Piña coladas on the beach

The only hills on the trail

We had piña coladas on the beach earlier, followed by two drinks with dinner, and now I'm having a bedtime brandy. If I'm not entirely coherent, that's why. I promise to cut back again next week, honest....

Sunshine skyway

Tonight Gerry and I are at the Helmsley Sandcastle hotel on Lido key. Jill, on the other hand, is recuperating from bronchitis/ pneumonia at wonderful Mike and Mary's house about 40 miles south of here. The three of us stayed there last night after Jill's diagnosis at the walk-in clinic in st Pete yesterday . Gerry and I dropped her at the clinic yesterday morning before taking off on a 35 mile ride out to Fort Desoto. On the way back I called m & m, who graciously agreed to let Jill recuperate there for a few days.

Dali museum, st. Pete

Vickie at lido beach

Sunset, Lido beach

Yesterday's ride was the nicest so far, all on trails or marked bike lanes, much of it through St. Pete residential areas, raised trails through pond areas where it seems ilike we should've seen manatees or alligators, and then a long causeway out to Fort Desoto, with white sand beaches. Then we had a sunset drive over the beautiful sunshine skyway (some of you may remember the top section of this breaking due to a freighter collision, in 1980, aand a few cars driving over the edge. They've fixed it since then.) and down to m&ms house in North Port.

I quite like st. Pete and would have liked to spend more time there. It is definitely a "living" downtown, with lots of sidewalk cafés, restaurants, museums ... The Dali museum is impressive even from the outside....And many bike trails both along the waterfront and through town. And of course the climate doesn't hurt.

Skyway trail, st. Pete

As for where we are tonight: although the beach is lovely, I don't think I would come back here. The Helmsley sandcastle is not at all what I expected, doesn't look like anything has been updated since the 80s. We tried to get epresso at the hotel this afternoon and they wanted over $9 for a double espresso!!!!! So, we ended up walking almost 2 miles back to St. Armand's circle, which was just a total zoo, with cars line up in both directions and every place crowded with people. After asking for directions 3 times and finally finding Starbucks (apparently the only coffee place in the whole town), we waited in a long time and then there was no place to sit. I couldn't get anyone to give me a glass of water, they had no napkins,and their toilet wouldn't flush.

Still, the walk back, barefoot on the beach watching the sunset made for a lovely day.

Tomorrow: kayaking through mangrove tunnels.

 

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