Fred Howard Park

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The Sensual Stimulus of Fred Howard Park A little known fact about the mile-long Fred Howard Causeway is a favorite among filmmakers, it was featured in John Cusack’s movie "Grace is Gone" and in a national television commercial for Cadillac. The park dates back to 1945, when Tarpon Springs Mayor Fred Howard was in office and was dedicated in his honor in 1966. The park receives over 2 million visitors annually. Fred Howard Park stands alone in its beauty and sensual stimuli by combining the feel of being in a national forest along with a beautiful sandy beach with its man-made island. Different places have their own unique set of sensual stimulus, but the stimulus at Fred Howard Park in Pinellas County Florida seems to encompass multiple sensual …show more content…

The whole island is in the shape of a giant square with white sandy beaches full of people sunbathing, swimming and fishing right on the shoreline. From the end of the hot pavement parking lot to shore of the beach is an ocean of soft white sand. The pearlescent white sand seems to know how to invade every nook and cranny almost as if it enjoys it. Walking around the beach on the fluffy whiteness surrounding the parking lot, the seagulls are fighting over scraps of food on the ground. “Sandy beach ecosystems provide invaluable services to humankind. Their functions have been exploited through history, with significant anthropogenic effects (Lucrezi, 2015)”. This white sandy beach is a beautiful refuge from the mundane grind of everyday life. The smell of the misty ocean air mixed with the sound of seagulls hovering above and kids playing is a tonic for the mind. The feel of the sand between their toes and the waves crashing over them as people swim in the water, or the jerk of a fishing pole when someone is catching a fish makes Fred Howard Park one of the best places to relax. Standing on the beach looking out on the water, people are kayaking and windsurfing. The lifeguards watching vigilantly in their bright red shirt and shorts, blowing their whistles when they see someone being unsafe. After a long day of swimming and laying around visitors head back over the soft white sand to the showers, in order to rinse off the menacing sand that clings to everything like a bad habit. Everyone rushes over the hot pavement burning their feet to reach their cars so they can put away their beach paraphernalia which is still covered in the white sand, nearly impossible to completely leave behind, so when they get home it serves as a reminder of where they were that

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