At dead center on the rumpled, char-edged map, a big black X marked the spot under a clump of crudely drawn palm trees. My son Aaron, then 4, could not contain his excitement when I showed him the tattered sheet I told him I'd found on my beach stroll. We were, after all, on Treasure Island, in the very neck of the waters where pirate Gasparilla once sailed, so the map and its X could mean only one thing.
We headed for the nearest stand of palms and sure enough, buried shallowly beneath two crossed sticks, we found a sparkly cache of jewelry and coins.
Aaron never forgot my pirate's treasure game, even after he figured out, at age 12, that I had planted the stash. Inventing games on our travels was my way of proactively engaging him in the sights we were seeing. It works especially well when visiting museums, gardens and other places where a child might lose interest. And follow-up games keep them busy while traveling.
The St. Petersburg-Clearwater area is overflowing with attractions that appeal specifically to children, but with the right focus, some of its more high-brow sights, too, can seem like fun and games.
Take for instance the Dali Museum in its fantastic new building in downtown St. Petersburg. Given the surrealist artist's penchant for eye trickery, this museum offers kids a playful introduction to fine art. Ask for the Surreal Family Guide; playing its Treasure Hunt game gets them looking closely at Dali's double images and symbolism. Tell them to look in the museum and gift shop for melting clocks and other distorted, morphing images, such as the piano that melts into a skull. Then, as you travel, ask them to draw everyday objects, a car, ball, dog, etc., in Dali style. Dali fans, watch a video, read more and see the new Dali Museum layout here.
While downtown, head to The Pier for ice cream and shopping. On the second floor, visit the aquarium and have the kids jot down funny names of creatures they meet, zoanthids, porkfish, mushroom anemone, gag grouper, sea whip, Picasso triggerfish and so on. Then use the names in games of word scramble and Hangman to keep them occupied in the car. Up on The Pier's roof, feed quarters into the binoculars and play I Spy, where one describes characteristics of the boats, buildings, channel markers and other things they see while the rest guess the object.
Next stop: Pinewood Cultural Park in Largo. Here your older kids can become filmmakers and botanists. Bring a video camera to the park's Heritage Village, a collection of 25 historic structures in a woodsy setting. Costumed docents stroll the grounds, so have your young filmmakers prepare questions for interviews with them. What kind of games did the kids who lived in the circa-1907 House of Seven Gables play? How old are the two teddy bears in the circa-1856 Plant-Sumner House?
In adjacent Florida Botanical Gardens, suggest the artists in the family compose their own field guide. Have them write down in a notebook the common and botanical names of their favorite plants and draw their shape, leaf, flower or fruit. Encourage them to be fanciful with such plants as hog plum, lobster claw, windmill palm, lipstick tree and lizard's tail.
Time to head to the islands for beach games. Stop for lunch at PJ's Oyster Bar in Indian Rocks Beach for fresh local seafood. Grab souvenir paper menus for the next game. At Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary, with pen and notebook in hand, read the signs and note what each bird likes to eat in preparation to create a menu for Birdie Bistro. Describe and illustrate, like PJ's menu, yummy dishes such as Minnow Sushi, Rat Ragout, Bug du Jour, Worms Marinara and, of course, an Early Bird Special.
The menu game works well for all of the area's nature attractions. They can design different dishes for the underwater denizens of Clearwater Marine Aquarium or the dung beetles and ant lions in the Brooker Creek Preserve education center.
Of course, you could play the pirate's treasure game at any of the area's long litany of beaches, but it works especially well at Pass-a-Grille Beach, with its smuggler history (learn about that in the local historical museum). Pass-a-Grille is at the southern end of St. Pete Beach, which was recently voted TripAdvisor's No. 1 Beach in the U.S. and No. 5 in the world for 2012.
Another local treasure for kids is Fort De Soto Park, where ghost soldiers are said to roam the Spanish-American War fortress and its beaches. The award-winning, amenity-rich Fort De Soto Park was recently named America's best family beach by Parents magazine.
