St Petersburg

I get a strange bolt of nostalgia through my system when we pass by Demen's Landing in St Petersburg. Almost 30 years ago I lived here on my boat, a Flicka 20 by Pacific Seacraft for those who care about such details while I worked at a radio station in Tampa and before I took off sailing the Bahamas.

Despite the adventure it was not a happy time in my life, and I struggled to enjoy what should have been a carefree period in my early 30s. I did not handle my sudden insertion into a tight knit community very well and I felt like the awkward outsider which magnified my feelings of discontent. I was hiding from my stated plan to sail south and finally when I had made myself (and those around me) thoroughly miserable I forced myself out and away. Looking back I felt like my life in downtown St Petersburg was a catalogue of missed opportunities even though I sailed most corners of Tampa Bay I didn't really explore the shore side attractions very much at all.

I made two friends in this period who I still know and both of whom live in Key West so all was not lost...And St Petersburg today is a much more vibrant and dynamic city than it was in 1989. In those days it was still known with reason as "God's Waiting room" owing to the huge number of old people who retired there: the movie Cocoon was filmed there and very sweet it is too so watch it and enjoy a good flick. These days St Pete has a core of young people with the amenities they want and as it is a large city you will find all the services you might like but you will have to drive for them as the city is spread across a large peninsula.

The city marina at Demen's Landing offers secure berths and easy access to Tampa Bay which offers quite enjoyable sailing and lots of destinations between Tampa and the Gulf of Mexico. The waters tend to be hot in summer and are always murky unlike the waters of the Florida Keys...and I would miss the turquoise waters if I lived here. However the cost of living is much lower even though the population tends to be more staid and less eccentric than Key West. By a very long mile.

Demen's Landing, the park around which the marina is built is named for one of the two founders as explained by Wikipedia:

St. Petersburg was founded in 1888 by John C. Williams, who purchased the land, and by Peter Demens, who brought the railroad industry into the area.  As a part of a coin toss bet, the winner, Peter Demens, named the land after Saint Petersburg, Russia, while Williams opted to name the first hotel built which was named the Detroit Hotel, both named after their home towns respectively. St. Petersburg was incorporated as a town on February 29, 1892 and re-incorporated as a city on June 6, 1903.

WE walked the perimeter on this windy afternoon and enjoyed the relaxed ambiance of the park.  

The waterfront inside the marina:

Shade for the power boats, an idea I like very much in South Florida though the roof should be covered in solar panels, obviously:

They have their bums too apparently, trusting types who leave their carts unattended for a moment:

Time to go to the hotel. 

I was glad to get to take a short walk once again in my second or third favorite city in Florida. Some days I prefer St Augustine, some days I don't. Key West is always number one.

Rusty Tours St Petersburg

The day started as one might expect.  

 I left the hotel room to load the car. Rusty has some separation anxiety still.

We have found a couple of Asian restaurants we like in St Petersburg. So, rather uncharacteristically we went back to pay them another visit. The sandwich shop also sells Boba Tea which is now rather less fashionable among non Asian people but I still like tapioca. I went all in and had the Durian version. My wife, less adventurous and smarter had soursop. I have to say Durian tea was a  bit rough honestly as the pungent aroma of rotten onions and vinegar wa sin my nose and the sweet custard flavor was in my mouth. My wife said my breath smelled of rotten eggs for some time. Not my best food choice of the day. And her soursop tasted sweeter.

We walked Rusty downtown and he did quite well in public. He's getting better on the leash staying directed, he responds to his name and he does okay around people, mostly. He still shys away from loud people or people dressed in bright colors(!).

The Vinoy Basin where I lived for a  summer in 1989 I think. I was at anchor here and eventually moved into the marina next door when using the dinghy to get to the car to get to work got tedious. Summers on the west coast get really wet and thundery.

These kids were bent over their phones in the waterfront park, but they may have been listening to the live music coming from the yacht club.

 Rusty got freaked out and started pointing...yes that black and white dot was a dog on the opposite side of the street minding his own business. That's how freaked out he was while living as a  stray. 

 Danger passed he got back into normal dog mode.

 Segway Tour. They looked really weird to me, like clockwork ducks or something.

I like not having squirrels in the Keys. Rusty restrained himself and didn't pull my arm out of it's socket. He's a terrible coward, ready to chase small stuff yet quaking at the sight of a large dog miles away.

 Shakespeare in the park would be nice. We just saw the set under cloudy skies.

We went for dim sum, a meal we cannot find in Key West and listened to the conversation at the snowbird table next door where they discussed boating misadventures, broken engines and storms and so forth. Which turned out to be entertaining as service was not fast.

The picture on the wall reminded me of the Top Gear motorcycle adventure in Vietnam where they ended their epic journey converting their motorcycles into boats to reach the houseboat finish line. And that's all I know.

 Hot tea and rice cakes waiting for the main event.

 The dumplings were okay, shrimp and peanut was different, but the fried calamari...

 ...were surprisingly large balls of deep fried chunks of quite tough squid. The eggplant was oddly flavorless and the ribs were just okay. It was an odd meal but every now and again things don't quite go one hundred percent. I guess it was an off day as the previous visit was excellent and we will try again. 

 I was reminded outside the hotel that I was no longer in the Florida Keys:

 I got beaten up once in St Peterburg delivering pizza decades ago. They threatened to stab me but I went at them with the pizza box, my only weapon. Luckily the customer had ordered a large which made a useful foil but I took a fist to the eye and the delivery had to be aborted. I felt bad for the mother stuck at home wanting a treat. I prefer life south of the Big City.

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