We’re taking a really long ride this morning. Have to tank up. The Official Gas Station of Tampa Bay Breakfasts is the Citgo on Lois. Tell Jimmy that Andy sent ya!

We’re heading all the way to St. Pete Beach this morning. We’re that dedicated to exploring every breakfast in the Tampa Bay Area. That’s the Don CeSar in the distance.

This approach is lovely enough to show twice, for those homesick Florida ex-pats who can’t get enough. Here’s for you, New Hampshire.

Growing up, I never knew the concept of paying for parking. I’d just park my truck in the woods. But down here in Tampa Bay we seem to pay for parking a lot.

Along the way we found this beautiful Prickly Pear. A little tedious to eat, but they’re delish. Especially if you’re tromping through the scrub and just happen across one.

We’re on Pass-a-Grill this morning, in case you hadn’t noticed. We’re going to 200 Gulf Way, Pass a Grille, to try the Paradise Grill for some breakfast. They have a nice little web site at http://www.theparadisegrille.com/.

Ivo’s hungry. He grabbed the first menu and chose it. No, he didn’t choose something from the menu, he chose everything on the menu.

We’ve had some good breakfasts with nice views, but never quite like this one. We could huck hashed browns at stingrays from here. Or maybe zing pancakes at those guys out there with the metal detectors. The options are pretty much endless.

We left Ivo strapped to the car seat for a while. Me and Marek, we’re busy goofin’.

Really, really goofin’ hard! I think they almost called the bouncers on us. Not that they actually have bouncers, but I’m sure they were wishing they did.

Also, are you loving my Daliesque Simpsons shirt? My Simpsonsesque Dali shirt? Real deal on a street market in Figueres ten years ago. Seriously. Just re-found it last month. It is not, however, my most exotic t-shirt. I’ll wear that one in a future breakfast, when I get some better pectorals to put under it (it seems to have, ummm, shrunk over the years!).

We at Tampa Bay Breakfasts are no stranger to challenges. We test pancakes in all sorts of situations so you can go for breakfasts confident that some crazy guy dragged his poor kids there first and took pictures for you. Here at the Paradise Grill, there’s no highchairs, just picnic tables. A bit of a challenge for a young father by himself with wee-lads. Look how precarious Ivo looks … I’m sure glad his mother doesn’t read our web site, or I’d be in trouble!

Here’s how we handle challenges at Tampa Bay Breakfasts. If there’s no high chair, I am the high chair.

To make things even more complicated, here’s breakfast! In a tourist beach location that’s so dependent on being clean and pristine, I’m a bit surprised that they use plastic everything. But here we are.

Let’s dig in! By “us” I mean Ivo, with the hands again. Some of our readers are wondering if I just have a rubber prop hand that I slip into these pictures and then blame it on Ivo. I know who you are. For example, you could be my own father thinking that, since you gave me a rubber hand years ago. No, this is really Ivo all the time. And my rubber hand is stored away in the Christmas ornaments.

Havin’ breakfast on the water’s edge. This is Florida livin’.

Ivo never seemed to notice that he wasn’t actually in a chair. Boy has his eyes on the chow!

Marek loves these sunglasses. What color are your sunglasses, Marek? They’re rainbow, dad!

We had a wonderful time at the Paradise Grill. Until we paid the bill. $20 for breakfast is pretty steep, where ever you go, but we figured that we were paying at least a 50% premium for the view. The bacon was outstanding, the eggs pretty good, the pancakes were sort of small, but they had to be to fit on the paper plates. Home fries were a nice addition and were delish. The coffee went down pretty smooth, too. An interesting observation, the female staff were all very perky and helpful but the male staff seemed sort of sullen and distant. Not like total-freak-show-sociopath, just not super-helpful to a guy with his hands full of little kids.

We’ll give the chow at Paradise Cafe a 3.5 rating, and bump it up a notch for the location. We’re pleased to give the Paradise Cafe a Tampa Bay Breakfasts four and a half pancake rating. Don’t go when it’s raining.

After breakfast we walked next door to the little crafts market that is here every Saturday. Marek got to pet a bird.

We found a pretty necklace for Mom!

We got to pet a dog named Cheeto!

And we couldn’t waste a trip to the beach, now, could we?

This isn’t Ivo’s first time in the sand. Mom took the boys to the beach for A Whole Day last week!

We’re on the beach on Dad Time, which means we didn’t bring towels or toys or anything. So … don’t get wet, boy!

While Marek capered, me and Ivo hung back and enjoyed the morning sunshine.

On the way home, we saw this Charger for sale. You can’t tell here, but it looks like the exhaust pipes are painted red. This car looks awesome from a block away.

All this really happened.