(New) Favorite Florida Beach

A few days ago, my husband and I found our new favorite beach in Florida! A manager at work told me about her favorite beach, and I just knew we had to give it a try. Previously, our favorite beach was Siesta Key in Sarasota. However, after visiting Fort De Soto Park a few days ago, we have a new favorite. Move over Siesta Key. There's a new beach in town!

Fort De Soto Park gave us the beach we had imagined in our minds since moving to Florida. We found nature at its finest, and there were plenty of wildlife sightings to top off our day at the beach. After parking at the North Beach, we planted ourselves on the beach for an entire day. There was not an umbrella or beach chair within about a hundred yards to either side of us. It was almost like we had the place to ourselves! We did not notice any buildings from our spot on North Beach, and that was just the way we like our beach. In my honest opinion, I love beaches for their natural beauty. I feel especially relaxed when I look around and see dolphins, birds, and sand instead of high-rise condo buildings and cars. Fort De Soto is our quintessential Florida beach.

Aside from abundant natural beauty and perfect beach weather that day,

there were also a couple other firsts that made our day at Fort De Soto Park extra special. 

Remember all of my failed attempts at finding a whole sand dollar? Well, I finally found a whole sand dollar. It's small, but it is my very first whole sand dollar!

Even more exciting than finding shells, we found two hermit crabs slowly making their way along the bottom of the Gulf. I found the second one after stepping on something hard while wading through waist deep water. We named him (I'm making assumptions here) Herman the Hermit Crab. Poor Herman. His shell was covered in barnacles. I think it's time he finds a new shell-ter. (Sorry I couldn't help myself.) I sort of wanted to take Herman home, but I'm sure he would be much happier at Fort De Soto park than he would in our tiny apartment any day.

After enjoying a day at our new favorite beach, we stayed for a gorgeous sunset.

If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend trying to see a

Florida sunset over the Gulf of Mexico.

You won't regret it. Promise!

Happy Tuesday

Tonight we're enjoying a nice dinner out for my husband's birthday!