De Soto Knew A Good Thing When He Saw It

I'm wrapping up (I think) a recap of the little getaway we made to Tampa last weekend. Am I the only blogger out there who needs two days to write about a four day weekend? In last year's A-Z challenge I needed every bit of an entire month to blog about a two week trip.

Words.  

I heart them.  

Back to Tampa...on Sunday we headed out to explore Ft. De Soto Park, also near St. Pete and about a half hour from our hotel.  There is an enormous amount of history associated with this piece of property, and you can read more of that by clicking on the link if you're interested.  

The remains of an old war fort sit on one edge of the park, and as it happened a battle re-enactment was happening as we pulled in. Once upon a time Robert E. Lee walked these parts, and before him De Soto, whom I hope we all remember from our 4th grade social studies classes.

Remember studying the explorers?  

Do 4th graders still study the explorers who made America's map?

I have to insert here it was 80 degrees and humid, so I said a quick thankful prayer I was born in the decade of sundresses and air conditioning.

Ft. De Soto Park sits on over 1000 acres containing beautiful sandy beaches and over 300 species of birds.

There's some other wildlife here too...

I'm not a wildlife expert (I just play one on my blog), but I'm pretty sure raccoons are nocturnal creatures. Hubs says they're probably tame and know the precise location of every rubbish bin in the park. Still....Shudder.  I'll take a bird over a raccoon any day.

This guy was waiting on the fisherman to bring in some lunch he could steal-

I love it when birds line up as if they're listening to a lecture.

As we started to walk out to the fishing pier the weather got very strange. A thick, heavy fog rolled in over the sea and it was a little eerie.

We knew from the sound of its horn there was an enormous cruise ship sitting out there, but you could not see it even a little bit.  I heard later they had to sit out there all night because of the fog.  Here's the pier-

Like I said-foggy.
Not so foggy we couldn't see some dolphin just below us though-

The fishermen have to be quick to reel in their catch, and its not only the dolphin they have to watch out for.  This guy?  

Way quicker than you'd imagine.

If you look closely you'll see the shadow of the dolphin he beat to the punch just beneath his wing.

Since we'd walked about a thousand miles in the park on Sunday we were able to enjoy another fabulous dessert dinner guilt-free.  That's how it works, right?  A friend of the hubs had recommended a steak house called Ocean Prime, and I know you need to see a picture of the peanut butter pie.  

It was more like a delicate peanut butter mousse topped with a bittersweet chocolate ganache and it was positively decadent.

Sigh. Even when you're at the beach Monday rolls around.  Hubs had meetings all day so I busied myself with this-

He texted a few times to be sure I wasn't bored.  

Bored?  Ha!  

My only worry was figuring out how to get back here sooner rather than later.  

"Why do we love the sea?  It is because it has some potent power to make us think things we like to think." Robert Henri

Just Add Water

Hubs had a meeting in Tampa on Monday-Tuesday, and a bit last minute we decided to make it a long weekend and I'd tag along.  Someone has to occupy that lounge chair on the beach while he works, right?

It felt a little hectic getting out of town since you may remember I had just returned from a long weekend trek to Tennessee late Monday night. Basically I unpacked, collected the dog from the kennel, grabbed some grocery essentials, did laundry, repacked, redeposited the dog at the kennel, and we were off.  

Hubs nearly always gets bumped to first because hello, United Airlines sees him as much as I do, but I booked late and was in the center seat, last row of the plane. Next to the restroom. Ugh. Naturally the flight was 100% full, but somehow hubs was able to get my seat moved up to a window over the wing. Much better.

Know what's even better better?  He gave me his seat in first and scrunched himself into that seat over the wing. The flight attendants were impressed, and said that doesn't happen very often. That's kind of sad I think, but I guess I'm old fashioned. Hubs will probably think it's silly I even mentioned it, but I want you to know that in marriage, as in much of life, little things are sometimes big.

Look-four paragraphs in and we're still on the ground in NJ.  Moving on...

We stayed in the Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay because that's where hubs needed to be for work, which was after all, the whole point of us going to Florida in the first place. Pesky detail.

The Hyatt sits on the Bay so there's not a true beach, but they've created a little one which was lovely.  The property is expansive and built around a 35-acre wildlife preserve for something different. They've constructed an elevated boardwalk from one end to the other with a tentacle reaching out over the Bay to a gazebo.

The walkway crosses a marshy area thick with banyan trees, beautiful birds, and other sorts of wildlife too. Hubs liked to make me nervous by telling me to keep an eye out for panthers.  It's possible I've watched a little too much CSI Miami, but I also kept an eye out for dead bodies. I'm telling you, that marsh was thick.  

Every morning we'd get up, put on our work out clothes, grab coffee, and walk out to the end of the boardwalk to watch the birds in the tidal pool.  I took a lot of pictures with my phone so the quality is something less than the usual mediocre, but its hard to ever completely ruin a photo of the sea.  

After our coffee and our walk we'd hit the gym. I really enjoyed this little routine and wish we could start every day like that. Sadly, no boardwalk to the bay in my backyard.

I feel quite certain there will be Gulf Coast sunsets in heaven.  

Friday evening we had a delicious seafood dinner at a restaurant called Oystercatchers. In fact we had fabulous dinners every night, including the room service I ordered in my pjs on Monday while hubs was at a business dinner.  I don't know why, but room service always feels like such a treat. 

On Saturday we took a little thirty minute road trip to the town of Treasure Island, because when hubs was a little boy his family vacationed there.  He hasn't been back in over 40 years but he still remembers bits and pieces, specifically a giant Pirate greeting them as they came across the bridge....

Whew!  He's still there. You don't want progress to mess too much with precious childhood memories. I do believe he's had a fresh coat of paint or twenty in the decades since hubs last laid eyes on him, but I was happy to see him still standing. This pirate was very exciting stuff to a five year old and his brother.

The hotel his family stayed in is now condos, but we strolled along the beach where he swam and called his parents so they could get in on the nostalgia too.  Memory is a funny thing.  The hotel was nothing fancy, but he has such happy memories of those holidays....fishing with his dad, seafood dinners, playing shuffleboard, swimming in the surf in the bright orange life vest his mama made him wear. I think with every family holiday we've taken he's tried to recapture for his own children, the essence of those long ago trips.  I feel certain they'd tell you he succeeded.

We drove on into St. Pete's Beach and had lunch sitting beach side at the Don Cesar. I'm going to have to come back here...what a lovely hotel. We spent the rest of the afternoon soaking up the sun at our own hotel pool before heading out to a fun dinner at a Tampa institution-The Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City. 

The Columbia was founded in 1905 by a Cuban immigrant and according to their website, is Florida's oldest restaurant. It is fun and it is fabulous. We were seated near the three piece band (piano, bass, bongos) and they were just right.  Great music played at the perfect volume to accompany our delicious meal.  The service was better than excellent as was our dessert.  

That's a guava turnover "Carmita"-guava and melted sweet cream cheese baked in a soft crisp pastry, dusted with sugar and drizzled with vanilla bean syrup.  Heavenly!

Seems like an appropriate spot to end this post.  I realized in paragraph four I was going to have to make this a two-parter. I know some people would throw up a few pictures and call it a day, but I am not one of those people.

Now it's off to the gym, because seeing that guava turnover Carmita reminds me that a treadmill calls my name.

Enjoy your day!