Marek’s tucked into the back of the pancake express. The FR-S is a family car.

We had to tank up on the way. I remember when I was little and I’d want to pump the gas and wasn’t strong enough to squeeze the nozzle. I see Marek try to squeeze it just like I used to do.

We’re heading to St. Pete. It’s a long ride. Long in distance, but … not in time!

We drove by the St. Petersburg Lawn Bowling Club, established 1930. Isn’t that interesting?

We’re meeting some special friends: Ivo and Mia! We last met them two years ago in San Francisco.

Marek: “I like your Hello Kitty”

Mia: “Don’t touch my Hello Kitty”

We’re back re-visiting The Hangar at Albert Whitted Airport in St. Petersburg on 13 October 2012. The airport is located at 107 8th Avenue S.E, and The Hangar has a nice little web site at http://www.thehangarstpete.com/. We last visited back in July 2010, and The Hangar was our 2010 Tampa Bay Breakfast of the Year.

Inside is still classy and attractive. But who would want to sit inside when there’s airplanes outside?!

Everyone’s listening very intently to Marek. Who is going on about something completely fascinating. Fascinating to himself. No one else knew what he was talking about.

An interesting, exotic, and yet somewhat terse breakfast listing. I’m going to have “The Beechcraft.”

Marek is very proud of his breast cancer shirt. He spent 15 minutes this morning digging through his drawers to find it.

Mia is very proud of her Hello Kitty. Which she still doesn’t want Marek touching.

Here’s two good-looking young fellows hanging out at a trendy breakfast spot in St. Pete. Not a care in the world, just relaxing. No stress from kids or work issues cropping up constantly all morning. No grey hair or middle-aged health concerns. No worry about the future.

Ooops. Wrong caption. This is just a picture of me and Ivo, and we both spent all morning battling work issues while corralling kids.

Breakfast came in the hold of a DC-3. Here’s Ivo, suffering under the relentless paparazzo attack of being a Tampa Bay Breakfast guest.

And Mia, with pancakes and bananas and bacon. And also, if I recall correctly, Ivo made some statement about how Mia was “easy” in the morning, just put her hair in a little pony tail and throw a dress on and she’s ready to go. Enjoy that while it lasts, man. I can only imagine the challenges Ivo’s going to have with a girl, challenges that I’ll never have with boys.

And Marek, who ate all his bacon and none of his eggs. Also, it’s a good thing Marek has his mom, or his hair would never be brushed.

Andy with a big plate of delicious.

Here’s a closer look. This is the first time I’ve ever had an omelet with fresh spinach and brie. It was surprisingly delicious without being overpowering. I tried it for the novelty, but I’d gladly have this again.

It’s fun to have breakfast and watch airplanes. Here’s Marek with a fist full of bacon, watching one take off. The bacon here, by the way, is fabulous. Somehow they manage to make it thick, crispy, and yet not over-done.

We watched a nice couple drive up in this little blue number, park, and come in for breakfast. Only here at The Hanger, you can drive up for pancakes in your airplane.

After we were done eating, we had a jumping contest. (It was a tie.)

And then we spent half an hour watching airplanes and drinking coffee.

Final bill: under $30 for all four. Wow! I think this was the TBB discount!

So we paid the bill and spent another half hour watching airplanes.

And getting yelled at for going above the first rung. Too high, kids! Too high!

This is what I look like when I’m yelling at kids.

On the way out, we stopped to get maps and brochures. We ARE from out of town, after all. Tampa is a long way from St. Pete. (And so is San Francisco, by the way.)

Absolutely wonderful food. Great service. Moderate prices. Airplanes. Ivo and Mia. How can The Hangar not be an award-winning Five Pancake Breakfast?

We’re a long way from home. Should we go left or right? Straight is also an option, but as anyone knows there’s no breakfast there. Just ocean.

We visited The Frog Pond at 7390 Gulf Boulevard, St. Pete Beach on 22 September 2012. This has been on our to-do list for years. TBB Fan Jason K, you’ll be sad to hear that we did not meet any Frenchmen.

Thought bubbles.

Over Ivo’s head … “I am going to break random things today and laugh, laugh, laugh.”

Over Andy’s head … “I coulda been a stah on Broadway if I didn’t have all dees kids.”

Thought bubbles.

Over Marek’s head … “I’m almost tall enough to steal your keys and drive your new car down the street and into the neighbors’ houses.”

Over Andy’s head … “Having kids looked like such fun in those romantic comedy movies.”

Thought bubbles.

Over Andy’s head … “If I loved these boys one mote more, I’d explode. They are everything to me.”

Over Marek’s head … “I wish I could join another family.”

Over Ivo’s head … “Hey you looking at this picture, can me and Marek join YOUR family and get away from our Neanderthal father?”

Tia Cindy, this one’s for you.

Ivo’s thinking, maybe this frog would be something I could knock over and then blame Marek.

Check out Ivo’s mad stacka skillz.

Check out Marek’s reaction.

We cozied up to the menu. Marek figures there might be something in his nose for breakfast. Stay classy, Marek!

A little Frog Pond philosophy. I always like a place that’s mom-n-pop and takes time to tell you Why They Care about what they do. The only drawback is that usually, and Frog Pond is no different, they take your order and whisk away the menus before you can read half of what they have to say. I love that they are “strongly opposed” to things! I read that and thought, hey, I’m also strongly opposed to things. Conveniently, the same things as they are.

Can’t get through the day without our coffee. Y’ought hear Ivo say “caffeeee?” It’d melt your heart like an acetylene torch on a plastic army man. By the way, “acetylene torch on a plastic army man” is another phrase that,as of this writing, is not found in Google.

Tampa Bay Breakfasts: Innovators.

Marek, too. That’s the same look I get with a strong cuppa joe in the morning. Relaxing. Pleasant. Calm.

“Relaxing. Pleasant. Calm.” And then Ivo swings a knife at your head. And then you hand over your wallet and tell him you don’t want no trouble, man, here you go, take my cash, just don’t cut me.

Inside the Frog Pond, you’ll find a cozy, well-appointed atmosphere. Knife-wielding two year olds and lots of frogs.

This is an impressive kick. Or ballerina move.

Breakfast came on a forklift. (Actually, delivered by a young waitress from Russia, not resembling a forklift at all.) Look at all this chow!

Ivo got the pancakes. Now, when you go to the Frog Pond because you read our review, you’ll see that pancakes aren’t really a big feature in the menu. Eggs, quiche, crepes (which are French, Jason K), are the big deals. Pancakes are a footnote. They were good, but the real winner was the waffle.

Try to snag some eggs from Marek’s plate and you’ve got a fight on your hands. Oddly enough, he barely ate any eggs. He just didn’t like me messing with his chow. Hats-off to the photog (me) for snapping a dynamic shot (of me) in the egg-snatching fight.

Ivo has a new trick. Point. “Look there!” Then “Yoink!” as he steals something from your plate. Seriously, he tries to say “Yoink” and it comes out “oink,” which makes it even better.

Devil-eyed Marek has a belly full of bacon. It’s good bacon. Notice behind Marek that the dining room filled up by the time we were done. Not an empty table in the house.

Here’s the bill. $23 for three breakfasts isn’t bad at all, especially given the quality and quantity.

We managed to escape without breaking any frogs.

The chow was great. I haven’t had a waffle in years, and this one was truly tops. Bacon, eggs, pancakes were all serviceable. Lots of frogs. A restaurant philosophy. And the best part was the guy with coffee. There was a guy who came around every 10 minutes with the coffee pots, and it never ran dry. That was awesome. The price was right. I can’t find any reason to not award the Frog Pond with a Tampa Bay Breakfasts Five Pancakes rating.

As we were leaving, we noticed this wicked little Mini sportster. There’s a lot of things I’ve never seen, and this is one of them.

We’ll go here next time. Beverly’s is right across the street.

After the Frog Pond, we went to Sunset Beach.

We went swimming and did the stingray shuffle.

Neat clouds on the ride back across the bay. Truly, a lovely day today. This is why we live in Florida.

On our way home, we stopped at Inkwood Books. Our favorite book store in Tampa.

And to round out our trifecta of locally owned small business support today, we also stopped at Rollin’ Oats.

Just a normal day.

We visited the Covered Bridge at 2070 Bayshore Blvd in Dunedin on 21 July 2012.

The Covered Bridge is in Dunedin. It’s not Dunnellon, but it sounds about the same.

It’s interesting to note, by the way, that there are no actual covered bridges within a thousand miles of Dunedin. We’re driving the long haul to Dunedin with Ivo.

We’ve also got Marek, who announced on this ride that this is his last time ever, dad, only this time then I’m never going to breakfast again. Teenagers!

It’s about 30 miles from home to the Covered Bridge, so we’ve got to listen to some good music. This morning, it’s Geri X, who is a great local Tampa Bay musician in every way, except that she’s from Bulgaria.

You may have noticed, if you’re a dedicated TBB reader, that the Pancake Mobile appears slightly different. That’s because we upgraded from the 2002 Celica GTS to the 2013 FR-S. It squeals tires at 40mph shifting into 2nd gear. Today is our 100th unique breakfast, and there’s 100 miles on the odometer. Everything’s coming up Milhouse.

The Covered Bridge promptly rolls out coloring utensils.

While we look at the menu, which is full of the standard fare we expect in a quality breakfast location.

Ivo’s taking care of business.

The only thing that got Marek out of the house this morning was promise of a hot chocolate. And the Covered Bridge didn’t disappoint.

Inside is nice and cozy, and most everyone seemed to be greeted by name. You can see the dedication to the covered bridge concept, wall-to-wall.

Ivo was quite impressed with this anole lizard.

Breakfast. We got “The Bridge” special. Which, for seven bucks, was a whole lotta chow.

Notice the chance in expression on Marek’s face. From anticipation to apprehension. And also, there’s a Zamboni on the table.

Me and Ivo, we’re getting ready for some chow. Notice the pilfering move he’s making on my pancakes. If you’re some nice girl 20 years in the future, reading this while you’re looking back at Ivo’s history and trying to decide if he’s husband material, I’ll tell you this: Don’t take your eyes off him at the breakfast table.

And still with the lizard. This took up 15 minutes of our morning, going on about the lizard looking in the window. We’re in Florida, kid. There’s probably lizards in your bed.

Marek held up this sausage and told me all about how grandma makes him sausage all the time and how much he loves it and how this is the best breakfast ever because this sausage is so good.

I’ve never seen him eat sausage once, ever.

Here’s a nice family portrait. We’re all four here: Andy, Marek, Ivo, Breakfast. Favorite Tampa Bay Breakfasts Reviewer Mom is still sleeping.

All three of us ate, and ate well. One breakfast split three ways. Coffee, juice, choco. Under 12 clams. That’s a good value.

Ivo stepped right up to the pole position on the bill-paying race.

That’s a look of gleeful accomplishment that he’ll have trouble achieving when he’s 42 years old. But at 2 years old, good for him!

On the way home we passed these monster trucks. You can’t just not take a picture of monster trucks.

We had a great time at the Covered Bridge. The chow was good all around, though the bacon was a bit small and the home fries oddly sweet. You can’t beat a place like this for the local, “the usual, Tim?” And the unique covered bridge theme sets it apart. Friendly folks, good prices, good chow, and a unique atmosphere. That’s worth the drive. We’re pleased to give the Covered Bridge a Tampa Bay Breakfasts four and a half pancake rating.

Today we were going to go to the Parrot Cafe on Grand Central in St. Pete. For all the good write-ups I’ve been seeing about the Parrot, it surely was closed this morning.

So we ended up at Country Boy. Country Boy is actually hidden, tucked in on a side road. We’ve driven by here dozens of times and never noticed it. Only because the Parrot Cafe was closed and we were going to run back up into downtown did we even stumble on it.

Country Boy is at 48 31st St N, Saint Petersburg, right behind this meat market on Central. Best meat in town.

Ivo chose exactly what he wanted. That stuff he’s pointing at. I was really drawn to the special, the “$2.00 Holla” which really looked like a good deal. But we settled on pancakes, bacon, and eggs so we’d have something for everyone.

We weren’t the only folks in the place, but there were plenty of empty tables. Ivo took the one closest to the place he was standing when he stopped moving. Kid after my own heart on that.

We brought toys, but who needs them when you’ve got salt and pepper?

I mean, seriously, I’ve never seen Ivo this pleased. It’s like this pepper is just singing to him.

While we’re waiting, I snapped a look at the rest of the place. Small, obviously mom-n-pop. Not seen here is the broken coffee machine, just out of the picture. Apparently it broke this morning and they ran out to get another one.

Monster truck versus salt and pepper!

And here’s breakfast. No coffee, which is a downer, but me and Ivo split an OJ. Pancakes, bacon, and eggs.

And here’s how it divvies up when I do the cutting. Ivo, as you can see here, likes to drink his juice by hand.

Digging in! Ivo has this new thing of picking up food with the fork so he can take it off the fork with the other hand and shove it in his mouth and then drop it on his lap.

When we were done, Ivo paid the bill. About $9 for a pretty large breakfast.

Just like his big brother, Ivo can always find someone to take his money.

Off we go to start the rest of our day! We did not dress alike on purpose.

Country Boy Soul Food is a good experience. The bacon was Steve-Standard good and the eggs were fine. The pancakes I can’t say as I loved, and being out of coffee is a terrible thing, though mechanical failures are the way it goes sometimes. The people here were wonderful, though. Everyone we talked to was friendly as a sunny day and we really enjoyed that. Country Boy is a lot like Martha’s in Tampa. We’re happy to give Country Boy a Tampa Bay Breakfasts three pancake rating.

On our way home we stopped at the St. Pete. Saturday market, where Ivo got to pet lots of big dogs.

And then on the long ride home to Tampa, Ivo ran out of gas. Luckily, the car did not.