John's Pass Village and Boardwalk (Madeira Beach)...

For my 25th birthday, my mom, boyfriend, and I took a trip to John's Pass. We went for the weekend, so booking a hotel was needed. We stayed at the Barefoot Beach Club. This place is near the beach as well as a 5-minute walk to John's Pass. We stayed in a newly renovated room that was gorgeous. Highly recommend. On to the main attraction.

John's Pass Village and Boardwalk in Madeira Beach was suggested to us by good friends. (Thank you, Marian and Patty!) This is located a couple hours' drive from Clermont. John's Pass is the perfect tourist/local spot with many shops and restaurants. There are tons of water activities too, such as dinner/lunch cruises, pirate themed cruises, jet skiing, parasailing, dolphin tours, tiki tours, etc. As for us, we booked a dolphin tour at Hubbard's Marina.

We boarded our hour-long dolphin boat tour around 11. Not only can you see cute dolphins, but the tour guides take you past multimillion dollar mansions along the water. There were many a dolphin out on this particular day. They would breach the surface, swim under the boat, and breach again. We even saw a baby dolphin swimming with its mom and another male dolphin named Matthew. They took us past a nesting area for birds, that I cannot remember the name of at the moment. There were so many birds gathered, clucking their throats (without making noise) back and forth. I believe our tour guides said it was how they cooled down. With seeing all of this, you will find people jet skiing, enjoying the water on their personal boats, and see many a boat cruises. These dolphin tours are fun, relaxing, and informative.

Before and after our tour, we were quite munchy. So back to the boardwalk we went. We tried the Pirate's Pub-N-Grub, where we sampled their jalapeno hush puppies, mozzarella sticks, and grilled shrimp with fries. All very good, crunchy, spicy hush puppies, cheese pull worthy mozz sticks, juicy shrimp, and fries that reminded us of Five Guys. Then departing our relaxing tour, we tried the Friendly Fisherman. We ordered the corn fritters, (appetizer) mahi fish tacos, a crispy chicken sandwich, and the blackened mahi fish with rice (mains). The corn fritters were fluffy and sweet, served with a side of honey and topped with powdered sugar. The chicken sandwich was perfectly crispy and juicy. Their fries were pretty standard but still good. My boyfriend wasn't a huge fan of the blackened mahi fish, but my tacos were phenomenal. They had a really good pico type salsa on top. (If you visit ask for Heather, she was an excellent waitress. Funny, personable, timely.)

Once stuffed, we made our way down the boardwalk and visited Zeno's taffy shop. They have a wall full of flavored taffy! From cookie dough to pina colada to cherry limeade to eggnog, candy apple, root beer float, maple, sour apple, spearmint, and much more. They also have novelty toys. You can even watch their taffy pulling machine from the window outside or right inside the store. Once you purchase, they give you a guide to all their creative flavors. We got a full bag, and so far, the sour apple is my favorite.

After exiting the Boardwalk area, we went to a few stores. Highly suggest The Pepper Palace and Big Dick's Salty Seaman. There is a plethora of hot sauces, seasonings, salsas, chips at The Pepper Palace. Their Honey Chipotle Rum BBQ sauce is divine, sweet and spicy, and their pepper garlic seasoning makes the perfect all seasoning and is great on tilapia! Big Dick's Salty Seaman is a sarcastically funny and crass store. Hilarious merchandise that is geared more toward adults.

All in all, this was a beautiful trip and a great way to spend my birthday. I hope you visit John's Pass and let me know what you think in the comments. Until next time. Bye!

Fun Fact: Dolphins use echolocation.