Friday, August 6, 2010

St. Petersberg, Tampa Bay Area

We arrived in St Petersberg in the Tampa Bay area on Tuesday, July 20th. We stayed at a KOA campground there. The campground was huge, but pretty empty. It was very nice with lots of shade, a lovely pool, a very nice laundry room with open air windows looking out over the pool area. The trees were covered with Spanish Moss and Resurrection Ferns. My kids had never seen these delightful little air plants in action before (nor had Marcus for that matter) so I had to do a demonstration!! You find 2 old dried up, grayish, dead looking air plants on the ground. You put one in water and leave the other out of the water. In about an hour or sometimes even less the one in the water will perk right up and turn green. The other will of course continue to look dead. It's kind of a fun little demonstration!
On Wednesday the 21st, Marcus, Colin and I got up early and went on a bike ride on the rails to trails system there. It is where they convert an old rail track into a bike/pedestrian path. They are very cool! The trail took us across a bridge out over part of the Tampa Bay. We saw some dolphins playing in the water there. After a bit (and some steep uphill climbs) Colin was ready to be done, so we headed back. We explored the rest of the campground, including the part on the bayou with the Mangrove trees lining it. We were lucky enough to get up close and personal with a White Egret. Marcus decided to go out for more of the trail on his bike. When he came back he announced he had had the privilege of seeing an armadillo live and in action (vs. the dozens we saw as roadkill along the way). He was right on the edge of the path scuffling in the grass for grubs. We were all jealous that we missed that delightful experience!
Marcus did the research and found a Massage Envy nearby. So he got himself an appointment and headed off for a bit of loosening up from all the driving he has been doing. We spent a good part of the rest of the day doing laundry and hanging out in the pool. The pool was so warm it wasn't very refreshing, but it was a nice place to be. The laundry room, though, while it was clean and well organized with plenty of new washers and dryers was absolutely FULL of mosquitoes! Doing the laundry was a dangerous business, and this was the time I had decided to do it all... sheets, blankets, towels and clothes! What a saint I was, sacrificing my blood, getting itchy all over, so that my family could have clean stuff, don't you think? Ah well, they didn't think so either. A girl can dream, can't she?
That evening we decided to go out to dinner on the water. We found a place called Caddy's that was very casual, right on the beach. You could sit outside right on the sand, or inside. We chose inside since the sun was so hot. There was a fun band playing that played all of the songs that Marcus and I knew from our younger days. One of the songs that they played was: Don't Worry, Be Happy. We decided that that would be a great theme song for our trip! We had a good dinner, and then headed out to the beach. The boys swam in the gulf in their clothes while Marcus and I sat on the beach and enjoyed the sunset. A woman and her husband came by and told the boys to ask her husband what he had in his pocket. I thought that was a bit odd, but her husband reached into his pocket and brought out two shark's teeth that they had found on the beach. The woman insisted that her husband give the teeth to Colin since he had many years supply at home. We all went back to our trailer contented and happy for a good night's sleep.

Ratings for July 21st
Ann 8 I got lots done, but the mosquitoes were a bit vicious! Caddy's was very relaxing. My Bahama Mama made me happy Mon!
Marcus 9 I enjoyed the bike ride, seeing the armadillo was cool, had a nice evening at Caddy's.
Derek 9 The pool was too hot, but Caddy's was fun! The brown Pelicans got so close it was cool.
Colin 10 Caddy's was epic





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