacht Club hotel

But now you have to be much more specific than that because there are so many nooks and crannies at Disney World — besides Epcot and Magic Kingdom, there is Downtown Disney, the Animal Kingdom Park, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and a bunch of other offerings, including Disney’s BoardWalk.

Disney’s BoardWalk is where we spent our time on this visit. It’s an area modeled after Coney Island and other great boardwalk attractions of the Northeast of years gone by. There are several big hotels, two of which are based on the old rambling clapboard hotels of the the late 1800s- early 1900s. Between these two huge hotels, the Yacht Club and the Beach Club, is a big convention center facility.

Dance Club

We stayed in the Yacht Club Hotel and attended a three-day event in the convention center.

In front of these two hotels is a good-sized man-made lake, Crescent Lake. Beyond the lake is a boardwalk which hosts all kinds of restaurants, shops and clubs, all housed in about 9,000 square feet of buildings of different shapes and sizes. Walking along that boardwalk is reminiscent of the old beachfront boardwalks of years gone by.

We didn’t get as much of a chance as we would have liked to make good use of the food and entertainment that the boardwalk area offers, but we did take a nice walk around the boardwalk early on Thursday morning. The only people out at that hour (around 6:30 a.m.) were joggers and power-walkers, plus a number of Disney staff people and groundskeepers. We got some good pictures of the area, and a few of them are posted here.

It’s hard to beat Disney on a number of levels. Everything is always perfectly kept and maintained. You NEVER see so much as a cookie wrapper or a peanut shell on the grounds, the grass and shrubs are perfectly manicured and everything looks as though it was just painted or polished. If you pass a chambermaid in the hotel hallway, she will unfailingly smile and say hello.

Is there a downside to all that? Not really, although I always find myself thinking that everything is just too perfect for my liking. Sometimes I feel as though I’d like to see just one little imperfection to remind me that we’re all human beings. But I know I’m just being crabby — no one does it like Disney.

Disney World is not next door to Pinellas County, but it’s only about 90 miles away, all of it on interstates. It takes less than two hours to get over there, and Disney occasionally offers some very attractive Magic Kingdom and Epcot passes at low rates for Florida residents. 

If you move here from up north, you can be sure your friends and relatives from back home will be writing and calling, looking for an invitation so they can come visit when the air turns cold. The first question they will ask is, “Can we come visit?” The second question will be: “How far away is Disney?” Tell them it’s just a quick hop away.

Tags: boardwalk, disney

Fort De Soto is Pinellas County gem

North Beach, Fort DeSoto

Q — What is the very best beach in America, according to TripAdvisor, the world’s largest online travel community?

A — Fort DeSoto Park, right here in Pinellas County.

Fort De Soto is at the very southern tip of Pinellas County, within sight of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which connects Pinellas County with Manatee County (home of Sarasota) to the south.

And TripAdvisor isn’t the only outfit that thinks so. In 2005, Dr. Beach (who rates beaches around the country, too) named Fort De Soto’s North Beach the best beach in the U.S.

Pinellas County maintains a number of parks, and Fort De Soto is the largest by far. It is made up of five separate islands and covers 1,130 acres. It was first opened in 1962, and almost 3 million visitors come by every year to sunbathe, swim, boat, kayak and fish.

Shore birds at Fort De Soto

The county bought the property from the federal government for just $12,500 in 1938. But then war broke out a few years later, and the property was sold back to the federal government (for a profit — $18,404) which used it as a bombing and gunnery range during World War II. After the war ended, the federal government sold it once again to Pinellas County, this time for $26,500.

We had some free time on Sunday afternoon and we visited Fort De Soto with our two grand-daughters. A lot of people were there enjoying the day, but the sheer size of the park made it feel sparsely populated. There is a 35-cent toll on the road that leads to the park, but Fort De Soto itself is free — not even a parking charge. But that may change soon, so this summer is a great time to explore the park for free.

Tags: beaches, fort de soto, pinellas county

A garden of golf clubs in Palm Harbor

Ron Wicks of Palm Harbor has lived around golf for many years, giving lessons and building custom clubs for pro players. He’s retired now, but he still makes a few extra dollars by selling clubs on the lawn in front of his house on Nebraska Avenue.

Tags: Add new tag, golf, Palm Harbor

Crystal Beach sunset

Watching the sun go down at Crystal Beach

It’s not all about real estate all the time. Sometimes it’s about slowing down a little and remembering the wonderful benefits that come from living near the Gulf of Mexico in Palm Harbor, Dunedin, Clearwater, or in Pinellas County in general. There’s a beautiful little park-like strip in Crystal Beach, which is just west of Palm Harbor on the gulf. It is a great spot all the time, but never more lovely than at sunset. It is not the only place to admire the sunset around here, but it is one of my favorites.

Tags: Crystal Beach

Showing the Palm Harbor Library colors

Palm Harbor library

Here in Palm Harbor, we are pretty proud of our library.
Palm Harbor is in an unincorporated part of Pinellas County. That means there are no local funds available for such things as libraries. But we make due with funding from the county, and we find other sources of funding when we need them.
Case in point; a few years ago there was a lot of support for upgrades and modernizations for the library.  So library supporters got together and found more than a million dollars for a library upgrade project — $500,000 from the state, $247,500 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, $500,000 in local matching funds and $100,000 that was raised by the Friends of the Library.
The result was an upgraded parking lot, a new community room and new restrooms, as well as a much-improved teen room. There is also several new study rooms and a new conference room.
While other libraries in the county (and elsewhere) are cutting back and trying to figure out how to keep the doors open, the Palm Harbor Library is going strong.
Several library workers and supporters were on hand at the Palm Harbor Citrus Festival this weekend just to “show the colors” and make sure people in the community remember that their library is an important community resource.

Tags: citrus festival, library, Palm Harbor

Palm Harbor Citrus Festival

We just got back from spending a little time at the Palm Harbor Citrus Festival, the latest effort to pump up the Old Palm Harbor downtown section, located right off Alt. 19.

This is the first year of the Citrus Festival, which celebrates Palm Harbor’s history as a major citrus growing region.  Actually, that history doesen’t really hark back that far — Palm Harbor was still hosting large tracts of citrus growing land right up through the 1970s and 1980s. Earlier than that, citrus fruit is what built and sustained  this northern part of Pinellas County.

We got to the Festival a bit early on Saturday morning, so there weren’t too many people milling around. But exhibitors were setting up their booths, and carnival workers  were just showing up to get their rides going. There were a number of food booths, including one interesting-looking barbecue outfit that just might draw me back there at mid-day for lunch.

The Downtown Palm Harbor merchants really do a good job of trying to pump up their region. They do a great and very well-know arts show arounf the holiday season, and the annual Taste of Palm Harbor event is very popular. They even sponsor an annual motorcycle event.

You can see more pictures of the Citrus Festival at http://www.flickr.com/photos/bethfrederick/sets/72157617209915435/

Tags: citrus festival, downtown, Palm Harbor

Pinellas County’s brunch of brunches

Don Cesar Hotel

There’s brunch, with a nice variety of food and a decent price tag, maybe put out by a good local eatery. And then there is brunch put on by the Don CeSar Hotel, one of the premier hotels in the Tampa Bay region. This brunch is a few steps, or many steps, above the average, with smoked salmon and mounds of the best fresh fruit and carving stations for prime rib, lamb, ham and pork, as well as a dizzying array of fancy homemade desserts.

The Don CeSar is where we had brunch this morning. It was truly memorable and worth describing to anyone thinking about moving to Pinellas County.

First, a little bit about the hotel. The Don CeSar overlooks the Gulf of Mexico in the south part of the county, just south of St. Pete Beach and just

Don CeSar Hotel entrance

north of Pass-A-Grille Beach. It is pretty old but beautifully kept in bright pink paint with white trim.  It was built in the 1920s. Then, just as now, it is a place for the well-known and the well-to-do.

It became a convelescent center for the U.S. Air Force during World War II and then fell into such disrepair that it was abandoned and almost torn down in the 1970s. But local people put up a ruckus to save the Don, and someone bought it and renovated it to its present glory. It has been an icon of the Tampa Bay region ever since.

But back to the brunch; it features more than 200 separate items as well as pasta and omelette stations . There’s a dessert staion for crepes and a sundae bar. If you like bubbles with your brunch, there’s even complementary champagne.

We’ve lived in Pinellas County since 1993, and this was our first brunch trip to the Don CeSar. At around $100 for two, we won’t be going back every weekend, but it’s a nice treat or special occasion.

Tags: Don CeSar, pinellas, real estate

Like sports? Pinellas County has plenty

Tampa Bay Rays vs. Chicago White Sox

Last evening we journeyed down to St. Petersburg (that’s south Pinellas County as opposed to my home turf in North Pinellas County) to take in a Tampa Bay Rays game at Tropicana Field. The trip included a flat tire and an hour-and-a-half at a St. Pete Tire Kingdowm store, but that’s another story.

A lot of people don’t like Tropicana Field because it’s a domed stadium with astroturf and it’s, well, ugly. But I like it just fine. The access off I-275 is easy and there’s plenty of parking (believe it or not, we found an on-street spot right on Central Avenue, a stone’s throw from the ballpark). There’s plenty of lot parking around the field that costs around $10.

The access into and out of the Trop is easy. Once inside, ushers and other workers are always nodding and smiling at you. Best of all, it is always 72 degrees inside, and it never rains. In west-central Florida it’s usually in the mid-90s at game time during the summer, and rain is pretty common in the late afternoon and early evening, so that dome over the stadium comes in handy, even if true baseball fans long for green grass and blue skies.

The Rays management floated an idea for a new outdoor stadium on the water on downtown St. Pete last year. But with no parking (fans would have had to use existing downtown parking garages and then walk several blocks to the stadium) and not very good access for traffic, the reaction was lukewarm at best.

Anyway… this part of Florida is a great place for sports fans. We have the Rays in St. Pete (remember, they went to the World Series last year) and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who play in Raymond James Stadium across the bay in Tampa and who always put a good team on the field. One doesn’t think immediately about hockey and Tampa Bay at the same time, but we have an NHL team, the Tampa Bay Lightning, who play in a beautiful facility over in Tampa. We don’t have NBA basketball,  but you can still satisfy that urge if you don’t mind driving an hour and a half over to Orlando.

If you are a college football fan, Florida is heaven. The University of South Florida (in Tampa) has a great team, and you already know about the University of Florida and Florida State.

Want more? Spring training and Grapefruit League baseball, right here in North Pinellas County; great college baseball, too.

I took the picture at the top of this post from a box behind home plate. We had a great time, even though the Rays lost to the White Sox, and even in spite of the flat tire.

Tags: baseball, pinellas county, real estate, sports

Dunedin hosts annual Highland Games

The city of Dunedin doesn’t just have a Scottish name; it also has a very rich Scottish heritage that local people hold dear.

During the first weekend in April, the city hosts the annual Highland Games and Spring Clan Gathering, a celebration that includes all kinds of Scottish athletic events, sheep herding demonstrations and vendors selling all things Scottish, from scarves to kilts to books.

This year’s celebration was held this weekend at Highlander Park, and we spent most of Saturday afternoon watching the pipers, the dancers and the people dressed in the tartans of their various clans.

Here’s a little of the history; Dunedin was settled in 1899 by two Scots, J.O. Douglas and James Sumerville. They wanted to name the town after their home town in Scotland, Edinburgh. Dunedin was the original name of Edinburgh.

There has been a piper’s band at the local high school since the 1950s, and they have been invited to play all over the world. Dunedin is a sister city to Stirling, Scotland, as well as to Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Canada.

The Highland Games have been held in Dunedin for the past 44 years. They were established to support Dunedin’s three Scottish bands, the City of Dunedin Pipe Band, the Dunedin High School Scottish Highlanders Band, and the Dunedin Highland Middle School Band.

Tags: clan, Dunedin, Highland Games, scottish

Clearwater’s Pier 60: The place for sunsets

I spent a very enjoyable day yesterday with a client from out of town, someone who has really fallen in love with Dunedin. I think we’ve found her and her family the perfect townhouse. In fact, they spent so much time on the Internet that they had a pretty good idea what property they wanted before they ever came to Pinellas County and got down to some serious looking.

Anyway, once we got done with our real estate business, she went off on her own to do some more exploring of the area. She ended up forgoing dinner, opting instead for some ice cream and a visit to Clearwater Beach to watch the sunset. This picture is one she took of Pier 60, the pier at Clearwater Beach where locals and tourists gather to watch the sunset. It’s a tradition that has been going on for the past 10 or 12 years, and it’s loosely based on the nightly sunset salute that’s been taking place at Key West for years.

As you can see by the picture, the sunsets are spectacular. But you will also enjoy the local musicians, the buskers (street performers) as well as the food vendors that set up every night. There’s plenty to do and see around here, and the Pier 60 sunsets are up at the top of the list.

Tags: Clearwater, Pier 60, sunset, things to do