Tampa Day Five

 I had one last thing on my itinerary that we had to do before Memorial Day weekend. Something that combines two things that I love: beaches and big guns (attached to historic military forts)! 😍 And Fort DeSoto County Park had them both! 

The first thing we hit was the museum. It was the perfect size: lots of good information but not so much as to be overwhelming. It was named after Hernando DeSoto, who explored the area in 1539. It would eventually become part of the Spanish Empire. 

It was then surveyed by Robert E Lee in 1849 for the US Army Engineers. They suggested that the area be fortified for coastal defense. Union troops were stationed there as a part of the blockade of Tampa Bay but the actual fort wasn't constructed until 1898 and completed in 1906. Troops were stationed there between 1898 and 1910. Even during WWI, only a caretaking for remained and it was abandoned in 1923.

Then the fort was bought by the county in 1938 for $12,500 and used as a bird sanctuary. Then the US entered WWII. The military bought it back for $18,404 and made it a subpost of McDill Field and used it as a bombing range during the war. 

It was sold back to the county in 1948 and then became a county park in 1963. 

Our next stop was one of the two fishing piers in the park. There were quite a few fisherman and bird conservationists there. 

And we also got to see 3 manatees! I was sure it was too late in the season and was so excited to see some for the first time! 

It was getting pretty hot but we still did the walk from the pier to the Fort and got a nice view of the beach from above... 

Turns out we took the long way around. We could have walked straight from the parking lot right to the fort. But then we wouldn't have seen the view.

Then it was definitely time to head to North Beach for some swimming in the Gulf! 

It was a bit of a walk from the car...

But the white sand and warm water was worth it! 

Since you can't visit too many beautiful beaches in one day, we decided to share the love and do some swimming at West Beach. That was until we saw West Beach... :/ 

Yes, it was so lackluster that I didn't even bother taking a picture. The beach was narrow and the water was gross. So we just got in the car and went for dinner...

Ted Peter's Smoked Fish has been smoking fish in 1947. And it was a darn good thing that we didn't swim at West Beach or we would have missed out. There were only 5 fish dinners left and we got one! 

Our smoked mullet dinner was served with coleslaw, warm German potato salad (the best we've ever had!), lemon, tomato, and onion slices. It was good but so different than any other fish we've had before. 

Swimming makes you hungry so we also had room for dessert on the way home. Chris had ice cream and I had a piece of yellow cake filled with cookie butter, dipped in funnel cake batter and deep fried! 😮😋