Walkin' On Sunshine

Day 239  |  St. Petersburg  

Another beautiful morning greeted us. We got going early and headed about two miles west from the marina to the entrance to Tropicana Field, home of baseball's Tampa Bay Rays. We (OK, I) would have loved to go on a stadium tour, but the facility is closed to the public during construction. Making our way back east, we were in no hurry, and had no plan other than to enjoy the day. We passed the "Welcome to St. Petersburg" sign that sits along I-275. The vintage clock stood at the corner of one of the many urban parks. It was not functioning, but we laughed that it was almost 5:00 Somewhere even though it was closer to 10:00. Artwork of grand scale and design can be found with every turn of the head. This clever Band Aid was peeling off the facade of the University of South Florida - St. Petersburg hospital.

We passed by the historic Open Air Post Office, continually in service since 1916. All of the post office boxes in the original structure are accessible from the exterior of the building. We turned and found ourselves on Central Avenue, the heart of the arts district in general and glass blowing in particular. Many galleries, museums, and studios are dedicated to glassworks. We will check out a few tomorrow. The Morean Arts Center offers workshops where you can blow your own glass pumpkin. Seeing that sign brought back great memories of the pumpkin workshop I did with three special ladies right before we left on the Great Loop. Each of our pumpkins were Great Pumpkins.

The city encourages artwork to enhance the existence of traffic light control boxes at each intersection.

An annual mural festival called SHINE St. Petersburg has occurred for several years in a row. The back sides of buildings are just as impressive as the fronts. The SHINE wall was constructed of origami objects. Shark Toof was impressive in its boldness and Twiggy equally impactful in its subtleness.

Space Rainbows was the boldest and most vibrant mural that we saw today. We look forward to seeing more of tomorrow. Two blocks from the water is the massive Sundial St. Pete, a shopping, dining, and entertainment complex. We checked out the namesake sundial in the courtyard, complete with life-size dolphin statutes in the surrounding fountain. We then ducked into the movie theater to see A Dog's Way Home. Although it won't win any Oscars, it was a cute movie and (predictably) had me crying my contacts out at the end.

We were back on Crossroads in time to enjoy the late afternoon sun on Fiberglass Beach while reading another third of my book. I believe I am solar-powered, for after two hours in the sun we went out for another walk around the park as the sun began to set.