[10:30 a.m.] Shhhhhh…..Don’t tell anyone about my first stop today. It’s yet another beach where developers have yet to rip up the sea oats and smash some of those bothersome turtle eggs to put up high-rise condos. What gives down here?

The more I travel along the Tamiami Trail on Florida’s West Coast, the more I want to come back for a vacation. It’s like getting into a time machine and coming back to Florida of the 1960s. If it weren’t for the threat of a rather large hurricane, this would be the perfect time to visit southwest Florida. It’s hot, but not August hot, and it’s not crowded because most kids are back at school.

I have no idea how they found this spot – even me, a lifetime resident of Florida, had never heard of this beach – but there was a German family vacationing at this beach today. Their two preschool sons were loving it. The Gulf was flat as a pancake, clear and red tide-free. And the sand here is like the kind you pay $4 a bag for at Home Depot.

Some locals from Englewood said they were here for the first time in months because like many Tampa Bay area beaches, the red tide was so bad it made you cough every other breath you took. Today, it’s absolutely perfect for the beach, with the water a comfy 81 degrees, no stingrays in sight and not even a ripple – yet – from Fred Flintstone’s wife.