Florida days.
We've been in Florida for the past few days. So I thought it was about time to make a report of our first impressions of life in the geriatric state. We are having a fine time here, staying in our friend Elliot's condo while he is in Thailand (lucky fellow).
The past few days have been divided between the beaches and downtown St. Petersburg. Our first trip out, we drove up Alt route 19, which is the coastal road along the sandbar that forms the outer barrier of Tampa bay. For the best part of 30 miles it is highly developed, with hotels, motels, condos and the occasional old ranch style house. Nevertheless, every now and then there is public access to the beaches, and what beaches. White shell beaches, soft to
the feet, yet firm and easy to walk on. We carried on up the coast to Indian Rocks, where we found a space in the parking lot - fifty whole cents for a couple of hours. 60 seconds later we were strolling down the beach. A picnic, a dip is the cool Gulf waters, all was well.
Next day, having consulted the maps a bit more, we headed for the nearest state park we could find: Honeymoon Island, which is just off the shore from Dunedin (a suspiciously Scottish sounding name), and reached by a causeway road. There, for the princely sum of $5 we could spend all day on this quite little island, watching the sailboats go by. We liked it so much we came back the next day, but this time we took the ferry across to Caladesi Island (sounds pretty Gaelic to me),
and as we arrived had a good long look at a blue heron fishing at the edge of the mangrove trees.
We have found that the bird life around here is amazingly tame. Ok, we might all expect seagulls to be brazenly begging for food - which one does not give or one will be mobbed -
but we also found ourselves the subject of some curiosity on the part of the American oyster catcher.
The past few days have been divided between the beaches and downtown St. Petersburg. Our first trip out, we drove up Alt route 19, which is the coastal road along the sandbar that forms the outer barrier of Tampa bay. For the best part of 30 miles it is highly developed, with hotels, motels, condos and the occasional old ranch style house. Nevertheless, every now and then there is public access to the beaches, and what beaches. White shell beaches, soft to
the feet, yet firm and easy to walk on. We carried on up the coast to Indian Rocks, where we found a space in the parking lot - fifty whole cents for a couple of hours. 60 seconds later we were strolling down the beach. A picnic, a dip is the cool Gulf waters, all was well.
Next day, having consulted the maps a bit more, we headed for the nearest state park we could find: Honeymoon Island, which is just off the shore from Dunedin (a suspiciously Scottish sounding name), and reached by a causeway road. There, for the princely sum of $5 we could spend all day on this quite little island, watching the sailboats go by. We liked it so much we came back the next day, but this time we took the ferry across to Caladesi Island (sounds pretty Gaelic to me),
and as we arrived had a good long look at a blue heron fishing at the edge of the mangrove trees.We have found that the bird life around here is amazingly tame. Ok, we might all expect seagulls to be brazenly begging for food - which one does not give or one will be mobbed -
but we also found ourselves the subject of some curiosity on the part of the American oyster catcher.
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