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Road trip: Five days in Florida

Back by popular demands are my travel blogs. Sharing adventures on the open road. I got away from it last year, and I plan to resurrect it this season. This installment is a little late, but realignment demanded other duties. Anyway, the Dish and I flew to Tampa on Wednesday and spent three nights on Clearwater Beach, which is just west of Tampa. Then we drove up to Tallahassee on Saturday. Here you go, with tales from Florida.

CLEARWATER

Clearwater Beach contains one of those rare, narrow strips with the ocean on one side and the bay on the other. Clearwater Beach was no more than 200 yards wide where we stayed. Our hotel’s back window looked out over the bay, and the front door looked across to the ocean.

Gorgeous. Simply gorgeous. The beach itself wasn’t the most pristine, but it was fine. Lots of tiny sea shells.

September is a great time to go to the beach. Not many tourists. We sat out on the beach all day Thursday, ordered a small pepperoni/black olive pizza from a vendor, jumped in the water when we got hot, worked on our laptops. All in all, not a bad way to spend several hours.

Of course, westward-facing beaches are most awesome at sundown. The sun dropping from sight over the ocean horizon is one of the most magical things nature offers. I’ve seen it in Oregon, in Key West, in Malibu and now in Clearwater. Never loses its sparkle.

Clearwater itself is a good-sized city (108,000) that touts itself as home of the Phillies, who have been training in Clearwater since 1947, one of the longest-running relationships between baseball franchise and spring site.

Clearwater otherwise is just a typical Florida city until you get down by the beach, where it becomes an eclectic resort town.

Clearwater Beach sports a giant sand castle, probably 8-10 feet high, 20 feet wide, with various images touting Clearwater.

At the Clearwater marina, all kinds of tour boats are docked, including a pirate ship that takes people out on day excursions. We shot one of our pregame videos in front of the pirate ship.

Doughbot Donuts | Sacramento, CA - Food Adventures

One bite. That's all it took. One delicious bite, and we were soon propelled to a place that can only be described as nirvana ... Just as long as this nirvana is decked out in red raspberries, fresh blueberries, chili chocolate icing, a spritz of mint, and the devilish combination of bacon and maple. What in heaven to earth am I talking about? I bring you the joy that is Doughbot Donuts . Founded through their fascination of donuts and robots (the relationship is obvious, right?), the husband and wife team of Bryan Widener and Dannah O'Donnell recently opened their first storefront location in midtown Sacramento to crowds of adoring fans who already knew about them via Twitter and Facebook, the very platforms that have gotten many small business ventures like gourmet food trucks off to sustaining starts. This was certainly a far cry from their modest beginnings in May 2010, when they were only making a few dozen donuts in their home kitchen. Back then, experimentation was the name of the game. They currently have over 20 varieties of donuts in their arsenal, including vegan varieties. All are made from scratch, meaning that you won't find anything packaged or premade like that of most donut shops. Among the most popular are the bacon and maple donut, the apple and bacon fritter, the dulce de leche, the chai glaze donut, the PB&J, the mint chocolate donut, and "The Dude," a white Russian Bavarian cream-filled delight with a vodka Kahlua glaze. And as I understand it, they're currently working out a s'mores donut that echoes the days of childhood campfires and ghost stories. But why donuts, especially given Widener's background and training? He's paid his dues having graduated in 2006 from the Institute of Technology’s culinary school in Roseville. He also made the rounds at such well-established eateries as Streamers Cafe, Magpie, Fat City Cafe, and Enotria. For O'Donnell, there was more than just unwavering support.

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