St. Petersburg, FL - Florida's Sunshine City

Beach Drive Mural - St. Petersburg
"Florida's Sunshine City"

Monday 12/25/2017 Christmas Day
No Boat Travel

Santa visited our boat and left presents under my painted Christmas tree. After opening the gifts, Clark cooked steaks on the grill for Christmas dinner. Then we spent the entire afternoon on the phone with family, i.e. my sister, Clark's sister, and our sons. Having had a heavy lunch, we opted for pancakes for supper.

Tuesday 12/26/2017 Boxing Day
No Boat Travel

Having relaxed and enjoyed ourselves on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, it was back to work for both of us. Clark went back in the engine room to work on his alternator project. In the morning I did the laundry and in the afternoon I shopped for groceries. I specifically went to the store for acetaminophen and accidentally bought ibuprofen instead. Of course I did not figure this out until I got back to the boat, so I turned around and went back again. Two trips to the grocery store on foot added up the count on my FitBit, so at the end of the day, I had walked about 4 miles.

We found the old movie Godspell on television tonight. Since neither of us remembered ever seeing the movie before, we watched it. We remembered and enjoyed the music, but the psychedelic version of the story of Christ was a bit out there for either of our tastes.

Wednesday 12/27/2017
No Boat Travel

Truly boring day! Clark worked on the alternator project all day long. I read a novel - a good novel, but still ... After dinner we watched the movie Guardians of the Galaxy on DVD that our son gave Clark for Christmas.  We had never seen it and Jeff thought we would find it entertaining. I have to say there were a lot of funny references during the movie like calling Rocket "Ranger Rick". I had quite a few chuckles along the way.

Thursday 12/28/2017
Boat Maintenance Run
Depart: St. Pete dock 11:50
Arrive: St. Pete dock 1:10
plus 8.5 miles by bicycle

Clark wanted to test the work done on the port alternator and run some water under the hull, so we took the boat out today for an hour or so. The bay was devoid of excitement, so we just had a relaxing trip out into the bay and back again. Relaxing is good.

When we got back to the marina, we stopped to do a holding tank pump-out. Although the fishermen are not supposed to tie up their boats at the pump-out station, there had to be at least five boats in the way. The marina staff made them scatter, so we could pull our boat up to the pump-out pump. This is such a disgusting job, but it has to be done.

When we take the boat out, the engine room heats up to over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. That being the case, Clark decided not to work in the engine room sweating over hot engines this afternoon. Yay!! After lunch, we went out on our bikes to do some shopping.

Our first stop was the Marine Supply store about 1.5 miles south of the marina. We needed to return something Clark decided he did not want. From there we rode our bikes 3.5 miles north to the Ace Hardware store. He needed to buy a replacement pair of pliers and some stainless steel screws. To get to Ace from the Marine Supply store, we went straight through town as it was the most direct route. Initially we had a bike lane, but all too soon that disappeared, so we diverted to riding on the sidewalk as opposed to the 3-lane, busy street.

Coming back to the boat after our visit to Ace, we took the scenic, along-the-shore route. This added about a half mile to the more direct 3-mile route but was well worth the added distance to have a more pleasant ride through parks instead of on busy streets with a traffic light at every corner.

I guess I had not had enough exercise for one day because after dinner I asked Clark to take a stroll with me down Beach Drive just to see the Christmas lights and enjoy the cool weather. We passed a couple of murals (like the one at the beginning of this blog entry), and I got Clark to snap some pictures. I particularly liked the "St. Pete" mural.

On first glance, the "St. Peter" Mural just looks like the city's name with a water scene backdrop. Upon closer inspection, the mural holds interesting details. We see a bi-plane, a sailboat, and a power / fishing boat in the background, and each of the letters in the city name depicts something Florida specific.

    S - St. Pete cobblestone streets
    T - Florida Oranges
    P - a frothing beer
    E - sea turtle swimming
    T - cool blue water
    E - Palm Tree / Sunset

Beach Drive is the hopping place to be in St. Petersburg in the evening. People crowded the streets and restaurants. Still I enjoyed the walk observing the sights - a banjo player, a saxophonist, and other musicians entertained on the sidewalks. Of course everything was well lit - some of that normal and a lot of it related to the holiday spirit.

Well-lit Restaurant on Beach Drive
Outdoor Dining areas are popular.

We walked to the end of the business section and planned to turn around but spied a pretty awesome looking Christmas display about a block ahead. We decided to walk up and take a quick look. At first we thought it was just a private residence until we saw the "Bed and Breakfast" sign.

Beach Drive Inn - B&B
Decked out for the holidays with flashing lights

On the way back to the boat we passed three ice cream / gelato stores. When we got to the Kilwins location, I twisted Clark's arm into stepping inside for a treat. As I did on Christmas Eve, I got a combination of Kilwins Mud with Kilwins Tracks. What a yummy combo of chocolate and caramel! Besides my 8.5 miles on the bike, my FitBit shows 3+ miles walking today. Given that, hopefully I burned enough calories to deserve a sweet reward.

St. Petersburg, FL - Christmas Eve

Sunday 12/24/2017
No Boat Travel

Today was a rather laid back day. After running around all day yesterday, I was happy to relax on the boat with a good book to start the day. Eventually, I got motivated and did a reorg of some storage bins to take them from chaos to sensible hopefully making it easier to find things when I need them. Late yesterday, when Clark went to collect our mail, he found a package he has been waiting for, so he spent his time today continuing his work on the alternator configuration project.

Just after 5:00, we headed out to Tony's Pizza for dinner and then walked to the Christ United Methodist Church for a Christmas Eve organ recital followed by a candlelight service. Clark loves Christmas carols, and they included many traditional carols in the 1.5 hour service.

Christ United Methodist Church
St. Petersburg, Florida
Built 1949  using a combination of
Italian Renaissance Revival, Art Moderne and Art Deco Styles

A boater named Fred that is living on his boat here at the marina joined us to enjoy the program together. After the service we walked back to the marina together via Beach Drive hoping to find an ice cream shop open even on Christmas Eve. We found Kilwins open and busy with customers. We sat at their outdoor dining area and chatted while enjoying our treats then walked back to the docks and said our good byes for the night.

St. Petersburg, FL - Mirror Lake

Saturday 12/22/2017
No Boat Travel

Having missed out on some yummy treats by taking our time to arrive at the Farmer's Market last weekend, we made sure to get there much earlier today. The pie vendor had a full supply of pumpkin pies, the baker had blueberry scones, and the bread man had dark Russian bread! After scooping up these items, we took a more leisurely stroll around to collect our fruits and vegetables. By the time we left the market, about an hour later, Clark's backpack was full, and we carried two bags besides. A good haul!

We dumped our food items off at the boat and then grabbed the bikes for a ride over to Mirror Lake. Besides wanting to see the lake, we  were told that an electronics store resided in that area, and Clark wanted to check it out. The best way to get there, Clark said, was straight up 1st Ave which took us right through downtown. Fortunately St. Petersburg is bicycle friendly and provides bike trails making it easy to get through town.

Clark had tried calling the phone number for the electronics store for the past two days with no return call. When we arrived at the address and found a "for lease" sign on the building, we decided that we were out of luck and the store had closed. Just to be sure we asked a few folks in the area, but no one had ever heard of Assured Electronics and had no knowledge of if they ever existed or where they might have moved to. We even saw a billboard in the next block over advertising the place, and a man living in the house next door to the sign said, "Never heard of the place!" I guess the billboard was pretty ineffectual.

Since we had only gotten a glimpse of Mirror Lake on the way to find the non-existent store, we doubled back to take a closer look. Since the weather was quite lovely, many folks were lying on the grounds around the lake enjoying a nap, the view, and the weather.

Mirror Lake St. Petersburg, Florida

Fountain in Mirror Lake, St. Petersburg, Florida

Beside the lake, we found a blooming tree. I noticed it first as I drove my bike over all the dropped flower petals covering the sidewalk. It looked like a flower girl had just been by with a basket of pink rose petals and scattered them across the walkway. Looking up, I saw the source of the colorful display.

Tree in Bloom by Mirror Lake

A man and woman sat to the side of the lake feeding a crane pieces of bread from a sandwich. As we watched birds of all sorts flocked in to participate in the modest feast. The number of  birds that swooped in to partake of the couple's offering was jaw-dropping. Had it been me, I would have run screaming for cover not sat idly by as the birds came at me from all directions.

Couple feeding bread to an egret

Some Ibis came to beg crumbs as did numerous sea gulls.
(Picture does not capture the true essence of the
volume of birds filling the sky over their heads!)

Our afternoon plans for today changed abruptly when we received a phone call from Clark's cousin saying she was too ill to join us for the day. Instead of being a three-some for the rest of the day, it became just Clark and me to do as we pleased. After leaving Mirror Lake, we rode back to the boat to drop off the bikes before doing some Christmas shopping in town. Along the way we stopped to admire some sights.

Cathedral Church of St. Peter
Gothic Revival Style building
Built c. 1900 and extended westward in 1925.

One of St. Petersburg's oldest remaining buildings
Cathedral Church of St. Peter

On Beach Drive we passed a number of restaurants with outside dining. We found a colorful dolphin outside one of the taverns and decided to stop for a selfie.

Ev, Clark, and Dolphin Selfie

Fountain in park near Municipal Marina in St Pete, FL

Given Clark's cousin had planned to visit, I expected to eat at a restaurant today. Even though she did not come, I insisted that we eat out. Walking on Beach Drive last week, I spied a restaurant offering English fare, and I have been dying to check it out ever since. The restaurant, called Moon Under Water, offered an interesting mix of cuisines - English fare being one of them. For dinner, I selected a Meat Pasty and Clark chose a Shepard's Pie. Yum! Their pub fare was better than most pubs!

We had a relatively early dinner. Clark suggested we go back to the boat for a while and come back out later for dessert, i.e. ice cream. I agreed. However, when we got back to the boat, I found Christmas movies on television, and we never did made it back into town. I suggested Clark eat some of that pumpkin pie we picked up at the Farmer's Market instead.

Besides the movies, I had another reason for preferring to stay on board the boat. Between the Farmer's Market and the Christmas Shopping, my FitBit showed that I had walked over 5 miles today (12,000 steps), and my feet felt like it. Since my FitBit does not pick up time spent riding my bike in its fitness count (unless I bounce along cobblestone roads), I can add about a mile on my bike to Mirror Lake and back to my day's activities. After all that exercise, I had no qualms about lounging on the sofa for the night.

As an aside ...

Foggy mornings have become the norm in the past week or so. Every day I wake up to a wall of white outside the boat. After the first morning where I woke up with damp sheets, I make sure to close the port holes at night to keep the dew out of our stateroom in the morning. Today, Clark took a series of pictures showing the fog progression.

St. Petersburg, FL - 8:36 a.m.
Foggy Morning

St. Petersburg, FL - 9:15 a.m.
Fog Mostly Cleared

St. Petersburg, FL - 10:27 a.m.
Fog Back Again!

By 11:30 when we explored the area around Mirror Lake (pictured above), the fog had cleared, and we had a sunny day with clear blue skies!

St. Petersburg, FL - Boat Work and Crafts

Wednesday 12/20/2017
No Boat Travel

Clark continued his work on the re-configuring of the alternators to be externally regulated. While he did that, I decided to pull out my sewing machine and work on a project I planned for well before we left New Jersey. While my arm healed, most of my hobbies were beyond me, so I was happy to be able to pull out my sewing machine finally.

Before leaving New Jersey, Clark and I modified our dock box to have a mahogany table top. I decided that I needed a cover for my new boat table and went shopping for material to make something to withstand the elements.  The only material I found in the fabric store that might serve my purpose was canvas, but a browse through Marshall's gave me the idea to purchase a waterproof, fabric shower curtain and re-purpose it to meet my needs.

For $8.00 I got enough material to make a table cover as well as cover two seat cushions for our chairs. I am pleased with how they turned out. Now I just have to see how well they hold up and if they truly are waterproof.

Thursday 12/21/2017
No Boat Travel

We had time in the morning before my first physical therapy appointment at 2:00. Clark continued his never-ending alternator work. Having more shower curtain fabric left over from yesterday's work, I decided to cover two small cushions that we use on the upper helm for back support. These two cushion covers, as well as the items I sewed yesterday, are all easily removed and washed. I am quite pleased with my efforts.

Having learned from experience that we need to leave abundant time when using Uber / Lyft for rides in case there are no cars in the vicinity, we set out at 1:00 in search of our ride. Of course, since we allowed plenty of time to arrive, we got there 30 minutes early. I used the time to do some reading using the Kindle app on my cell phone.

I chose this particular doctor office / physical therapy center by using my insurance company's website to find a doctor "in plan". Pinellas Medical has been a wonderful find. Interestingly, all the medical professionals I have worked with here are male including my doctor, Dr. Albert, and his physician's assistant as well as the x-ray and MRI technicians.

As such, I wondered if the physical therapist would be a woman, but lo and behold, a male physical therapist worked with me to show me stretching exercises to perform for my arm muscles to get back a full range of motion. Stuart, my physical therapist, showed me numerous exercises. A couple of those were simply arm movements, but most required the use of either a pulley system or a 4-foot long stick.

Since I am supposed to do the exercises "at home", they sold me a pulley set. They asked me if I could find a stick to exercise with, and I said, "Yes, it's called a boat hook!" The pulley contraption hooks over the back of a door and is used while seated in a chair either facing or with my back to the door. Although serviceable doors and chairs may be plentiful in a house, that is definitely not the case on our boat. One hands-free exercise requires me to do push-ups against the wall. The folks in PT laughed when I said finding a wall to use on the boat may also be an issue.

Besides arm exercises, he gave me neck exercises to help limber up my stiff neck.  So, when I left the physical therapy session after about 45 minutes of training, I had a tall stack of papers to take with me outlining the various exercises I am to perform at home to regain movement and strength. At the end of the session Stuart felt that I was doing so well that he told me that he did not see a need for me to come back for more therapy unless I had questions on the "homework" he had given me. I agreed with him.

From the medical center we took Uber to The Home Depot. Clark had a shopping list for his alternator project. I have never seen anyone so happy to visit Home Depot. He acted like a kid in a candy store dropping items in his shopping cart one after the other. When we finally left there, we grabbed another Uber ride to the marina office to pick up our mail and then walked back to the boat for dinner and to hang out for the night.


Friday 12/22/2017
Depart: St. Petersburg, FL 3:20
Arrive: St Petersburg, FL 4:20
Maintenance Run for Boat

Being away from family for Christmas made me quite melancholy yesterday evening. As nice as the weather is here and as much fun as it is living on a boat, nothing compares to family time especially during the holidays. We made a decision when we loaded the boat that we would not bother with bringing decorations as they would take up space needed for essential items. I did not think it would be a big deal, but this lack of everything Christmas including decorations has added to my feeling of loneliness.

As I lay in bed last night thinking about Christmas, I decided that, although I could do nothing about getting together with my family, I could do something about the lack of decorations. With that in mind, when I got up this morning, I pulled out my acrylic painting supplies to paint myself a Christmas tree.

I thought I might get waylaid from my plans when Clark told me he wanted to take the boat out today to test his alternator work, but mother nature had other plans that allowed me to indulge myself with my paints for the morning.

Fog so thick that we could not see the other side of the marina.

The fog cleared a bit and then rolled in heavier than before.

Fog finally started to clear in the early afternoon.

By mid-afternoon, the sun had burned off most of the fog, and we had a beautiful day for a boat ride. Just after 3:00 we disconnected ourselves from the dock and took Sunset Delight out for a much-needed maintenance run. Besides checking out the alternator work, we needed to, as Clark says, "run some water under the bottom" to clean off some of whatever growth decides to attach to the bottom when sitting too long at dock.

I could not believe how calm the waters were in Tampa Bay. Dead calm! When I mentioned this to Clark, he said, "That's typically the case with fog."

Tampa Bay! Not a ripple in the water!

Although some fog still lingered, we had no visibility problems traveling out into Tampa Bay. Given that, I was quite surprised to see St. Petersburg still shrouded in fog when we turned around to return to port.

St. Pete in a hazy fog

I had abandoned my artwork and put away my paint supplies before we took our boat ride. After dinner I pulled them out again to complete my tree. I am moderately happy with the end result. If I did it again, I would make a couple of adjustments, but it will serve its purpose and while doing so will take up very minimal space on board. It certainly brightened my mood to now have a tree to enjoy for the holidays!

Acrylic Paint Christmas Tree
Now hanging in the salon!
Merry Christmas!

St. Petersburg, Florida - jumping fish

Tuesday 12/19/2017
No Boat Travel
~ 5 miles bike ride

We woke to heavy fog this morning due to the current high-humidty and above-average, warm weather. The fog was so heavy, in fact, that when I looked across the marina, I could see no boats, no marina office, ... - nothing but white! The photo below was taken almost an hour later when the fog had already started to clear.

Foggy morning in St. Petersburg, FL

Before going to bed last night, we made a list of today's activities / chores - no sightseeing today other than the views we might see as we rode around the city on our bikes. Since we are planning to attend "First Night" here in St. Petersburg on New Year's Eve, we first visited the Chamber of Commerce to buy our buttons and pick up the program guide. Buying early saved us a few dollars.

We used the address provided by Google and ended up several blocks in the wrong direction away from the Chamber of Commerce. When we could not find the facility, Clark called them and got the true address. A bit of confusion ensued when they told him the building is located near the sundial. Some more discussion revealed that the sundial in question was not the one we recently visited.

St. Petersburg Sundial near the Chamber of Commerce

Hmmm? The shadow shows the time as slightly after 11:00.
My watch showed 11:38.
Clark said that since time is location dependent,
this few minutes difference is understandable.

After buying our buttons for First Night, we stopped by the marina office and then continued on to Publix to refill our freezer with some meat. By the time we got back to the boat, and before we even had a chance to unload the groceries from the backpack, Clark's phone rang. The wiring supplies he ordered had arrived at the Marine Supply store.

Before jumping back on our bikes, I repackaged the meat for the freezer, put away the rest of the groceries, and made lunch. As soon as we finished eating, we were back on the bikes for the 3-mile trek to go pick up the wires and connectors.  Having been this way previously, we passed through now familiar territory. Even so, Clark did stop to take one picture along the way.

Building Near USF-SP:
NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service
Southeast Region

On our way to the Marine Supply store, we stayed on less-busy roads and biked on the shady side of the street whenever possible making the ride very pleasant. Happily, we picked up Clark's "goodies" and set off back towards the boat quickly. Unfortunately, we got about a half-mile from the store when Clark's phone rang.

It turned out that the owner had not charged us for one item and charged us twice for another. Dang! We had to go back again. To add to this unfortunate incident, we ended up owing an additional amount of money as the charged item cost less than the missed item.

When we went biking the last couple of days, I wore bike shorts. Today, since we only planned on going short distances, I decided to forgo the extra clothing to be cooler. Mistake! With the miscellaneous stops around town and the extra mile added to the trip to the Marine Supply store, we ended up traveling at least 5 miles. The bike seat is not soft. All I have to say about that then is "OUCH!"

Since we biked right by Demens Landing, the location of the marina office, we swung by on the way back to the boat to see if any packages had arrived. Nope! Not yet today. Continuing on our way to the boat, Clark suddenly stopped. I guessed that meant a picture opportunity had presented itself. I wondered what in the water had caught his attention but did not have long to wait to see what had caught his eagle eye.

Jumping Mullet Fish

Shooting out of the water like rockets!

When I finally got back to the boat, I decided I was ready to kick back and relax with my novel and computer. No more biking for me today. I needed something soft to sit on!

St. Petersburg, Florida - Sunken Gardens

Monday 12/18/2017
No Boat Travel
8 miles by bike

The interior of the boat had not seen a vacuum cleaner in far too long, so I spent this morning removing a layer of grime from the floors and carpets. While I did that, Clark made some phone calls looking for a bolt to use as part of his alternator-regulator project. After lunch, we set off by bike to visit the Sunken Gardens. A direct route there and back would be about 3 miles each way, but I requested a route that minimized traffic. The trip along the water and through residential areas definitely met the "minimal traffic" requirement but added a couple of miles to the journey.

Since the Ace Hardware and the Winn Dixie grocery stores are relatively close to Sunken Gardens, and we needed something at each of these two stores, we biked the extra few blocks to include these two stops on our trip. Before coming to the Sunken Gardens, Clark diverted us to check out Crescent Lake and Park along the way.

Crescent Lake - St. Pete, Florida

Water tower at lake

Is this a "fish tank"?

Crescent Lake

Before we left the boat Clark checked for a coupon for the Sunken Gardens and found one. When we got there, we found out we qualified for their senior's discount. Better yet, we could claim both the age benefit and the BoGo coupon, so instead of paying $20, we paid $8. Not a bad deal!

It felt nothing like December with Christmas approaching while walking through the jungle-like scenery of the Sunken Gardens.

Entrance to Sunken Gardens

Looking up to enjoy the jungle atmosphere

Pathway through the gardens

Flowers in bloom

Buddha Belly Bamboo

Besides plant life, the grounds had a variety of exotic birds.

Laughing Kookaburras Birds

A McCaw named "Beaker" who likes to dance
if someone sings or hums

A number of pink flamingos

They also had a Koi Pond and several water displays.

Koi (Ornamental Carp) Pond

Mini Waterfall 

Sunken Garden Bridge

The display also included a butterfly garden,

Butterfly Garden

a "Growing Stone", and

Fossilized Limestone Growing Stone

a bunch of little critters running around.

at the Cactus Garden

After walking the 4-acre garden display, we opted to avoid traffic and take the scenic route back to the boat. Clark led the way as always. He tried to find a less-traveled cross street back towards the water, and he managed to find one, so rustic in fact, it was cobblestones all the way to the water! Since some of the sidewalks traveled today had practically made my teeth rattle. I figured I could handle the shaking with no problem.

When we got to the end, we found an unusual sun dial to check out. At first Clark thought a piece was missing to make it work, but after looking at it for a while, he figured out he was the missing piece, or rather his shadow was the missing element to making the sun dial work.

Numbered blocks and a cement slab?

To calculate the proper time, the observer needs to stand on the space marked by the current month. When Clark stood on December, his shadow pointed to halfway between the 4 and 5 blocks.

Yes! 4:30! Correct!

As we stood there checking out the sundial, a drone flew by us. I looked for the owner but saw no one. A little later, watching the water, we saw a dog on a stand-up paddle board (SUP). He and his owner were clearly having a grand time out there. There always seems to be interesting action at the water's edge.

Dog on SUP

Our timing for the day was great as we arrived back at the boat just in time to get a call from our younger son, Chris. We had a nice, long chat which topped off our lovely afternoon.

One of the television stations here, ION Life, plays Christmas movies every night, so tonight after dinner we enjoyed a bit of holiday spirit via the TV.