day # 4- st. pete beach, pass-a-grille, and the HURRICANE!

i think that we found the most beautiful beach... ever. We are staying near the middle of a chain of islands that border the coast of Fl along Tampa Bay. Saturday we set out, after our marathon of blogging... to find an elusive area called pass-a-grille that our friends have told us about. It is amazing how many peole have a sister or brother or uncle that used to live down here... we have gotten so many good tips from those friends :)
So we set out south, expecting a drive... and about two minutes on the road we hit St.Pete beach which apparently contains the pass-a-grille area. The island narrows and as you are driving down Gulf Blvd you can look to your right and see the Gulf on the otherside, one block over. One side is a boardwalk and lots of fishing- with the mainland just a little bit away. On the other side is dunes, sea oats, and white sand with more shells than I've ever seen. Oh, and of course water as far as you can see. We've decided this side of FL is best because the sun sets right in front of you... its an amazing sight.
We spent the afternoon laying around at the beach on our rusty chairs... they've served us well. I gathered these really delicate irridescent shells, Jeff read and snoozed. We also played with the many many gulls. They enjoyed our apple cores, until one greedy one decided they were his and squawked at anyone coming near. Jeff lectured him about sharing.. he didn't seem to care. The water was perfect, maybe a few peices of grass here and there, and not the slimy kind, just literal long blades of grass.
When the sun began to descend, we made our way to the Hurricane, another suggestion from a friend back home. As we found out later, its a three level restaurant/bar that is legendary. It wan't too bad.. not amazing either. We sat in the restaurant and amid to wood paneling and dripping AC (on me) we tried conch fritters- glorified hush puppies with gristle that I am guessing was conch. Jeff had a grouper sandwhich- his first fish sandwhich ever! Apparently that was their specialty, and it proved to be so. After the fritters I decided to play it safe and orders a cesar salad with balckened grouper. It ended up being a yummy meal, we've experienced the hurricane.
Someone left the memory card in the laptop after blogging (me)... so here are some pics i found on the web... it said it was a sunset in pass-a-grille in october... I thought that must be pretty accurate, and then the hurricane.