St. Pete, Kids, Birthday and Home Again
/We drove from the Melbourne gam across the state to St. Petersburg, Florida. It's not a long trip and not particularly scenic, but it avoided tolls (there's that budget kicking in again) and was pleasant enough as we chatted and re-lived the highlights of the gam, especially reacquainting with so many old friends. We arrived in St. Pete mid-afternoon and were welcomed by Brennan and Hannah, and our grand-dog, Olive. Olive's main preoccupation in life, beyond eating, pooping and sleeping, is “ball”.
The “kids” purchased their first home this past year in the “Historic Kenwood” area of St. Petersburg and it was our first chance to see it. It's a 1923 sweetheart of a place with lots of character and funky nooks and crannies which they readily admit might be a money pit. They've already done lots of work and the projects continue to roll on. In other words, they love it and so did we. We even had our own “parents” apartment all to ourselves. Quite the luxury!
We celebrated my birthday one evening with dinner at Gateway to India, an upscale Indian restaurant with great food. We're not a gift-oriented family for birthdays, but being with them to celebrate for the first time in ~20 years was pretty special … despite good-natured ribbing about my increasing years and parsimonious nature.
Even Google wished me a happy birthday! Talk about Big Brother always watching. Actually, it's FB since it wishes both us a happy b-day and David's is in July. FB snitched!
Having missed our daily morning walks lately, Brennan and Olive took us on a lovely 6.5 mile walk along St. Pete's Central Avenue down to the bay and back again. Street art is definitely alive and well in St. Petersburg's downtown artsy area. Though we missed the MFA and the Dali Museum (on the list for next time), walking by the galleries and decorated buildings was interesting and inspiring.
All too soon, it was time to head to Orlando and board the flight back to Vegas. We had opted for “low fares” when I made the reservations. We'd forgotten that “low fares” meant NO amenities whatsoever (including no reclining seats) AND two stopovers … one in Cinncinati and a plane change in Denver. It was a long, long day punctuated with long waits, too much coffee and sore necks, but we survived. The extreme turbulence arriving in Vegas prompted the passengers to hoot, holler and applaud as we landed. Our luggage got lost somewhere along the way, but Frontier promised they'd find it and deliver it … soon. Mary and Paul were there to meet us at the airport and whisk us away to the “big house”.
All is well. We're right back where we started from 10 days ago, ready to resume our morning walks on the golf course and prepare for the holidays and our next adventure. Where to next? Stick around … you know we love to share.