Trip from St. Pete to Sarasota

We had a nice time in St. Pete, but it was time to get back to Sarasota before leaving for Annapolis. Mary Alice came and saw us off (picture above) and Pamela watched from the balcony (picture below). We motored past the Pier and could see Tropicana field. We also went under the massive Sunshine Skyway Bridge. It was an uneventful 5 hour trip, except for the fact that we saw less than six feet in several places. I love the picture of the guy fishing *standing* in the water only a few feet from us.....

We are off to Annapolis today.

Smarty pants

Monika and Fred have been nice enough to loan us their Smart car while we have been in St. Pete. It really is fun to drive. And just as small as it looks. Oh, and to boot -- they have a big Tampa Bay RAYS logo painted on the back.... Bill has made it a point to wear his Red Sox hat while driving the Smart car.

St. Pete continued

We decided to stay in St. Pete until Monday morning, when we will sail back to Sarasota. St. Pete is really a great place to cruise. As I wrote, we have been staying at the Vinoy Marina, which is right downtown and close to everything. Very convenient -- and pretty. Here are some pictures of Mary Elizabeth at the dock.

The picture above is another taken from Mary Alice's balcony. You can see we have had a few more neighbors at the dock as the weekend progressed.

Last night the three of us tried out a new restaurant that opened this weekend in downtown St. Pete called 400 Beach. Today we went to a movie; tonight we are just hanging low. There have been some severe afternoon storms lately, so we want to leave early enough tomorrow so we can avoid them.

Going to the chapel...

We have been docked next to everything from cruise ships to fishing boats to motor yachts that you read about in magazines.... But never a CHAPEL. Yes, this floating chapel docked next to us for a short while last night here at the Vinoy Marina in St. Pete to pick up guests.

We had a nice night with Mary Alice, Fred, Monika, and their grandchildren. We had tacos on board and then went to the final Red Sox Rays game here in St. Pete.

We're in St. Pete

We have not been too great about keeping current with the blog. I recently spent the past week in Boston while the repairs were finished on the boat. Bill and Mike took Mary Elizabeth from Sarasota to St. Pete on Monday. There were a few issues (the windex was knocked off while going under a bridge and the engine was running too hot) but things are looking good as far as the repairs go. We are very happy and thankful that all of the damage from the lightning strike is fixed. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

So we are here in St. Pete for a week. It is really great because we are right across the street from Mary Alice. Last night we went to the first of three Red Sox - Rays games this week. We hope to have everyone over to see the boat in its new (temporary) home.

We are right downtown. The building above is the Vinoy Hotel (which happens to be where the Red Sox are staying!)

The flat, beige building on the waterfront is the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg where I have been volunteering on Wednesdays throughout the summer.

And Mary Alice can look down on us from her balcony. Yes, we really are that close!

We'll be here for about a week before taking the boat back to Sarasota and then we are off to Annapolis.

Sheikra (aka Shriek-ya!)

Wednesday morning I had a doctors appointment in St. Pete and was unable to volunteer at the library (instead I went on Thursday). After my appointment, Bill and I decided to head to Busch Gardens to ride the roller coasters. When we went to Busch Gardens in October, we rode all of the coasters except one -- Sheikra, which is supposed to be the best. Last time, just as we got to the entrance of the ride, it started raining and there was lightning in the area so they closed the coasters. This time we were determined to ride. Sheikra is by far the best coaster that either of us have ever been on. Your feet dangle, you go virtually straight up, then dangle before plunging 90 degrees straight down. It felt like we were parachuting. Awesome. We rode the other coasters too and saw a few of the animal exhibits before heading back to St. Pete. Unfortunately on one of the coasters Bill's sunglasses flew off. They are currently sitting somewhere at the bottom of the tracks, smashed into pieces I am sure.

Wednesday night we were very graciously invited to Jennifer and Emmanuel's house for dinner with Mary Alice. We had a great evening. First we had a walking tour of their amazing neighborhood (the historic Driftwood neighborhood in St. Pete) and waterfront. Jennifer and Emmanuel have a chocolate lab named Max who is basically the perfect dog. He is so well trained and can do the most amazing tricks. Of course we were in heaven.... And dinner was amazingly delicious (Emmanuel is a chef and owner of the Garden Bistro restaurant in St. Pete). Wow.

Thursday I volunteered at the library while Bill played golf. We had dinner (and Skip-bo) with Mary Alice Thursday night and came back to Sarasota Friday afternoon. Instead of driving back on the highway though, we took the long way through Bradenton, Anna Maria Island, Longboat Key, and Lido Key. We also took a ride over to Siesta Key and visited the beaches. Beautiful.

 

view of one of many parks in Sarasota  from the bow of Mary Elizabeth

Well, it has been an exciting and busy week since we got struck by lightning. They have started work on the boat and so far have replaced a few batteries and fixed the generator. Ken, the guy who is coordinating all of the work said it will take a few months for everything to be back to normal. We are thankful that we are here in one place for the summer. Now we just have to decide whether to stay in Sarasota or to move to Bradenton where the mechanics are to cut down on labor costs (they are on the clock when they get to the shop so driving time will be billed to us). Since we have already paid for our slip here in Sarasota, it might be less expensive to stay where we are instead of paying for two slips. Either way, we know we'll go to Snead Island next week to have the boat hauled and inspected. 

So besides boat maintenance and coordination of mechanics etc. we have been busy. On Wednesday we went to St. Petersburg for a few days. I volunteered at the library and then Bill, Mary Alice, and I went to dinner with Mary Alice's friends on Wednesday night. We had a really nice dinner and enjoyed meeting great people. We stayed in St. Pete until Thursday afternoon. 

We have a marina friend -- a single dolphin who comes by every morning and afternoon. The dolphin has a mangled dorsal fin and surfaces every 45 seconds or so. He must have been hit by a boat. He is quite cute and friendly though and has come right up to the boat to check us out. 

We are on the transient dock of the marina, which is nice because most of the time it is very quiet. We are the only liveaboards so have the place to ourselves. 

It has been very, very hot (which we are still getting used to) and very, very muggy. I guess that is to be expected in Florida in June. Not looking forward to August..... 

We are looking forward to our trip to DC that is coming up. Sara and Mark scored Red Sox vs. Nationals tickets, which we are excited for. And we'll finally get to meet baby Jack. 

That's really about it. We have been keeping busy exploring Sarasota (including St. Armand's Circle, which is really neat). There is a farmers market and a crafts fair this weekend that I am looking forward to. Hope everyone has a great weekend. 

 

the boat will continue to be torn up while they do the repairs

 

our slip at Marina Jack

St. Pete

Had a great time in St. Pete. We drove up from Marathon on Thursday afternoon. It took about 6 hours and we made it in time for the first of four Red Sox games that we saw at Tropicana stadium over the weekend. The Sox lost the series (they won Saturday night, lost on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday) but we had a great time.  Tropicana stadium is a really nice ballpark -- and Mary Alice lives literally 7 minutes away (with traffic!), which was a bonus. 

Naturally Mary Alice is a Rays fan. As are her friends. There is a friendly rivalry going on. Bill had noticed that each time he went for a cigarette, one of the Rays would score a home run. Mary Alice passed this story along to a friend and neighbor Mr. Bell -- who is a Rays fan. The next night as we were leaving Mary Alice's house for the game, there was a package for Bill at the gate. It was a pack of cigarettes and a note from Mr. Bell saying "...Please accept these cigarettes and feel free to go out OFTEN tonight so we can continue our scoring...." TOO FUNNY. Bill, Mary Alice and I got a good chuckle. 

 

So our weekend was FULL of baseball, eating, a few games of Skip-Bo. Bill and I walked around downtown St. Pete on Saturday and saw lots of old buggies at a Volkswagen convention -- there is always something going on in St. Pete!!!

After three of the four games, we went to the Vinoy (the hotel next door to Bill's mom's house and where the Red Sox were staying) to see if we could catch the team returning to the hotel. I guess they went in the back way since we never saw them. There were a ton of Red Sox fans in St. Pete though. 

The other really cool thing is that Mary Alice gave us memberships to the Museum of Fine Arts in downtown St. Pete, which we will certainly make good use of this summer. We'll be in the Sarasota/St. Pete area in about a month for at least a few months. 

 

The last week and a half....

 

Well, the last week and a half has been full of interesting tidbits for us here in Ft. Lauderdale. 

The good news is that both Bill and I have finally received our Florida drivers licenses, which means we are officially Floridians. Yeah! 

We had a lovely Easter in St. Petersburg with Bill's mom. Mary Alice cooked a delicious Easter roast, potatoes, and green beans and we feasted. There were a few games of Skip-bo as well as a movie for Mary Alice and me (while Bill watched the Masters) and lunches in beautiful downtown St. Petersburg. 

Saturday night Bill and I celebrated our anniversary at Berns Steakhouse in Tampa. It was one of the most fun experiences we have had at a restaurant. We had a delicious dinner and then had a tour of the kitchen and wine cellar. Afterwards we went to a separate area and had dessert and coffee. We had reservations at 7:30 and didn't get home until 11:00! It was quite the experience. 

Bill and I drove back to Ft. Lauderdale on Monday afternoon in a rental car. We left our car in St. Petersburg (thank you Mary Alice!) so it will be there in June and we don't have to worry about it while we cruise the Keys for the next few weeks. 

 

On Friday on the way to St. Petersburg Bill and I stopped in Sarasota for a few hours to check out a marina. As we wrote before, we looked at 9 marinas in the St. Pete area but didn't find anything that we really loved. Since we are going to be on the West Coast of Florida for at least the whole summer, we really wanted to find somewhere that was close to everything and had the facilities that we have grown used to (pump out, laundry, secure marina, etc.) Well, we found that and more at Marina Jacks in downtown Sarasota. We are excited about our new "home" and look forward to arriving sometime in June. Sarasota is about 45-50 minutes from St. Pete so we will be making plenty of visits to see and stay with Mary Alice. 

 

Last week we were woken up by someone banging on the boat telling us our car had been vandalized. We went up to the parking lot to find the passenger side window of our car smashed. The police had already been and filed a report. Apparently someone smashed the windows of five cars in the parking lot in the early hours of the morning. The vandals took only what was in the glove compartment -- the registration, proof of insurance, car manual, and our AAA membership. We are very lucky in the sense that they did not take Bill's golf clubs, which were in the back seat!!! We called the glass company and they fixed the window that afternoon. 

 

Bill played golf last week with a few buddies and shot an 87, which he was very excited about. I went to the beach for a few hours. We also saw Amy and Juan for dinner last week, which is always fun. And of course we now have the Red Sox to keep us busy at night. We signed up for the MLB package again so we can watch all the games on the computer. We are still loving the Mac. 

So today we provisioned and are ready to leave for Miami tomorrow morning. We will spend a few days in Miami and then head to Key Largo, Marathon, Key West (and points in between) before heading up to the West Coast of Florida. 

We know we haven't been good about keeping up the blog (sorry!) and promise to be better about posting pictures and keeping everyone up to date with our travels. 

Hope everyone had a great Easter! 

St. Pete

We had a fabulous weekend in St. Pete. On Friday Bill and I started our search for where we will stay this summer. We visited two marinas - St. Pete Municipal Marina and the Harborage Marina. Both had advantages and disadvantages. On Saturday we visited seven more marinas in Tierra Verde, Gulfport, Snell Island, Treasure Island -- all places within 1/2 an hour from Mary Alice. Most of the places either didn't have room for us or weren't exactly what we are looking for. We want a marina that has a pumpout at the slip, a secure gate, laundry, parking, close to 'things', etc. It looks like we will end up at St. Pete Municipal -- which is right downtown and within walking distance of everything - including Mary Alice! It is fairly cheap and has everything that we are looking for. The only 'minuses' are that we would have to pay for a 65 foot slip since there is a 50 (yes 5-0!!) month wait for slips for our size boat and we have heard that when there is any sort of a NE wind the boats rock and roll in the slip. We might look at other marinas in Tampa when we go back although St. Pete is really where we want to be. St. Pete is great because there is always something going on. It is a city but not too big. There are amazing cafes and restaurants. Lots of beautiful parks. Museums. Culture. We both really look forward to living there!

(Our potential "new home" at the Muncipal Marina in St. Pete)

Friday the three of us went to the movies and saw Milk, which was great. We got takeout and played Skip-Bo.

In the morning Mary Alice and I went to the Saturday Market. If we live at the Municipal marina I will definitely be doing some grocery shopping there! There were fresh farm grown vegetables of every kind, local bakeries selling breads and pastries, artisans, etc. Mary Alice and I bought fresh strawberries and flavored pasta. There was a stand that sold at least 50 different types of pasta and orzo. We bought lemon garlic, tomato herb, and garlic and herb flavors. Each comes with a recipe. We stayed on the conservative side to try things out but they did sell some outrageous flavors such as lime, chocolate, and berry.

Saturday night we were invited to Fred and Monika's beach house in St. Pete beach. What a beautiful place! After the five of us went to dinner.

Bill and I drove home on Sunday afternoon. It wasn't a bad ride; it took about 4 1/2 hours.

Today, Monday, we are going to try to go to another Red Sox game here in Ft. Lauderdale. Baltimore has Spring Training here in the city and they are playing Boston today! A cold front moved through last night so it is chilly.

Road Trip to Ft. Myers and St. Petersburg

On Thursday morning Bill and I left Ft. Lauderdale and took our first "road trip" in the new car -- destination FT. MYERS. We saw the opening Red Sox Spring Training game against the Pirates. The field at Ft. Myers is great - small and not a bad seat in the house (even the bleacher seats and they didn't cost an arm and a leg like they do at Fenway.) It was a sold out game - lots of people visiting from New England. The Red Sox lost, but we got to see Ortiz, Pedroia, Lester, and the other Red Sox stars.

Ft. Myer is about 4 hours from Ft. Lauderdale and only two hours from St. Petersburg. So after the game we kept driving north to see Bill's mom. The weather in St. Pete is amazing - it is sunny and much cooler than Ft. Lauderdale. We are going to stay for the weekend and drive back on Sunday.