The Gulf Coast...

 

I bet your thinking.... what the heck?  How'd they get all the way yo the Gulf Coast and what happened to all the interesting sightings along the way.  Well the truth is....there weren't any.  The other truth....we took a car. 

But before I tell you about our stay in St. Petersburg, let me tell you about the uneventful trip to get there.  I admit I've had this perception about Florida.  Traveling along the Atlantic Coast, I've assumed that the whole state is covered with very Florida style homes.  You know the ones....concrete block construction, tiled roofs and bright colors.  Well on our excursion into 'inner' Florida we discovered that this is not the case.  Once you get into the interior it is amazing how the scenery changes to farmland - cows, sod farms, orange groves - just like the rural midwest (well mostly).  The houses -  aluminum sided, shingles, salt box style - much like the rural midwest.  So it was an interesting learning for us that there is coastal Florida and then there is the rest of Florida.

Now about St. Petersburg - we probably should have arranged to stay longer, as we found downtown St. Pete to be very nice.  The community has lots of art museums and the Pier reminded us of a mini - Navy Pier with its own eclectic flair.  At the St. Pete beaches we found the sands much more pleasant than the rough sands of  Stuart and Ft. Lauderdale.  The beaches were filled with umbrellas much like South Beach but absent the Art Deco architecture.

All in all, our trip was a great primer and has us thinking that a season along the Gulf Coast is in our future.  But in the meantime, we are focusing on provisioning and all the last minute doings to drop the lines and get ourselves out of Stuart.

More soon.

The Admiral