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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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