Peckish Travels

Ever since Bob and I saw Dale Chihuly’s incredible glass work on the ceiling of the lobby at the Bellaggio Hotel and Casino inLasVegas, we have been interested in his work and in glass blowing in general. We were excited to discover the “Blown Away” competition show on Netflix and have watched all of those episodes. We knew when we saw that St. Pete had a Chihuly collection that we would have to see it.

The ticket to the collection ($22) gets you entry to their collection of Chihuly’s work as well as a glass blowing demonstration in the Morean Art Center glass studio. We went today and began our visit at the glass studio.

Dan Alexander made two pieces of glasswork while another artist discussed what he was doing. It’s crazy what fire, sand, human breath, and manipulation of hot glass can create.

The first photos show Dan working on a glass swan.

The swan took about 5 minutes to make. He then created a platter.

Back at the Chihuly Collection, we learned that Dale Chihuly studied glassblowing at the University of Wisconsin (Go Badgers!) after getting his degree in interior design and architecture from the University of Washington. He also worked at the Venini glass factory on the island of Murano, Italy.

At the end of the collection, they showed a number of short films about his work, much of which resides in conservatories or other natural environments.

After most of the morning inside the condo on Monday waiting for the cleaning crew to arrive, Bob and I took Lulu out for a walk to a local cafe for a bagel. The cleaning crew comes every other week, so this is the one time we will have them, and since they have a number of workers, we only needed to kill an hour out of the condo while they worked. That was easily done by the walk to and from the bagel shop as well as dining time, as Lulu found lots of smells of interest along the route.

That afternoon, we just walked around Demens Landing, which is a small piece of land that juts into Tampa Bay between the St. Petersburg Pier and a small municipal airport.

A couple of views back towards the city

Bob and I had a great night out at the Mahaffrey Theater on Friday night to see Phil Rosenthal. The show started at 7:00, and the doors opened at 6:00, so we went a bit early to peruse the theater with a glass of wine. Sadly, no photography was allowed anywhere inside the theater, so I have few photos of the night.

The show was great with a short montage of clips from “Somebody Feed Phil” and then an hour of him responding to questions about his history in Hollywood from a local chef and then Q and A with the audience. The Q and A was the worst part, as you always have people who just need to get their 15 minutes of fame by telling unnecessary stories or expressing opinions before finally getting to a question that’s another version of one somebody else already asked. Never mind that there’s 30 other people waiting to ask a question.

Every Saturday from October through May, there is a Saturday Market in the parking lot of the St. Pete Rowdies’ Soccer Stadium right across from the condo. It was hopping when we went. We bought some produce for a veggie omelet, some fruit, and a small “personal” chocolate bourbon pecan pie. Whoever came up with the idea to give out samples knew what they were doing!

Today, we decided to walk a bit of the Pinellas Trail. The Pinellas Trail is a 75 mile multi-use trail following an abandoned railroad corridor. It runs from Tarpon Springs in the north to the waterfront of St. Petersburg and runs through other cities like Clearwater and Dunedin. The end of the trail is literally right outside of the condo, with the last few blocks being on city sidewalks along First Avenue South.

Since we started at the St. Pete end, we walked the first few blocks on city sidewalks before getting on the asphalt trail near the baseball stadium. We saw a lot of residential buildings downtown before walking through a bit of the Arts District and more industrial areas. There were murals and other art along the trail. We only walked an hour out before turning around, so there is a lot more of the trail to explore.

Bob and I continue to be impressed with the walkability of the area we are in — easy access to grocery, restaurants, retail, museums, theaters, and sports stadiums, not to mention the bay and water activities.

The other day when we had popped into the Visitors Center, Bob had picked up a brochure for a self-guided tour of downtown St. Pete (DTSP) and the waterfront. I identified the buildings that seemed the most interesting of the 71 listed in the brochure, and Bob led the almost 2 hour walkabout today. We didn’t get to the waterfront sites yet, but hope to see one tonight and one tomorrow.

The brochure provided information on year of construction, architects and architectural style, and changes over the years. We learned a little bit about St. Petersburg history in the process and saw more of the downtown area — both historic and modern.

The first few photos are taken along the very happening Central Avenue North, a couple of blocks from the condo.

Moving off of Central, most of the rest of the walk took us north until the very end when we headed back towards the condo.

The next photo was one of the most interesting things we learned about St. Pete. It is the St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club, and it is housed next to the historic lawn bowling club. More impressively, the club was formed in 1924 and is the oldest and largest shuffleboard club in the world. The rules of the sport were codified here. The club reached 5,000 members by 1944, and is enjoying a resurgence of interest with 2,000 current members.

It was a great day for a walk, and Bob and I are excited about a rare night out for us. A couple of months ago, we learned that Phil Rosenthal of “Everybody Loves Raymond” and “Somebody Feed Phil” fames was going to be doing a show in St. Pete while we were here. We love “Somebody Feed Phil,” basically a travel show but based around food. We got tickets, and the theater is a 10 minute walk from the condo. We’ll share our review tomorrow.

Our first full day in downtown St Petersburg, and we are smitten. The lovely weather does not hurt — highs in the low 70s F and low humidity. We love being in shorts in November.

St. Pete, to locals, is located about midway down the state of Florida on the Gulf of Mexico side. It is known as the “Sunshine City” and is part of the Tampa Bay Area. It is recognized as the birthplace of scheduled aviation as well as for Major League Baseball spring training. It has a population of approximately 250,000.

We can see the St. Pete pier from the condo, so we decided to check it out up close this morning. The St. Pete Pier is 26 acres that merges the waters of Tampa Bay with the parks of downtown St. Petersburg. It is a great place to walk, bike, hop on a trolley, dine along the waterfront, attend an outdoor festival, or pop into a museum.

Bob and I have ended our gadding about for quite awhile. We have enjoyed seeing a bit of Florida, and will get to now explore St. Petersburg (just an hour’s drive north of Sarasota) until the end of the month while we care for Lulu on the 15th floor of a high rise (30+ floors total) in downtown St. Pete.

We drove up from Sarasota yesterday and spent the night in an AC Hotel very close to here to be nearby for today’s walk through with the homeowner.

Some views from the unit.

The Ringling, collectively the State Art Museum of Florida, a circus museum, the former home of John and Mabel Ringling, the historic Asolo Theater, and Bayfront Gardens on the former site of John and Mabel Ringling’s waterfront winter home in Sarasota. John Ringling was one of 5 Ringling brothers who took their first circus show on the road in 1884. John (born Johan Nicholas Rungeling in McGregor, Iowa) became the most financially successful of the brothers, diversifying his investments in ventures such as railroads, ranching, and real estate.

John and Mabel collected over 600 pieces of art during their marriage, and they decided to leave it to the people of Florida as their legacy. This collection was the start of the State Art Museum of Florida.

Last night, Bob and I were debating about whether to go to the Ringling today or not as tickets begin at $30 per person and increase to $45 if you want to see the both museums and the part of the home that is open to the public. This seemed a bit steep for us, but then Bob discovered that today the art museum, glass pavilion, and grounds would be open to the public for free, so that made the decision to go today very easy.

It was a little over a 3.5 mile walk there along a major city street, so it wasn’t the calmest walk, but we did find a few sites along the way.

There were a lot of cars already at The Ringling today take advantage of the free day as well as ticketed access to the circus museum and the Ringling home. We thought it was going to be super crowded walking through the art museum and grounds, but we were pleasantly surprised. It was obviously busy but not too crowded.

The first stop we made once we checked in was to visit the Glass Pavilion. This pavilion houses the museum’s collection of contemporary studio glass, provides rehearsal and dressing rooms for the historic Asolo Theater, and serves as the reception lobby for the theater.

From the Glass Pavilion, we moved to the State Art Museum of Florida. The art museum has a wide collection of European art across the ages, Asian art, as well as contemporary art.

We enjoyed the art museum and really loved walking around the beautiful grounds of the former Ringling estate.

After a free breakfast in the lovely hotel restaurant this morning, Bob and I headed out to explore more of downtown Sarasota.

Sarasota (current population of about 55,000) was settled by Spanish explorers in the 16th century and officially established as a town in the late 19th century. One of the first historical markers we came across today taught us a bit about the founding.

We found this sign on our short walk to Bayfront Park, which we can see from our room and which is on a small piece of land that juts out into the bay. It has a walking path, small beach, marina, tiki bar, and a children’s play area and splash pad. It also has this impressive sculpture.

One of the taller buildings we can see from our hotel room is the Art Ovation Hotel, another (much pricier) Marriott property. We decided to stop in to check it out. It is filled with art, and Bob found an opportunity right outside the hotel for a big head(s) photo.

This afternoon, we did something we never do which is go to the hotel pool. The weather is so great, and the pool is on the roof, so we couldn’t resist. We lasted for about an hour.

On Friday, Bob and I left Rosemary Beach to head to The Villages, FL. It was a 5+ hour drive with a time change. We lost an hour moving from the Central Time zone to the Eastern Time zone. We only spent a night at The Villages, where we did a housesit a few years ago.

We arrived about mid afternoon. We got Bob a much needed haircut, picked me up a new book from a free little library (which also happens to be on my To Read list!), and listened to the free concert at the town square near our hotel, so it was a productive and fun stop.

We left the hotel in The Villages late morning to drive the 2.5 hours to Sarasota, where we will spend 3 nights before heading to St. Petersburg to begin our housesit. We were able to check into our room at the Westin Hotel in downtown Sarasota shortly after 1:00 pm this afternoon. Our room is on the 15th floor.

After checking out the hotel, we decided to walk 50+ minutes to City Island to check out St. Armand’s Circle and Lido Beach. The weather was in the 80s F. A cold front is coming through in the next couple of days, so we’re soaking in the warmth while we can.

After a fun happy hour last night, a great run on a trail this morning, and a trip to a couple of state parks today, Bob and I are feeling a stronger affinity for this area, although we just can’t get away from those nasty signs.

When Bob and I were walking around yesterday, we saw a nice looking place called Restaurant Paradis that promoted a happy hour from 5-6:00. We decided to go, and the locals were waiting to get in when we got there at 5 which seemed like a good sign. We each had an $8 martini and a nice chat with the bartender who told us about a recent big wine event that had just been held last weekend.

This morning I ran on a trail along scenic highway 30A. It was fun to see the current beach houses as well as those still being built. After breakfast, Bob and I drove a short 2 miles to Camp Helen State Park. The state park is on a site along Lake Powell and the Gulf that originally had a hotel in the 1920s and then became the site of a recreation camp for employees of Avondale Mills between 1945-1987.

Our Airbnb lies in between two state parks, so after leaving Camp Helen State Park, we drove about 6 miles to Deer Lake State Park. This park basically provides public access to the beach (for a $3.00 entry fee) via a long boardwalk. It had the same Gulf of America sign, but this time right in the parking lot.