Rotary Centennial Nature Center at Honeymoon Island State Park — Attraction in Palm Harbor

Honeymoon Island Park beach is a gem, miles and miles of white sand rugged beach w no development in sight. Bushes and dead bush stubs all scattered over, a very pretty sight. Except for the senior homes at the front end, there are no houses or commercial spots on the island, and that is the main reason everything looks so natural. We went there in late December, very pleasant to walk on the beach, high 60s, hardly anyone there in the late morning. The few people who were there seemed to be involved in shell collection, as the beach is a continuous pile of tiny shells. I picked a few, too. Shell walking is a good therapy for feet if you can manage to walk barefoot on the beach. I wanted to, but couldn't, since we were in a hurry as usual to reach the next beach destination - Cape San Blas - a narrow strip of land in the ocean, deep in the Florida pandale region, another heavenly beach. We found both these places by searching the map at random, for land that streatches out into the ocean like a bay. These two turned out to be top picks.

The walkway leading to the Honeymoon park is also truly awesome, with palm trees flanked by footpaths on both sides, really beautiful. There's nothing like that anywhere that I have seen - but I haven't seen that many beaches either - the closest seems to be Monterey or Pacific...

Enjoyed my visit to the nature center up until the point I wanted to make a purchase at the gift shop. I found the perfect birthday gift for my sister and brought it to the counter. The cashier said, "Two items?" and I said, "No, only one--the shirt." She then looked at the hat I was wearing and said, "What about the hat?" I responded that the hat was mine. She looked at me with suspicion and asked what brand it was. I took the hat off, put on my reading glasses, and read her the label. She said to other worker, "Is that one of ours?" The whole interaction was very humiliating. Perhaps you need to educate your staff that most senior citizens are not shoplifters. Had I not needed the shirt for a gift I would have just walked out of the store. I certainly...

Stopped in to get our annual family pass while it was 50% off (I believe the state park pass is still on sale until the 14th of January). As you might imagine there was a crowd of folks waiting, but once they called in some backup the line wasn’t too bad.

While waiting I had a chance to check out the nature center. It was more in line with a gift shop than a nature center but there was a nice display of sea shells for identifying those you might pick up at the beach.

I also really enjoyed reading the history of Honeymoon Island and how it became a state park.

If you haven’t been, I highly recommend this pretty sea...