Last week was my birthday week, so I took a break from creating new content. Instead, I’m sharing a video and post from the archives. I wrote this after a milestone birthday trip to Clearwater Beach and Caladesi Island in 2021, so some details may have changed. Check the Caladesi Island State Park website for current access and conditions.
This year, I’ll be celebrating with my niece in Aruba at the end of the month. She doesn’t know it yet, but this is “our” birthday trip.
I knew I wanted to spend my birthday at the beach, but I didn’t decide on Clearwater Beach, Florida, until about a week beforehand. It meant I wouldn’t have to contend with COVID-19 testing hoopla, and it put me close to Caladesi Island State Park, one of the few untouched islands along Florida’s Gulf Coast. Miles of pristine white sand and an uncrowded sea with gentle, lapping waves. The world was emerging from a pandemic, I had left my full-time job, and I was entering a new decade of life. It seemed like the ideal place to spend my birthday reflecting on this new milestone and planning for the year ahead.
After breakfast on Friday, my birthday, I made a playlist of my favorite Neo-Soul artists, heavy on Jill Scott, packed a lunch and bottled water, and set out for Caladesi Island with one of my sisters. At the time, I’d read that you could walk there from Clearwater Beach, but since we didn’t know the route, we felt safer taking an Uber to Honeymoon Island and catching the ferry.
The ferry ride took about 15 minutes. Along the way, I snapped photos of the mangroves and a flock of white pelicans. No dolphins, though. I had hoped to see a few.
When we got off the ferry, we went straight to the beach. Our time on the island was limited, so as much as I would have liked to explore the nature trails, I had to save them for another visit. We rented chairs and an umbrella and set about learning the Stingray Shuffle, which is really a thing. I spent the first hour or so walking along the shore, collecting seashells and building up the courage to shuffle into the water.
When I finally went in, I stayed close to shore, thinking it would help me avoid a stingray encounter. Then a helpful beachgoer informed me that the stingrays often return to the shore when they think the coast is clear. So much for that plan.
I suppose I should have read Myrtle Scharrer Betz’s memoir, Yesteryear I Lived in Paradise, about her childhood on Caladesi Island. There was a well-read copy in the nightstand drawer of my room at the Sandpearl Resort. Her stories of growing up on the island might have prepared me better for my day there.
However, in the end, Caladesi was exactly what I needed for my birthday. I got the sun, sand, sea and time to reflect that I had come for.
I also got plenty of mosquito bites and ant stings, despite not going on the nature trails, but I didn’t get stung by a stingray.
Happy birthday to me!