Coffee Pot Bayou – St Petersburg Waterfront, Exercise, Playground

Published on 05/18/21: One of our favorite areas of St. Pete is the Coffee Pot Bayou area. We drive through nearly every day on our way downtown, passing many walkers, joggers, bikers, and rollerbladers as they exercise along the waterfront. A perfect setup with a roughly 2-mile sidewalk (very wide) winding along the edge of Tampa Bay from downtown into Coffee Pot Bayou.

Coffee Pot Playground

Near the end, you’ll find a playground for kids along the waterfront. This is one we selfishly visited numerous times when Colt was younger. As you already know, anything waterfront has our family’s attention. This includes playgrounds. Between the passing kayakers, paddleboarders, diving pelicans and the occasional dolphin or manatee, it’s just better, at least for this dad (selfishly).

While Colt is starting to outgrow this playground, he’ll never outgrow the preserved natural area which surrounds, including a boat ramp and dock. He was certainly enthused about walking along the seawall, scouting out creatures and watching a kayaker launch from the ramp. The pelicans also gave us a show, dive bombing their dinner every minute or so right off the dock. Another positive, the trees and covered picnic tables for additional shade.

Colt’s Goof Up

The trees are also evidently effective in providing cover from embarrassment when you goof up. Colt tossed a toy over his shoulder, not realizing another boy was in the path. No tears were shed, though the other child certainly deserved an apology. Rather than apologize, Colt ran behind the tree in embarrassment. I told him he needed to apologize, otherwise “you know what’s going to happen when you get home”. He apologized. As to what was going to happen when he got home? Less ominous that it sounds. Our son is dessert driven (thus our #LovingStPeteSweets series). If we threaten to take away that scoop of ice cream after dinner, he miraculously falls back in line. Glad it works for now, we’ll take it.

On a related note, we’ll have a fairly unique #LovingStPeteSweets post within the next 2 weeks, just awaiting 🍨to roll into our cul-de-sac.

Note that this playground was previously constructed on sand, though is now AstroTurf.

📸 credit for first two pics, Visit St. Pete/Clearwater

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