Time with friends in Longboat Key and Venice, Florida

February 3-5, 2013

The next couple of hops on our trip were more about people than places, although the places were really nice, too.  We called this the beginning of our “Glendale Phase” of the Loop, as we hoped to see a number of friends from Cincinnati over the next few weeks as we traveled south along the Gulf coast. Seems people can’t wait to leave Cincinnati in the winter, and an awful lot of them end up down here.  First we would be visiting Pat and Nancy DeCastro on Longboat Key, and then Stu and Pat Clipson in Venice.

Leaving St. Petersburg, we passed under the beautiful 5.5 mile Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which spans the main channel between the Gulf of Mexico and Tampa Bay. This is the “new” bridge, completed in 1987, following the partial destruction of the original bridge in 1980 when it was struck by a freighter during a storm. Sections of the original bridge remain in place and are now the Skyway Fishing Pier State Park.

 

Over the years there have been a number of serious, even fatal accidents in this busy shipping channel. One of the reasons we stayed in St. Petersburg as long as we did (besides the fact that we loved it!), was that there were several days of high winds on Tampa Bay and we saw no point in heading out for an uncomfortable trip. The day we left was sunny and calm, a wonderful day for a boat ride. As we left Tampa Bay and waited for an opening at the Anna Maria Island bridge, the dogs and I enjoyed the view from the bow.

 

We were heading for the home of fellow Glendalians Pat and Nancy DeCastro, who have a beautiful home on Longboat Key with a dock out front. We weren’t there five minutes before Joey casually walked into their pool and took himself for a swim. Nothing like making ourselves at home!

 

It was Nancy's birthday, and they had invited another Cincinnati couple over for dinner. After a wonderful dinner we watched the Super Bowl (yes, I really am that far behind on this blog!). Our hosts graciously offered us one of the guest rooms, but we opted to stay on the boat. Nancy called us her “backdoor neighbors.”

Pat and Nancy invited us to stay another day, which we gratefully accepted. They drove us around and gave us a tour of Longboat Key and charming Anna Maria Island. We had lunch at the City Pier Restaurant, a fun place at the end of – you guessed it – a long public fishing pier. It’s one of the many places in this part of Florida that tout their grouper sandwiches, and they really were good here.

In the afternoon we returned to Pat and Nancy's home and relaxed by the pool.  They are in a wonderful location for watching water, boats and wildlife.  Just opposite their house is a mangrove island that is a rookery to huge numbers of herons, egrets and pelicans.  It was fun to watch the flocks returning home in squadrons in the late afternoon after a day of fishing. We also watched a pod of dolphins “herding” fish for dinner.

  

I guess having big birds hanging around the yard can be a nuisance, but we thought this guy was pretty handsome!

 

In the evening we went to a part of Sarasota called St. Armand’s Circle on Lido Key, a lively neighborhood of restaurants and shops. We ate at a good Italian restaurant and enjoyed seeing the area.

The next morning Pat left early to go fishing, but we visited with Nancy for much of the morning while we waited for high tide before leaving their fairly shallow channel. As she does every time she meets a land-based friend, Bailey put on her most pathetic face to try to persuade Nancy to let her stay! But it was time to move on. We had a wonderful visit and thank Pat and Nancy once again for being such welcoming hosts!

 

It was a beautiful day, so we decided to go out Longboat Pass and travel south to Venice in the Gulf rather than dealing with the shallow Intracoastal Waterway. The Gulf was like glass and we enjoyed the easy two-hour trip.

 

We pulled into the Venice Inlet and docked at the Crow’s Nest Marina. We had been warned that the depth at the marina might be too shallow for our boat at low tide, but we had no trouble. I had heard that the beach at Venice was a great place for finding fossilized sharks’ teeth and wanted to go exploring.  The dockmaster told Craig that the closest beach wasn’t the best place for hunting but gave us a small baggie full of the tiny black teeth that earned Venice the title “Shark’s Tooth Capital of the World.”  Mission accomplished! Deciding I now had more sharks’ teeth than I’d ever need, we spent the rest of the afternoon doing boat chores and visiting with other cruisers on the dock.

 

In the evening, we welcomed Stu and Pat Clipson, friends from our church in Glendale who wisely choose to spend every winter in this lovely spot. Stu and Pat have been faithful followers of our Looper blog, so it was fun to welcome them on board.  After wine on Blue Heron, we walked to the very good and very popular restaurant at the Crow’s Nest, where Stu and Pat treated us to dinner. After a delicious meal and great conversation, they gave us a tour around their very attractive town. Before we said good-night, they came back to the boat to sign our guest book. What a fun evening!  Thanks again, Stu and Pat!

Next: Loving island life: Boca Grande and Cabbage Key.

(Real-time update: on March 14, we are in North Palm Beach, enjoying the beautiful Old Port Cove Marina and waiting for the wind to stop blowing!)

St. Petersburg and the Ringling Museums

January 28 - February 3, 2013

OK, here we are again, long past St. Petersburg but still remembering it fondly.

I always had an image of St. Petersburg as an old people’s city. Of course my definition of “old people” has changed a bit over the years. But we were surprised to find St. Pete a youthful and vibrant city, with lots going on and a good bit of it right along the waterfront.  It’s a great place for visiting boaters! There are good restaurants, shops, parks, museums, theaters, movies – all within an easy walk of the marina.  In fact, it reminded us of a mini-Chicago, with so much to do along the waterfront, against a backdrop of attractive high-rise condos.  There is even a small airport right on the water, similar to Chicago’s old Meigs Field.

 

It’s also a very dog-friendly city. Most of the restaurants have sidewalk seating where dogs are welcome, and a few even offer dog menus! Our first night we ate on board, but then took a walk with the dogs and ended up having a glass of wine an an outdoor café.  As usual, the dogs got lots of attention from passersby.

 

One morning we had an exceptionally good breakfast at Cassis, one of the sidewalk cafes, and then walked to the Salvador Dali Museum. This museum holds the largest collection of Dali works outside his hometown in Spain. Why St. Petersburg, you might ask? Good question. As far as I was able to learn, Dali never set foot in St. Pete. Apparently a couple from Ohio (of all places!) amassed a huge collection of Dali’s paintings during his lifetime and built a small museum somewhere in Ohio.  Eventually it was moved to St. Petersburg, and then relocated just two years ago to the brand new, very eye-catching building that is its home today.  Anyway, his art is a tad eccentric for our tastes, but it was interesting to see, and the building itself worth the trip.

 

After visiting the museum, we went for lunch at The Hangar, a fun and popular restaurant in the terminal of the little Albert Whitted Airport next to the marina. I’ll bet you didn’t know that St. Petersburg was the home of the world’s first regularly scheduled passenger flights in history – in 1914, from St. Pete to Tampa. The old National Airlines was originally home-based out of Albert Whitted. Today it handles only small planes and helicopters, but seems pretty busy.  We enjoyed our window seat at lunch, watching the planes coming and going.

 

Another day we visited the St. Petersburg Museum of History, also across the street from the marina. It’s small, but as we have found with the many local museums we have visited on the Loop, it told quite a few interesting stories.

Just inside the entry, there is a huge scale model of the impressive, proposed new St. Pete Pier, which would replace the “upside-down” pyramid that currently marks the entrance to the harbor. We discovered that there is a great deal of controversy about the scheduled demolition of the old pier and the building of the new one. The docent at the history museum didn’t equivocate.  He made it clear he has hated the pyramid since it was built in the early 70’s and it can’t be replaced quickly enough.  Others, of course, have different opinions. Every city has some version of this debate – just fill in the blanks.

The museum also had a nice display honoring the WWII WAVES, which Craig especially appreciated, as his mom served as a WAVE during the war. There was also a model of the plane that made that first regularly scheduled flight. You can see why that venture was never profitable.  The plane wasn’t big enough to carry many passengers or cargo.

 

One day we drove to Sarasota with Stephen, Charlotte and their visiting daughter Kate (Jackets II) and spent a full day at the Ringling Museums. It’s almost more than you can take in in just one day.  There are two buildings dedicated to the circus, the ornate Venetian-style home of John and Mable Ringling, and the unbelievable art museum, which houses their private collection and is now the State Art Museum of Florida – all set in 66 acres of landscaped gardens. We had a wonderful time.  Don’t miss it if you are anywhere near Sarasota!

 

The circus museums included a huge miniature circus (is that an oxymoron?). The detail was incredible. It gave a good sense of the immense logistical challenge of moving so many people, animals, supplies and equipment from town to town all over America.

 

We also enjoyed seeing the Ringlings’ private railroad car.

 

The house, Ca d’Zan, was Mable’s dream. It was based on the elaborate designs she saw on their travels in Italy, especially Venice.

 

 

But for us, the art museum was the most impressive.  To think that this was the private collection of two people! There was something represented of many of the great masters dating back to the Renaissance. We learned that although John Ringling was once one of the wealthiest men in America, toward the end of his life he ran low on liquid assets. He was encouraged to sell his vast art collection, but following the death of his beloved Mable, he determined to complete the museum and preserve their collection intact. What a gift to us today that he did so, and that this collection wasn’t scattered to private collectors and museums everywhere.

 

Another special treat during our stay in St. Pete was a short visit by Gold Looper friends Tom and Patsy Conrad.  We had lunch with them and made plans to connect again further down the waterway.

Our last day in St. Pete we were able to visit the weekly farmers market, which really has to be seen to be believed. “Farmers market” is probably a bit of a misnomer, although there were a few fruit and vegetable booths. Mostly it was an acre or so of prepared food vendors, representing just about any domestic or international cuisine you can think of. And it was packed! To think that this small city puts this on every Saturday!  We had a great lunch, and brought some produce and interesting cheeses back to the boat.

 

On our last night in St. Pete, we went out to dinner with Stephen and Charlotte, as the next morning we would be parting ways for a week or so. We went to a really good Mexican restaurant and then made a return trip to the gelato store.  If you think it sounds like we mostly ate our way through the week in St. Pete, you’d be about right.  So what’s wrong with that?!

We loved our stay here. Our Looper friend Cathryn on Next To Me says she thinks she could live in St. Pete. I think we might agree!

 

 

Next, beginning the “Glendale Tour” segment: visiting friends in Longboat Key and Venice.

(Real time update: As of March 12, we are in Ft. Lauderdale.)