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Caladesi Island-One of the best family-fun days I've had in a very long time was recently when I spent a day with my granddaughter at Caladesi Island, a number-1 rated beach in Florida and just ferry ride across the St. Joseph Sound from Honeymoon Island and the Pinellas County mainland.

On the island in the Gulf of Mexico, we swam in the clear waters, built castles in the power-white sand, and fed seagulls. But more than a day of fun in the sun, my intent was to renew ties with my 11-year-old granddaughter.

Until nearly a year ago, my granddaughter lived with my daughter-mostly in my house. After my daughter moved out, my granddaughter went to live with her father. For me, however, keeping close family ties is something I need. The first few months she was away, I kept a modest distance-I guess I thought it best since she had to change elementary schools, changes residences and get used to the new woman in her dad's life. But now as weeks pass, I go to the community center and watch her practice Karate; I also pick her up every couple weeks for special outings. The most recent was the trip to Caladesi Island.

I watched her play in the smooth Gulf of Mexico waters. "Hey, there's a stingray coming," she teased.

"Yeah, sure. If a stingray were near you'd be moving to shore."

"But there really is a dolphin," I said.

"Oh...." (How can I describe squeals of excitement?)

Out of the water, we found a sandcastle that had been constructed, probably the day before, and gave it a quick remodeling job. While building, we talked about this and that. I told about the island and how years ago it was homesteaded by one family: father, mother and daughter, and how the family traded goods with Indians who would canoe over from the mainland. "The little girl, Myrtle, had to row her little boat over to the mainland to attend school. That was back in the early 1900s." (1895-1934)

"Wow. What happened to them?" she asked. "Well, Myrtle (Myrtle Scharred Betz) grew up and wrote a book titled 'Yesteryear I lived in Paradise.'"

"How do you know this, grandma?"

"I wrote about it for the newspaper."

About half-and-hour before time to board our ferry back to Honeymoon Island, we went to the Island gift shop and purchased corn chips, then returned to the beach. "You can feed the seagulls," I said. "When you were about three-years-old, you actually caught a gull."

"I caught a seagul?

"You did. We were leaving Clearwater Beach and I let you open your Fritos. I think ever gull on the beach was around you-surely at least a hundred. Honestly, you were practically covered with gulls. You were so excited, you reached down and grabbed one by the wing."

She giggled. "I did? What did you do, grandma?"

"I started yelling 'turn it loose; it'll bit you'."

She now opened the bag of corn chips and-as Florida beach goers know-here comes a white cloud of seagulls within an inch of her feeding fingers. Every time a cawing gull took a chip, she turned to me-her face that of the 3-year-old in my mind's eye-and her giggles making up for the recent months lost.

My pleasure was more than the smile that didn't leave her face ferry ride back to Honeymoon Island, more than the swimming and teasing in the water, more than the excitement of seagulls and remembrance of days past, more than the renovation of another's sandcastle and watching her fingers digging in the wet sand, it was the camaraderie-the tying and the tightening of family ties.

Learn more about this author, Patricia Lieb.
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