Fun in the Sunshine City

Day 242  |  St. Petersburg  

The destination of our morning walk was the Gizella Kopsick Palm & Cycad Arboretum. On display are more than 500 plantings representing more than 150 species from around the world. A nice brick paver pathway meandered through specimens marked with identification tags. The big cone on the right is from the cycad encephalartos ferox. I learned today that cycads are seed plants that have stout woody trunks with a crown of large, stiff leaves.

I have commented several times about the great public parks lining the waterfront here in St. Petersburg. Today we passed beach volleyball courts and a covered area with exercise equipment placed for public use. There are traditional water fountains and spigots to refill your water bottle. One could get used to this. The pink Vinoy Park Hotel stands majestically as the lone structure among the parkland. The AAA 4-Diamond hotel is on the National Register of Historic Places and was built in 1925. During WWII it was taken over by the US Army and used as a training school. The doors closed in 1974 and it sat deteriorating until being rehabilitated in the mid 1990s.

Our late morning and afternoon were devoted to chores: the pumpout boat paid us a visit, we received our zincs and watermaker filters via UPS delivery, I waxed Fiberglass Beach and polished the stainless, and we got the dinghy down and completed setup on the new outboard. Barry took it for a spin in the marina and all worked well. We then got it back on the upper deck in time for Barry to pick up the rental car.

We joined fellow Loopers from Miss Utah and Destination ?? for dinner at Hofbrauhaus. We were seated in a large Beer Hall where a Bavarian Beer Band (of One) kept the mood jovial. Multiple singings of Ein Prosit occurred throughout the evening. The boys all ordered a house beverage. The guitar player was passing around a hat that we never quite understood the meaning of. Our best guesses were it was either supposed to be like Elphaba from Wicked or the sorting had from Harry Potter. Feeling left out of the fun, we girls borrowed the boys' steins for our own photo op. We had a great night together, but faded quickly. We all were back to the marina by Boaters' Midnight (9:00).

We will head over to the Clearwater area tomorrow and explore the beaches before stopping at Costco and Walmart for a few things. We need to start stocking up here for our trip to the Keys and Bahamas. Prices get higher and access to stores more difficult as we head head south and east.