Siesta Keyes and the surrounding

Congrats on getting South. Weather has been fantastic down here for majority of the winter. The spring winds are shifting and the tides are having their largest fluctuation.

All good news for your son and his shark tooth hunting as well as fresh shells being dredged and driven to the shoreline with the change in winds/currents.

Pro Tip: when looking for shark teeth. Find the black looking rocks scattered about the white sand. A high concentration of these black rocks will net you a lot of teeth. Dig around or just hunt around these patches. FYI the black rocks are actually fossils from both plants and animals but generally is bone. We have found thousands of teeth using this method. We have also discovered fossilized manatee rib bones, three toed horse teeth, and literally pounds and pounds of mammoth tusk and bone.

As far as fun things to do in the area. I mean you are going to be at the top rated beach in the USA so enjoy it all you can. My kids have been to the tree canopy rope course up the road in Bradenton. They had a fun time and occasionally we will make a weekend day of it for fun.
Treeumph

There is the local amphitheater downtown that has pretty good shows on weekends. Next to it is the skate/bicycle park with all the bowls, ramps, rails, and trick space a boy could want. $10 for the whole day and they do rent boards and bikes if needed.

The drive to Clearwater (1h 20 min) will give you the Marine Museum. That’s where they keep Hope and Winter the dolphins famous from the movie Dolphin Tale. Awesome place to see a lot of local marine life. Clearwater Marine Museum

If you are looking for something specific I’ll get back in the thread to help out.

No problem at all. I cannot stress this last tip enough and cannot believe I forgot to tell you.

If this is your first trip, (your sons first you said) please be very liberal with the sunscreen. I tell people all the time when you get south of Tampa the sun changes and it will scorch your body in about an hour if you are not prepared or your skin/body is not conditioned to intense sunshine. Maximum redness won’t show until about 3-4 hours after you leave the beach.

We use SPF 50 on the kids for an all day beach trip. My 2 year old normally wears a bucket hat as well, and all my kids wear sunglasses.

Have fun and stay protected. Nothing worse than a ruined vacation because of sunburn. If you get down here and need help with anything I’d be glad to assist. Just know I’m up the road in Madeira Beach.