April 29 Florida, Day ONE

Monday:  After completely messing up the way I scheduled my flights to and from Florida (!!), Terry and Ruthanne actually agreed (and were very pleasant about it) to pick me up at 4:00AM to take me to the airport for my 6:30AM flight out of Grand Rapids into St. Petersburg. It was cold and pouring rain when they picked me up ... and SO DARK outside! But I was ready to go!!!

My flight was completely unremarkable, except for the little crated dog sitting under the seat (belonging to the passenger directly behind me). The poor little thing kept crying and its owner was persistent in attempting to soothe its little heart while we flew up, up, up and away ... 

I arrived 30 minutes EARLY at the St. Pete airport. Poor Carol! She was the designated pick-up person (because of David's work schedule) and had been told my flight would not arrive until 10:30 (from an old itinerary I had emailed to them). Somehow the schedule got changed, and I arrived shortly after 9:15. No worries! I only waited a little while (outside) and all of those minutes were very pleasant ones--taking in the SUN and the BLUE skies and the WARMTH all around me. Oh! And when our plane landed, there was no walkway into the terminal! They just dumped us out on the tarmac, for goodness sake. I hadn't had that experience since a long ago flight to Israel ... perhaps it was when we were laid over in Istanbul ...

In all of the almost 45 years that David and Carol have been married, I had not spent more than 15 minutes alone with her. Isn't that pathetic? We made up for it Monday, and spent several very lovely hours together. Here are pictures of our adventures ...

Carol had obtained "special" tickets to the Historic Sunken Gardens in St. Petersburg, so that is where we headed from the airport. What a beautiful little place!

Since I wasn't prepared to take notes (!!), I cannot tell you with any certainty what any of these gorgeous trees and flowers are ...

... but both Carol and I agreed that we had never seen taller palm trees in our lives.

This place is called "Sunken Gardens" because ... the stuff growing here is below street level by about 15' or so (the walkways, etc.). I'm sure the roots of these mammoth trees go extremely deep. Aren't the colors so beautiful?

I do remember that this tree (below) was called a RAINBOW palm of some sort. How cool.

This entire place reminded me so much of the conservatory out at Frederik Meijer Gardens--so tropical and lush.

There was a pond stocked with very large KOI ... much bigger than the ones we see over at the "Blue Water Grill" when we eat there (on Northland Drive).

We walked all of the pathways and took it all in! I think we were there for about an hour and a half. What a beautiful place.

We left the Sunken Gardens and drove over to the St. Pete Pier to eat lunch, walk the pier, and enjoy the view.

We walked by a cute little restaurant near the pier and ate our lunch there. Almost every restaurant around here has a VIEW, and very good food. I forget the name of the place where we ate; but I had a delicious fish sandwich and a "leafy" salad--I should have ordered the more regular kind of salad because the one they set before me looked like a bunch of weeds--which was okay, because I was full from the fish sandwich anyway.

I snapped a few pictures of the view from the end of St. Pete Pier--Carol and I shopped at the gift store out at the very end of the pier that is on the main floor of the restaurant, "Pier Teaki"; then we took the elevator up to the top floors where the restaurant is situated. We didn't eat there, but the view sure was nice.

We walked around St. Petersburg for a little while and then we felt it was time to go home--to Safety Harbor--and to David. But first--we made a quick stop at a thrift store--Carol is an excellent thrift shopper and knows all of the best shops. She stumbled on a truly beautiful dress (maxi length, flowered fabric in the softest colors), and a pair of shorts. Yay!

And then we went home! Here is their super cute house, down the same street where they lived the last time I was here. They have put a lot of work into this little place. I'll show you more pictures of the house in a later post. Aren't the outside flowers pretty?

Thanks so much to Carol--she took an entire day off work to be with me and welcome me (she is a very welcoming person). After we ate our dinner, we watched "Cheaper by the Dozen" and had some good laughs. It was such a nice first day!