Life's a...Beach

After getting off to a rough start yesterday I decided to give Fort DeSoto another try today.  Before I left I made sure I had my camera (with memory card!), my GPS, my phone, and my sunscreen.  With everything in hand I made the 45 minute trek back to Fort DeSoto. 

I gave myself an extra 15 minutes of travel time just to be safe and it was a good thing that I did because the traffic was a lot heavier today.  Since I had left the hotel a bit early, I thought that upon my arrival that I would have about 15 minutes until the departure of the ferry...in reality, I had less than 5 minutes to park the car, run to the fishing pier, and make the ferry.  When I got there they had just closed the gate but the Captain (Jeff) and his wife (Angie) were nice enough to re-open the gae and let me board.  And with that I was finally off on the adventure that was suppose to have taken place yesterday.

The photos were all taken at Fort DeSoto Park and Egmont Key.  Fort DeSoto is comprised of a total of five islands and is named after a fort that was built on the islands in the late 1900's to guard the entrance to Tampa Bay.  Egmont Key is an island, reachable only by boat, at the mouth of Tampa Bay.  The Egmont Key Lighthouse and the ruins of Fort Dade, a Spanish-America War era fort, are located in the park.  The island was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on December 11, 1978.  There really aren't words to describe some of the beautiful things that I saw today, so I'll just let the pictures do the talking:



Ferry to Egmont Key



Egmont Key Lighthouse (as seen upon approach)

A Great Reminder

 

Inner-Island Brick Path

Gopher Tortoise

Pure Beauty at the Beach

Blissfully Blue

Beachside Scenary

Stranded Jellyfish

Just in case there was any question...

A view from the top one of the ruins

Another one of the ruins

Mine Storehouse & Cable Tank Building

Dolphin off of the Fort Desoto Gulf Pier

Another Dolphin!

Beachside Artwork -- For my husband and kiddos!