Boating with Sunset Delight: St. Petersburg, FL

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.