Celebrating Our 25th in Madeira Beach

Madeira Beach is a beach community on the Gulf Coast of Florida between Clearwater and St. Petersburg Beach. My parents started taking us to Madeira Beach over 10 years ago, and we loved it. Years have passed and my mother is gone. My husband and I wanted to follow the tradition with our own children. We decided to make our 25th anniversary a family celebration and took our son and daughter and their significant others.

We all decided that this was one of our better vacations. We did a lot of relaxing and eating. My favorite part of the day was the morning, when I would walk the beach as the sun was coming up. So peaceful.

We stayed in a condo on the beach across from John's Pass. John's Pass reminds you of a fishing village/boardwalk. There are shops, restaurants, boat rentals, parasailing, and jet skiing. Our top restaurant pick on John's Pass is the Friendly Fisherman, with good food at a decent price. We also enjoy stopping at the Bamboo Beer Garden for a pitcher of beer and entertainment. The "boo" is a very relaxed establishment, great for people-watching, and if you're lucky, you get to hear "muffyioke," their version of karaoke.

Something that was just pure fun was a pirate cruise that set sail from John's Pass. Although I believe it's geared towards children, five adults turned into kids and had a ball.

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We rented through SunHost condo rentals. Our condo was a two-bedroom/two-bath with a beautiful view of the Gulf of Mexico and the bay. We also had a nice-size kitchen and living room and enjoyed sitting on the balcony, watching dolphins play in the bay.

About a half-hour north of where we were staying is the Greek town of Tarpon Springs. We enjoyed our day there shopping and eating. We ate at Hella's Restaurant. The service and the food was excellent. My husband and I split a Greek salad and combination platter. The salad for two was more than enough: a delicious potato salad under lettuce with feta cheese, Greek olives, onions, cucumbers, and peppers. The combination platter featured a gyro, mousaka, pastitsio (ziti and eggplant), and dolmades (stuffed grape vine leaves). The kids had the gyro meals, the best we have ever tasted. And the Saganaki/flamed cheese had quite the presentation. There is also a bakery attached to restaurant where we took dessert to go. We would definitely recommend Hella's. In fact, we went back there again during our week trip.

We heard that Fort De Soto Park was ranked the no. 1 beach by Dr. Beach, so we had to check it out. We are very glad we did. It is gorgeous. There is something for everyone: biking, swimming, hiking, kayaking, and exploring an old fort from the Spanish-American War. We biked around the island on surrey-type bikes and three-wheelers.