Where can you spend a lazy, quiet Florida beach weekend that’s conveniently less than two hours from Orlando’s thicket of theme parks and a mere 20-minute drive from downtown Tampa, yet far from the crowds that jam Clearwater and Treasure Island? Pass-a-Grille, that’s where. I’m an Orlando resident, and it’s where I head when I need a bit of good ’ol sun-and-sand relaxation.

Pass-a-Grille is actually a little residential community that’s considered part of larger St. Pete Beach. But nestled at the very southern tip of Long Key, it feels like the end of the line. There’s just one main street. Sandwiched between Boca Ciega Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, Pass-a-Grille is barely two blocks wide. It’s delightfully walkable, and even on those weekends when a seafood festival or some other event is taking place the mood is laid back. In other words, you come here to chill.

The beach is a good one—sandy and wide unless it’s high tide, with enough small shells to keep beachcombers happy. The bottom is sandy, too, and also clean; I’ve never gotten tar on the bottom of my feet here like I have at some of Florida’s Atlantic beaches. You’ll get the occasional willies when a small fish happens to brush your leg while darting by, and I’ve seen stingrays laying on the bottom a couple of times. But on the whole I don’t feel uneasy venturing into the water here, which is no higher than chest deep quite a ways out and feels warm as a bath except during the winter. 

So what do you do? Indulge in the simplest of pleasures, like getting up at the crack of dawn and sitting on the beach, listening to the lap, lap, lap of the waves as the morning light grows progressively brighter. Then walk those two short blocks over to the bay and stroll along the waterfront while pelicans and seagulls take a time out atop a barnacle-encrusted piling. Chat with the fishermen. Go for a swim. Nap.

Sometimes nature puts on a free show. I was once here on a humid September evening following a fierce thunderstorm that spared Pass-a-Grille its full fury, sitting on a bench facing the bay. It was dark, with a constant breeze off the water making the mugginess more bearable. Every 30 seconds or so lightning would illuminate the eastern horizon, revealing banks of clouds shot through with flashes of yellow and pink light. I can’t provide the meteorological explanation for this totally trippy visual effect, but if I owned an iPod I would have been listening to “Dark Side of the Moon.”

Bird watching is another relaxing pastime. Take a nice quiet walk about half an hour before sunset. Shore birds jab their long, narrow beaks into the wet sand, probing for marine delicacies. Egrets congregate at the rock wall at the southern end of the beach, carefully picking their way among the rocks as they search for food, and the air is filled with the cries of sea gulls. Sit on the rocks and watch the sun go down. 

The Two Diamond-rated Hurricane Seafood Restaurant, across the street from the beach, is the most popular of several Pass-a-Grille eateries, especially for sunset watching from their third-floor rooftop deck. Personally I find the Hurricane’s food overpriced and not very exciting; I prefer the Sea Critters Cafe (Two Diamond), a casual Key West-style joint where you can sit dockside along a pretty waterway next to a bridge while watching small boats come and go.

For breakfast it’s gotta be the Seahorse Restaurant (One Diamond), on Pass-a-Grille Way across from the bay. In business since the 1930s, the Seahorse is quintessential “old Florida” from the scarred wooden booths and postcards under glass on each table to old-fashioned jalousie windows that crank open. You can eat inside or outside on the shaded porch with a view of wheeling birds and fishing docks. And your waitress is sure to address you as “hon” at some point. I just wish the food was a cut above standard diner fare (decent coffee, basic omelets, okay home fries, ho-hum toast). It’s the beachside atmosphere that’s authentic.

I haven’t even told you about Fort DeSoto Park, or the boat trip you can take to a nearby island strewn with seashells that would look great on the mantle decoratively arranged in a rustic-looking basket. Pencil in a weekend at Pass-a-Grille, leave your laptop at home and let me know how it goes.