St. Petersburg–Our last Florida destination

 

Our winter 2012 trip is drawing to a close as we arrive in St. Petersburg, our last Florida destination before we head home.  Our “entrance” to St. Pete is the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, a cable stayed bridge crossing Tampa Bay. George will always remember when his aunt who lived in St.Pete sent him a copy of the local paper reporting on the collapse of the old bridge in 1980 with cars and a Greyhound bus on it.

                   

                   

After our arrival at the St. Petersburg KOA, on Wed., we went downtown for Irene to see the Chihuly Collection, a stunning, permanent collection of world-renowned artist Dale Chihuly’s unique glass artwork.  This presentation is unique as it is the first installation of Chihuly art in a building designed specifically for that purpose, and it’s located on the city’s waterfront in downtown St. Petersburg. 

                 

Having seen three glass sculptures by Dale Chihuly including “End of Day Tower” at the Fairchild Botanic Garden in Miami (blog post of Jan. 26, 2012),  Irene was eager to see this collection which was breathtaking.  Photography of the collection was not allowed, but the Florida Rose Crystal Tower outside the building (above) and bowls in the collection store (below)could be photographed.

           

While Irene was enjoying a guided tour of the Chihuly Collection, George was busy planning the next day’s bicycle ride.  On Thursday morning we returned to the waterfront area.and rode along the bay through waterfront parks and enjoyed the beauty of the city and the parks. 

                

We ate lunch outside at Moon Under Water overlooking the park and bay.  Very nice!

                        

After lunch we continued our ride along the North Bay Trail which took us by marinas and some grand homes in the historic Old Northeast neighborhood . 

                 

Of course, we had to stop for ice cream at the Cold Stone Creamery.  On our return we passed by the city’s palm arboretum and took a quick look at the extensive collection of palms.  It was a very enjoyable day.

                     

On Wednesday, our last day in Florida, we set out to bicycle at Honeymoon Island State Park near Dunedin which juts out into the Gulf. However, we encountered high winds which caused us to seek a more sheltered place. In nearby Dunedin we found an interesting  green market and enjoyed a nice bike ride along the Gulf.

        

We love the old Florida boom era hotels, so were pleased to see the Fenway Hotel and to learn that it too is being restored to its original purpose.

                 

After the ride we returned to Dunedin for lunch and our choice was immediately confirmed when we spotted Casa Tina Mexican restaurant.

       

Our last biking venue of the day,and sadly, of the trip was the Clearwater Beach beach walk, a new wide curving concrete walking/biking path that is really revitalizing Clearwater Beach. As we approached the beach area, the prominent Regency Hyatt caught our attention and we wound up biking past it on the beach walk.

Irene gets a bike wash below:

                     

                 

                 

George used to come to Clearwater Beach in the sixties and was totally amazed at the extent of development in the last fifty years.

It has been a great two month trip. We have covered both coasts of Florida and have biked a good portion of the best bike paths along the way. No more short jaunts now as tomorrow and Sunday we will be booking miles on the way back home, stopping in Valdosta to visit Irene’s niece and her family. The coach has performed up well on this trip with only a few minor issues to address when we get home as we do a “turn around” in preparation for another trip back to Valdosta for a flower show and then to Asheville to a rally of our Country Coach club.

                 

Tina says, “Where do we go next?”

Myakka River State Park

 

Myakka River State Park near Sarasota is one of the largest and oldest of Florida’s state parks.  And it’s well worth visiting.  The Myakka River flows through the park which contains wetlands, prairies, and woodlands.  We bicycled on the roads (about 15 miles) to see the park and go to the areas we wanted to visit. 

                   

We took the Tram Safari tour which told about the early settlers in the area and how the land had changed,  Interestingly, we learned that Mrs. Potter Palmer (Palmer House Hotel in Chicago) donated the original land for the park, though additional land was purchased later.  In addition to the tram tour, an airboat tour offers a scenic cruise of the Upper Myakka Lake.        

                   

We enjoyed seeing wildlife in the park, mainly birds and alligators.  

                                     

There is a Bird Walk platform extending into the wetlands that offers a great place for birding.  It’s a popular spot in the park, especially in the morning.  We saw white pelicans, wood storks, osprey, sand hill cranes, great white egrets, anhingas, and other birds.

                    

The Myakka Canopy Walkway provides easy access to observe life in the treetops of an oak/palm hammock. Completed in 2000, it was the first public treetop trail in North America. The walkway is suspended 25 feet above the ground and extends 100 feet through the hammock canopy. 

                   

A tower at one end soars 74 feet in the air to present a spectacular view of tree tops and the surrounding area.

                               

                

Though the park has three campgrounds, we drove there from our RV park in Venice for the day. Myakka River SP is a great park to visit – for a day or longer. 

Bicycling in Venice

                                                                                                                                                        There are two excellent biking and walking trails in Venice.  The Legacy Trail runs from Sarasota to Venice and goes past Oscar Scherer State Park where we stayed last year. We biked closer to Venice this year and were glad to see that the new bridge across the Venice Bypass has been completed since our visit in 2011.  This bridge is very near a bike shop where we took George’s bike for a repair, so we began our ride there.

     

                                     

We rode north for a while and enjoyed meeting a couple of serious bicyclers who have recently retired.  Then we headed back toward Venice, stopped for lunch, and continued south.

                 

The Legacy Trail goes past the old train depot (former Seaboard Airline RR) which is now a bus transfer station and

                

then intersects with the Venetian Waterway Park Trail which runs on both sides of the intracoastal waterway to the gulf.  It’s a very enjoyable trail to ride on. 

                       

We’re used to seeing lots of birds here – even saw bald eagles last year – but look what we saw this year!  This was the first of 4 gopher turtles that we saw along the trail.

Gopher Tortoise

On the return ride we met up with a Great Blue Heron walking in the grass along the trail.  We got a few photos before it flew to the other side of the waterway. 

                               

Moving On: En Route to Venice

 

We left John Prince Park and drove about 40 miles to the west side of Palm Beach County and spent the next 2 nights at South Bay RV Park, also a PBC park.  Though we were still in Palm Beach County, the area was very different – agricultural and less affluent.  We passed by cane fields and an occasional orange grove in the area. From time to time we saw smoke on the horizon where cane fields were being burned off. The sugar mill and fishing on Lake Okeechobee are the main industries.

                

While the RV park is very nice, the area offers little (by comparison to John Prince Park).  We bicycled on the levee with good views but strong winds which challenged our muscles! 

                

George got a photo of an osprey when we stopped at Wal-mart in Clewiston.  It had nested on top of a light pole there.

                

Our next stop was at a Corp of Engineers campground adjacent to a lock and dam, W.P. Franklin, which is west of LaBelle and east of Fort Myers.   A small park with  30 sites, it’s a delightful place with large paved sites, nearly all on the water. 

                

                

The patio area is large and has a covered picnic table, and the well maintained grass stretches from the patio to the water where we observed limpkins and white ibis along the shore.    

                                     

                

We bicycled down the road to the Caloosahatchee Regional Park, observed boats going through the lock, and just enjoyed being there.  And this lovely park is an amazing value!  The going rate is $24/day, but with the golden passport, it’s half that.  It’s probably no surprise that it’s not easy to get a reservation.

                

                

Week 2 at JP Park: Dorcas & Myron Visit

 

After an enjoyable week with Mary Lou and Jack, Dorcas and Myron  arrived on Tuesday of our second week at John Prince Park.  Like Mary Lou and Jack, they are members of Southeast Country Coachers.  They’ve been in Florida since early December and we are glad our paths crossed here.

Dorcas and Myron have recumbent bikes (Catrike – made in Florida) which Dorcas says are very comfortable.  They have a rack on their Honda Element to carry the recumbent bikes plus they have a canoe and street bike on the top of the car.  We all drove to Curry Park in West Palm Beach and set out on a day of bicycling.  We rode along the waterway to the north bridge and then cut over to City Place, an outdoor mall, where we had lunch.  After sitting by the fountain for a while and taking time for ice cream, we resumed bicycling. 

               

We crossed the  south bridge to Palm Beach and got on the Lake Trail which runs past this huge kapok tree near the Flagler Museum. 

               

The Lake Trail is unusual in that it runs between the back yards of fabulous Palm Beach homes and their yacht piers.  The yards are beautifully landscaped and impeccably kept. The trail was built by Palm Beach founder Henry Flagler in 1894 as a place for his hotel guests to stroll.

                

                

We also enjoyed bicycling around Lake Osborne at John Prince Park (where we biked with Mary Lou and Jack the week before) and at Okeeheelee Park, another Palm Beach County Park.

               

As windy as the weather was, Myron said it was kite flying time, so he and Dorcas got out their kites.  And people, Myron can fly a stunt  kite!  We had fun watching but weren’t too successful in sustaining flight, but check out Irene’s efforts in the video below. 

                    

Saturday afternoon Myron and George had a “coach day” where they discussed various coach technical issues.  Dorcas and Irene pursued their birding interests at nearby Green Cay Nature Center that overlooks 100 acres of constructed wetland with 1.5 miles of elevated boardwalk.  They saw LOTS of birds, learned to recognize some new ones, and took too many photos!  It was a really good day prior to Dorcas and Myron’s departure on Sunday morning. 

                 

                         

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