Saturday, January 24, 2009

St Pete Florida


St Pete Florida

Time to catch up again!

The weather turned cooler so it was off to explore the Tampa – St Petersburg territory. We’ve done the beaches when the weather was warm but now H says it’s time to see the cities themselves. “Up” to Tampa and then down thru town and across the Gandy Bridge to St Petersburg to find the downtown district of each one. These cities are bigger than we thought they would be. Downtown St Petersburg has a pier built out into the bay. The building itself on the pier is an upside down pyramid, which houses 4 restaurants and a 2nd floor aquarium. Tied up along side the pier is the “Bounty” that was used in the movie “Mutiny on the Bounty” staring Marlon Brando.

Saturday was time to say goodbye to our new friends, Terry & Blanche from Maine. And we had one final stop at the Apollo Beach Manatee Viewing Station to see the big guys for the last time. The boardwalks were packed with spectators and the manatees were giving a good show – coming up to the top of the water often and some even flapped their broad tails or belly rolled on top of the water.

Sunday morning was cool and as we pulled out of the campground, the resident Ospreys all stood on their high platforms to look down and wish us goodbye. Well, they looked like they were!

Our new parking spot for the week is now Edward Medard County Park, between Brandon and Plant City. A few blogs previous, we talked about this park with the neat footbridge and good sized lake – all we need to do is get out those pictures and show them to you again! We’ve managed to put several more miles on our bikes and the canoe has even made it into the water. No fish but there was a really big alligator, which charged into the water causing a wake that really rocked the boat. Who startled whom??

We’ve had one trip to Plant City, looking for a non-existent library and one trip to explore/shop Brandon (Brandon does have a library but our Juno does not work there). These two towns are synonymous with STRAWBERRIES!! Supper the other evening was strawberry shortcake and a FRESH strawberry shake! Lunch yesterday was - - Yep, you guessed it - - - strawberry shortcake with ice cream! Fresh picked, red, ripe, yummy strawberries! Eaten right in front of the field of lush green plants growing on top of long black plastic covered high-rise rows! H said I had to wait a day before I could have any more berries! Maybe tomorrow.

Tonight all those fields of strawberries are being covered up with exceedingly large sheets of white fabric to protect them from the freeze that is to sneak into the area tonight. Wednesday is to be the coldest and then a much warmer weekend will follow. One or two nights of possible freeze is way better than the ice and snow we’ve heard about up north.