Treasure Island, Florida - family, return to childhood

My sister, Michelle and her husband Ron and my nephews drove from (straight through) Texas to Florida a few weekends ago (how, I don't know).  They stopped in Gainesville Saturday night before heading to Treasure Island for the rest of their vacation.  Matt and I spent some time with them that Sunday, taking them to the Devil's Millhopper Geological State Park, the Butterfly Garden at the University, and lunch at Leonardo's Millhopper.  (The picture is us at the Devil's Millhopper).

There isn't anything cooler than spending time with your sister.  Thankfully fate worked out that I was able to head down to Treasure Island and spend some more time with them and our other sister Jackie and her kids.   It was just a regular family reunion, as we took our dad to the St.Petersburg Pier and enjoyed lunch together (imagine nine people at a fast food restaurant, with four of them under 13 - talk about crazy).

Our dad made us his famous spaghetti and meatballs and I headed back to Treasure Island to spend time with our mom enjoy the beach a little more.  Gotta love getting time off!!

Comments

[debbie]

HI I SAW YOUR SITE ........ WE VACATION ALOT IN FLORIDA. BEEN TO DESTIN TWICE IN THE SUMMERS THAT HIGHER UP IN THE GOLF......... WAS THINKING OF THIS AREA TREASURE ISLAND .... WHATS IT LIKE FOR A FAMILY WITH HIGH SCHOOL KIDS? WHATS THE TOWN LIKE AND THE WHOLE AREA AROUND? THANKS DEBBIE

[traci]

Hi Debbie,

Thanks for checking out the blog.

Treasure Island has always been special to me, since we went there almost every week when I was a kid. It isn't nearly as built up as Destin and is a pretty quiet beach community. There is a great pizza place called Gigi's - http://www.gigisitalianrestaurant.com/ - that I love. Further down the beach in Pass-A-Grille beach is an interesting place called the Hurricane (http://www.thehurricane.com/) - a lot of visitors come here and they have great sunset views, the food is okay.

The best thing about the beaches in Pinellas County too is the fact they are pretty much continuous, so you can stay in Treasure Island, but visit a number of beaches (St. Pete Beach, Pass-A-Grille, Madeira Beach, Redington Shores, Indian Shores or Clearwater Beach). If you you need to visit John's Pass (http://www.johnspass.com/) - I always have fun here. They just opened a Bubba Gump Shrimp, but we haven't tried it yet.

Treasure Island is also close to St. Petersburg (this is different than St. Pete Beach). There are lots of things for high schoolers to do there (movies, shopping, and if you go in the spring, baseball?). Tampa isn't far either, and they have theme parks (Busch Gardens and Adventure Island).

I hope this helped some - it really depends on what you are looking for. Please let me know if you have any questions or need any recommendations for specific things. I hope you decide to vacation down there, all the beaches are beautiful and living up here in Gainesville, makes me miss them.

Happy New Year and hope you have a nice weekend!
Traci