A Second Honeymoon

HONEYMOON ISLAND - Lisa Borsch approaches the new beach area at Honeymoon Island State Park and can't believe her eyes.

"I didn't know that this existed," she says. "Where did this come from?"

It came from the dredging of Hurricane Pass, which separates Honeymoon from Caladesi Island. The state's recent $2 million beach renourishment project brought ashore 135,000 cubic yards of sand.

The shoreline on the palm-dotted west side of the island used to all but disappear north of the jetty. There was little sand and plenty of limestone rocks, but few visitors.

Now the white sand beach there is wider than the popular beach area south of the jetty, and home on this day to dozens of beach umbrellas. Sunbathers, fishermen, snorkelers, swimmers and families building sand castles take advantage of a new slice of paradise.

"It's great that they gave us more area to enjoy this beautiful place," says Borsch, of Oldsmar. "It's so pretty!"

She continues walking northward in the surf with her daughter, Olivia, 3, and they pick up shells while exploring the new spot.

The six-month project began in August and opened in early February. It's too early to say whether it's boosting attendance, says Gloria Beauchamp, the assistant park manager who supervises the isle. Honeymoon Island's more than 975,000 visitors last year made it Florida's most-attended state park.

"This is my new favorite area on the island," says Beauchamp. "It's real close to the parking lot, and not a lot of people have found it yet."

She adds that it's like being on a deserted island, although it's just two miles west of Dunedin via Causeway Boulevard.

Wayne Schmidt of Tarpon Springs enjoys rocking on a wooden swing near the bathhouse while his wife of 44 years, Pat, collects shells up the beach.

"It's 100 percent better now," he says. "It's really extended the beach out 50 yards, and it's so clean. This is the nicest beach in the area now."

Pat and Bob Linn of Dunedin snorkel with their granddaughter, Marissa Linn, 8, before enjoying a picnic lunch on the beach.

"It was so rocky that all we did was shell here before," Pat Linn says. "But I have mixed emotions because they covered up an area that was good for fishing."

Bob Linn chuckles and adds, "And they covered up a lot of your shells, too."

His wife is a park volunteer who teaches shell classes at the nature center.

Near another new feature at the beach, a granite jetty, Alec Mann, 7, vacationing from Indiana, uses a small net to catch two dozen snails, housed in turban shells, and a few minnows. He marvels as they swim and crawl in his plastic yellow pail.

The new jetty provides a home to underwater life, and it should help keep the new beach from eroding too quickly. Volunteers and park staff planted 18,000 dune plants such as sea oats, railroad vine and beach grass that should also help the new beach stay put and eventually serve as a buffer to storms.

"You'd never know this was a new beach," first-time visitor Tim Manion of Tampa says. "They did a nice job with it; it looks like it's always been here."