Florida West Coast - Loads of Fun!

Observation #113 – The further south we go in Florida, the bigger the boats get, and the smaller their owners’ dogs get. 

10/20 -  Many of you know of  my occasional work as a trial consultant, doing jury studies and mock trials to study likely outcomes in pending lawsuits.  The person who recruited me, and with whom I work on each of these studies, is Richard.  Over about 13 years, we’ve had a wonderful working relationship, not to mention some great travel adventures in all corners of the country.  But in all those years, I had never met his partner, Tony, about whom I had heard a lot.  So it was great to welcome them aboard for a few days.  

Their first day with us was our last day at Al and Charlie’s house – and we just enjoyed the setting, a beach walk, and a dinner onboard.  

The next morning, we left before sunrise and had a slow leisurely trip around the St. Petersburg peninsula, heading south along the Gulf coast, around the corner, and then north inside of Tampa Bay.  That brought us into St. Petersburg.

We arrived in time to go to their famous Farmer’s Market, which is very big and includes a broad diversity of vendors, not just farmers – not to mention live music.   

One aside…Debi took Jim to ER after he doubled over in pain in the Farmer's Market (thinking it was appendicitis). Was there a couple of hours, diagnosed as a passing kidney stone, which Jim had 20 years ago.  We left the ER and carried on with our day - enough about that (Jim says).

That evening we started with drinks and apps at the elegant and restored Vinoy Hotel, a short walk from the boat.  From there, we carried our dinner picnic out to the park behind the hotel to hear a very good Florida Orchestra treat us to a pops concert. 

Let me stop here and get a little ahead of the game by summarizing our stay in St. Petersburg.  Neither of us, nor any of our 4 guests, had any idea what a great city it has become in recent years.  Young, vibrant, artsy, yet historic.  Great neighborhoods of funky stores and bars, a wonderful waterfront with lots of park space, great restaurants, lots of live music venues and a few outstanding museums.  Originally, it wasn’t on our radar, and given that it was a bit out of the way, we might not have stopped if not for the advice of fellow Loopers. Well, we stayed nine days before coming home to Atlanta – and will go back to the same marina when we return. According to locals, this transformation into a great small city is pretty recent – in the past 5-10 years.   Give it a try!

Anyway, our next day with Tony and Richard featured a bike ride through multiple interesting neighborhoods.  Our last day together included a trip to their history museum and Museum of Fine Arts.  Both were worth the time and effort – but were not “can’t miss” sort of experiences.  Our final night together, our guests treated us to a fantastic dinner at the Vinoy Hotel.  It was a nice way to top off a great visit before seeing Richard and Tony off on their return to Houston.

10/22   We had a couple days to ourselves - taking care of boat and home business, re-provisioning - heh, keeping this life going is a lot of work!  We also rode bikes to the Sunken Gardens, an old Florida attraction - actually quite nice.

Our next guests were Bob and Peg Webber from Maryland (DC).  Long-time readers will note that they also visited us on the Potomac in 2012 and in Canada in 2013.  This makes them the only three-time Sea Fever visitors (others have visited three or more times including our previous boat, whose name shall not be uttered, but not on Sea Fever).  This time we had them for four nights.  

Highlights included the Dali Museum (a real must if you are in the area) and the Chihuly Museum (almost as interesting, though quite a bit smaller).  

Separate evenings in a jazz club, a restaurant with a piano bar - where Debi, of course, got Jim inserted into the act (one of her specialties), a rooftop bar with great views of the bay and the city, a return to the weekly Farmer’s Market.

We also watched the World Series at some of the above places and on Sea Fever (both in the salon and under the stars on the bow, looking through the windshield), and played lots of card/board games and bocce ball.

10/26   We rented a car to drive to Atlanta for a week to take care of various obligations.  Dropped Bob and Peg at the airport on our way out of the metro area.   We’ve now been home for a week and in some ways it doesn’t feel like we’ve been gone – we just slid right back into the routine.  Hopefully we will have an equally smooth transition when we drive back to the boat.

When we get back we will be only two weeks away from the conclusion of this great adventure.  Those two weeks will be filled with lots of visitors and 7 more ports before crossing our wake in Stuart FL. 

11/6   After arriving back in St. Pete in our RV, we spent the better part of a day doing one of our logistical maneuvers.  Rented a car, drove it and the RV to Clewiston, near the end of our journey, where others (including Emily and Drew) will be joining us.  Parked the RV for the next two weeks and drove back in the rental car to St. Pete.  

Made one more trip up to our favorite rooftop bar, the Canopy – this time to look at the city after dark and enjoy their gas-fueled fireplaces. Also, took one more bike ride along the shore and the fancy houses (part of it reminded us of the Battery in Charleston, with a different style of mansion) and then departed for Sarasota.  It had been 2 ½ weeks since we last moved the boat – quite awhile in one place (although it included the week in Atlanta). 

Tampa Bay can be rough, but we had a smooth cruise into Sarasota.  

After two days, we have nice things to say about Sarasota, but it (or our brief experience with it) pales in comparison to St. Petersburg.   We would have predicted the opposite – but not sure why.  In any case, it seems to have more traffic, older people, more business and less arts (though it is not barren of them by any means), busier in not good ways, and not quite as busy in others.  To be fair, I think there are some more interesting neighborhoods than downtown, but we didn’t get there. 

Having said that, the marina was beautiful – great setting and views – with a piano bar, a band in an adjoining bar and a lots of outdoor space - we could sit on SF and hear live music while we watched the sunset (not bad!).   

And we had two very nice outings today – one to the Marie Selby Gardens, http://www.selby.org/photo-tour, which was better than average – lots of orchids and tropical plants.





















The other was to the Marietta Museum of Art and Whimsy
http://www.whimsymuseum.org/index.html and http://whimsymuseum.pastperfect-online.com/39127cgi/mweb.exe?request=random.

This was one woman’s private collection, open to the public.  Thousands of amazing pieces – great art with good humor.  The woman, holding court, struck us as a younger Josie – but had the flowered hat and attitude.    

At night we went to a cabaret show – 4 women doing all of the 50’s and 60’s girl groups, Cher, Aretha, Dionne Warwick, Linda Ronstadt, etc.  The old theater was as much a part of the show as the music.

11/7 We left Sarasota for a short cruise down to Venice Beach – we left fairly early so we could arrive, get hooked up and washed up before our guests, Clark and Helen Cunningham arrived after flying into Ft. Meyers.  Helen and Clark are neighbors and fellow church members.  We see each other at church, neighborhood events, parties, etc. – but we had not had the chance to get to know each other the way you get to know each other living on a boat, so this was a very nice opportunity for all of us.  Clark is also on the GSU faculty (law school) and both of them share a midwestern and Michigan background with me.   They arrived on a gorgeous cool day and Debi had lunch ready to serve.

Not long after Clark and Helen arrived, we greeted Mark and Allyn on Second Wind.  They were fellow travelers on the Loop last year – we spent a lot of time together before we went on to Chattanooga for the winter while they finished the Loop.  They live near Boston (where we visited them last fall) but keep their boat down here – so we were happy we could travel together for a few days.

The next day, the six of us on two boats moved on to Gasparilla Island near the town of Boca Grande.  The town, island, and marina have a combination of an old Florida and new resort feel to them.  

We took a 6-person golf cart around the island, played a lot of Bananagrams and other games, watched some football (Jim's solo observation of the MSU loss in the marina bar was a sad Saturday night), and just plain hung out – especially on a rainy Sunday afternoon where we ended up being thankful for a rainy day that forced us to do nothing.  

A couple of nice dinners out and a delicious Debi dinner in, made for some nice evenings

Sea Fever and Second Wind docked together

11/10  This morning we said goodbye to all 4 of our friends.  Helen and Clark took off for the airport, and we left the marina just before Mark and Allyn – headed in different directions.  We had a beautiful cruise down to Ft. Myers – nice downtown marina where we will spend three days.

We’re both very aware of how close we are to the end of this adventure – less than a week now - and feel it closing in on us – in good ways and not as good ways. 

11/11  We try to check out whatever is happening in the communities we are passing through. Today, that meant walking a few blocks into downtown to watch the Veteran’s Day Parade – definitely a taste of small-town America. 

This evening, our good friend Randy stopped by.  He comes to Ft. Myers periodically to check on his mother who lives here – and he will add to that by joining us for the last two legs of the trip Saturday and Sunday. 

Ever since we crossed the Gulf we pretty much felt that the challenges of the Loop were over, and the easy cruising was on.  However, we don’t want to be like the Utah football player this weekend who dropped the ball 2 yards before the end zone to prematurely begin his (not) touchdown celebration.  

So, we will continue to be vigilant and hope luck stays with us for this last week.  And we do have the 25 mile crossing of Lake Okeechobee to get through – it can be rough in windy conditions.  But come Sunday, we will celebrate with a vengeance. 

See you at our crossing!!    Jim, Debi and Charlie