Florida Beaches Art Director 14-19 Key West: Island Paradise M
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GLADES SHADES & TAMPA FUN ON THE BEACH TAMPA’S #1 BEACH CLEARWATER KEY WEST CHICKENS NOISY & COLORFUL Just like KEY WEST EXPLORE THE OCEAN TOP Visit Tampa’s Aquarium BEACHES10 IN TOP 5 FLORIDA Keylime Pies February 2015 $5.49US #43110 SSSUE I EXPLORE THE GULF: HOT SPOTS FROM TAMPA TO KEY WEST Inspirational By Nature. GLADES SHADES ISSUE #43110& FEBRUARY 2015 EDITOR 4-9 FLORIDA EDITION ASH STAYT 10-11 DINING 101: FLORIDA MANAGING EDITOR NEAL PARR 12-13 TOP 10 FLORIDA BEACHES ART DIRECTOR 14-19 KEY WEST: ISLAND PARADISE M. WATKINS GROUP EDITOR 20 DINING 101: FLORIDA CONT. MANDY BEITZ 22-23 KEY WEST MARCH EVENTS WEB EDITORIAL DIRECTOR CRYSTAL DUTCHER CONTRIBUTING EDITORS NICK HOOGERHYDE; AMANDA ARMSTRONG; ETHAN KISSEL; TIMOTHY SPRINGER; SHAWN WHITE; ANTHONY WOODWARD SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS LARRY GOSLIN; KRIS LEWIS; VICKI JEFFERS EDITORIAL, PRODUCTION & SALES OFFICE 1050 W BRISTOL RD, FLINT, MI 48507 (810) 766-4000 PRODUCTION COORDINATOR JALEESA DISTELRATH MARKETING DIRECTOR M. WATKINS MANUFACTURING BT GRAPHICS For over 100 years, The Florida Keys & Key West have attracted O G R writers, artists, actors, dancers and musicians. Maybe it’s the A L Y E K water – warm, inviting and impossibly clear. Perhaps it’s the sunsets, worthy of standing ovations. Then again, it could be A the come-as-you-are attitude, a sense of freedom AD OR M LA that’s almost hard to put into words. IS fla-keys.com/culture1.800 .fla.keys ON K ATH EY W MAR EST S BIG PINE KEY & THE LOWER KEY MCTCU-8816 Culture Magazine 2014 Back Cover LO3 • November 2013 Then I head across Coronado Drive to Pier 60, quiet in the waking hours Clearwater Beach is USA Today’s with the studied casting of early anglers A-FOOT IN and the awkward begging of big-footed, Best Florida Beach Town! big-mouthed pelicans. By sunset, the TAMPA quiet will have dissipated to the festive t’s official! USA Today, the most Our beachside paradise blew the strains of musicians, the chatter of artisan Iwidely read newspaper in America, competitors out of the water as readers CLEARWATER vendors, the giggle of children on the has named Clearwater Beach the “Best tweeted or voted online at USAToday. playground and in the waves and the Beach Town in Florida.” Online voters com. “We are the best beach,” said sounds of folks having fun at the nightly confirmed what we’ve already known Mayor George N. Cretekos. “This is sunset festival. for a long time, Clearwater Beach is exciting for all of Clearwater and really BEACH Interspersed between accommodations, the best around! The readers made Pinellas County.” beach shops sell all the latest and most their voices heard loud and clear with USA Today also featured a great video crucial in sand toys and fashions, casual Clearwater emerging as the “clear of street artists at Sunsets at Pier 60 - a Avoid parking meters and traffic: eateries fill you with fresh seafood or winner” receiving more than 25% of wonderful event that takes place daily pizza and ice cream. the nearly 30,000 votes cast. Laura around sunset. Come find out what Explore Clearwater Beach on foot. Just north of Pier 60, a traffic By, the Travel Editor for USA Today makes our beach so special! roundabout spins you off the island or recently visited our beautiful beach and Footloose & Car-Free North of Pier 60, you’ll find small to the island’s north end along Mandalay reported on her findings - it’s a clear Avenue. Walk the sands past the Hilton Beach vacations should be free of the hotels and resorts such as the 16-room choice indeed! Clearwater Beach Resort for a quieter “The readers worries and kinks that come along with Barefoot Bay Resort and the 29-room Launched in January, the online beach scene. steering wheels and bucket seats. They’re Palm Pavilion Inn, which cater to peace- poll featured a selection of 10 Florida Return along Mandalay for a strip of made their meant to be barefoot and by-foot. seekers who come for the nautical Gulf beach towns handpicked by well-known shops selling resort wear and sea-themed Clearwater Beach is set up perfectly for a views on the island’s east side. beach expert, Stephen P. Leatherman voices heard gifts. The restaurants and beach bars at car-free, carefree existence, if only for an or “Dr. Beach.” His selections were this end tend toward finer fare. loud and clear oh-too-short time. Walk This Way made based on the places that best About a mile east of Pier 60 along The northernmost pearl in a string of My favorite place to walk on combined sand, surf and a welcoming with Clearwater Memorial Causeway, you can walk white-sand islands in the St. Petersburg- Clearwater Beach is around the city sense of community and it’s no wonder among the fishes, sharks, dolphin, emerging as the Clearwater area, it’s known for its wide marina. It’s like a shopping mall for water Clearwater came out on top. Located stingrays and sea turtles at Clearwater beaches and casual attitudes. Most of its sports. I go early and pick up brochures on Florida’s stunning Gulf Coast, our Marine Aquarium, a rehabilitation ‘clear winner’” beach parks and commercial district lie for everything from a parasail lift to a miles of sugar white sand beaches, facility for sea creatures. Take a trolley within a strip less than two miles long paddleboat dinner excursion or family stunning sunsets and tranquil turquoise tour and stay for some of the interaction and three blocks wide, easily doable on pirate-themed cruise. On the docks, waters are hard to beat. and feeding programs throughout the foot. Because there are hourly parking fishing charter captains busily ready their day. You won’t want to miss seeing fees on the beaches, you save more than supplies, Wave-runner renters cry out to Winter, the world’s most famous gas money by walking. you like hawkers on a Jamaican beach dolphin, who lost her tail in an accident, Bike rentals are readily available and a and the air disperses a scented mixture but is now healthy and swimming freely. trolley travels around and off the island, of salt, fish and boat fuel. A heady aroma for those with tired feet. for a Pisces water-lover such as myself, it evokes visions of high-sea adventure and Parking Zone aquamarine thrills. Both North and South of Pier 60 you’ll find most of Clearwater Beach’s hotels, mom-pop motels, cottages and resorts. The main ones - Best Western “A heady aroma Sea Wake Beach Resort, Holiday Inn Express and Shephard’s Beach Resort for a Pisces water all have fabulous views of the Gulf of Mexico and Clearwater Pass. And don’t lover such as myself, Sunset At Pier 60 is a daily festival that miss the new Hyatt Aqualea Resort, it evokes visions of operates 365 days a year. (Weather adjacent to Clearwater Beach, a bright permitting). Offering food concessions, colored Mediterranean-inspired resort. high-sea adventure busker entertainment, a cinema, Others hotels south of Pier 60 are and aquamarine craftiers and more festivities. Clearwater Beach is known for its sunset celebrations and many shops and scattered around main drags South Gulf- restaurants, but the beach is the main attraction. view Boulevard and Coronado Drive and thrills.” their side streets. 4 ■ Glades & Shades Glades & Shades ■ 5 FLORIDA PANTHER FACTS JOHN’S PASS TAMPA The Super Cat! The Great Hunter The panthers has the greatest natural Efficient is the word. Adult male VILLAGE & BOARDWALK distribution of any mammal in the panthers weigh up to 150 pounds and Western Hemisphere except for man. can measure almost 7 feet long from For a break from the beach, What is the Florida Panther? The panther is extremely agile and the nose to the tip of the tail. Females check out John’s Pass Village & Puma concolor coryi. The Florida has great jumping power and may leap are smaller, rarely weighing more than Boardwalk in Madeira Beach. With Panther is a subspecies of cougar that has from the ground up to a height of 18 100 pounds. Panthers are built to hunt more than 100 retailers, restaurants feet into a tree. It is a good swimmer but live prey. Deer and wild hogs are their adapted to the subtropical environment and attractions, your visit here can of Florida. prefers not to enter the water. Sight is preferred food, but, when these are not its most acute sense with a good sense of available, panthers will eat raccoons, easily turn into a full day of fun. How many Florida Panthers? hearing, but is thought to have a poorly armadillos and even alligators. Shop for classic Florida souvenirs in Only 80 to 100 panthers still remain developed sense of smell. Panthers are Interestingly, panthers eating a diet of the tin-roofed village, enjoy seafood in Florida, making this one of the most most active at dusk and dawn. small animals are not as healthy as those and casual fare al fresco, and hit the rare and endangered mammals in the They can run up to 35 mph but with plenty of deer to hunt. While they boardwalk for a view of (or ride whole world. only for a few hundred yards, their are good sprinters, panthers rarely chase on) the water – fishing charters, Where is their Habitat? preferred method of hunting is to creep prey for long distances. Instead, prey is water sports rentals and cruise Florida Panthers are usually found in up as close to their prey as possible and singled out, stalked and ambushed.