TR AVEL
OLD FLORIDA CHARM BY KATHY SAUNDERS
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riving over the Boca Grande Bridge brings back 30 years of memories vacationing on Gasparilla Island with my children, relatives and family friends. It still has the same homes, the same shops, the same restaurants and the same ambiance from those
bygone days. Rather than a been-there, done-that vacation, it’s a so-glad-to-be-back respite. This pristine, 7-mile-long island that separates Charlotte Harbor from the Gulf of Mexico is just 90 minutes by car from St. Petersburg — I say by car because many visitors arrive via boat. This is, after all, the tarpon fishing capital of the world.
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