Honeymoon Island

Yesterday morning, with a tropical storm churning toward Tampa, I did what anyone would do. I went to the beach!

I was scheduled to have dinner with my friend Sue last night, but during the day I had nothing on my agenda. I figured a little road trip over to Pinellas County would be fun. I decided to go to Honeymoon Island in Dunedin, a beach I remember visiting as a child.

In fact, here's a picture of my brother and I in Dunedin when we were kids, taken some time in the mid-'70s. (I'm on the right.) It's a weird beach, littered with limestone rocks and not particularly sandy. As kids we collected some of those rocks and had them lying around the house for years. (I used to love that beach towel I'm wrapped in, by the way.)

As it turns out, during my drive to Dunedin yesterday, Sue cancelled our dinner because she had to work. (She's still in journalism and subject to the whims of nature and happenstance, and of course, with a tropical storm coming, it was all-hands-on-deck at the newspaper.)

So then I contacted my brother and we agreed it might be smart for me to just hit the road and come to Jacksonville a day early.

I hung around Dunedin just long enough to walk on the beach, smell the salt air and see some sights.

Those limestone rocks I mentioned are often studded with fossils. Someday I'll have to figure out why the geology of this beach is so different from sandy Clearwater Beach, just to the south.

Someone put the rocks to use and built a small cairn.

Someone else wandered away and left their possessions unattended on their beach chair, and I watched this mischievous crow digging around in the folds of cloth looking for a treat.

There were quite a few wildflowers blooming -- lantana, beach morning glory and these blue dayflowers among them. (The plant-identifying app that I recently added to my phone works in Florida too!) I also saw a brilliant gulf fritillary butterfly, but I wasn't fast enough with my camera.

Then I hopped back in the car, zipped back to Tampa and set out for the long drive north. Satellite radio kept me company, first classic rock and then an '80s progressive station. I learned that Ringo Starr's 81st birthday is today, and according to the deejay, Ringo wants us all to pause at noon -- whatever our time zone -- and say, "Peace and Love." (Subsequent research reveals that this is apparently true.)

The weather was entirely dry for the journey and although I hear Tampa got some rain and wind last night, I don't think it was anything devastating. We're still waiting for the storm to strike here, but as I said in yesterday's post, I don't think it's going to be much. It sounds mildly windy at the moment.

I even got to visit Mom. I arrived in Jacksonville around 4 p.m. and my brother wasn't home yet, so I went straight to her retirement center and sat with her a while there. She was happy and energetic and seems like she's doing well. It astonishes me to think that Covid kept me from visiting her for almost two years!

By the way, I realize I am behind on responding to comments and keeping up in the blogosphere. Sorry about that! I am reading every comment, I promise.

Stars & Stripes

I'm back from St. Petersburg, and staying in my stepmother's guesthouse -- which means no Internet. So once again I'm at Dunkin' Donuts, where the weirdest thing just happened. I walked in and stood at the counter, and saw one employee in back and two more standing at the drive-thru counter, tapping away on phones or some similar devices. Their backs were turned to me and they might have been working, because I couldn't tell what was happening in the drive-thru lane, but I found it very weird that no one even acknowledged that I was there. So I stood for a few minutes, and then said, "Hello?"

And they didn't turn around. So I said it louder. One of the women turned and said "Good morning," and then disappeared into the back. The other woman continued tapping away at the drive-thru window.

Finally, just as I was about to walk out, vowing to myself never to return, a different employee materialized and took my order -- one medium coffee, one jelly donut. When I went to pay, she said, "Don't worry about it. It's a simple order."

I can't tell if they felt bad about leaving me standing there, so felt the need to buy my breakfast, or just couldn't be bothered. The whole thing was very strange.

I'm trying to see a couple of friends in Tampa before I head up to Jacksonville. Last night I visited my college friend Suzanne and her sister Sarah, who I don't think I've seen in at least five years. Their mother was English and they still have lots of relatives in England, so I brought them some of my antique Bovril bottles as a little present. We went to a neighborhood restaurant called The Green Iguana and I had a Carolina barbecue sandwich -- which was fantastic, and something I don't get in London.

We still don't really know what to expect from Hurricane Elsa. Last night, while I visited Suzanne and Sarah in South Tampa near the bay, my phone kept picking up storm surge alerts from the local authorities -- they come with a loud buzz that scared me to death. I thought we were under nuclear attack!

I'm still intending to travel up to Jacksonville tomorrow, but we'll see what the weather looks like. If it's hairy out there I'll change my plans, but I think the storm is supposed to be west of us. I'm optimistic.

Meanwhile, enjoy these pictures of some wildlife near my stepmother's house -- a black-bellied whistling duck (top), a sky-blue dragonfly and an osprey* in flight. Those ospreys can really make a racket. "Screeee! Screeee!"

Oh, and one picture I meant to post yesterday but forgot:

This is just some random (cute) guy I saw in St. Pete with a pretty great Fouth of July outfit. Of course he was amenable to having his picture taken because, let's face it, you don't dress like that unless you want to be noticed!

*Actually a red-shouldered hawk. Thanks, reader Anne!

Pier Monster

I was a walkin' fool yesterday, hoofing it all over downtown St. Petersburg. It's been many, many years since I've spent any time at all in this city, so it was great to have a chance to explore. I must have walked up and down Central Avenue ten times. It's much more lively and colorful than I remember. I got a lot of exercise and also gave myself a fairly intense blister on my foot! C'est la vie.

Above is the view from the new municipal pier, looking back toward town from the upstairs deck of a restaurant.

I took a closer look at Presbyterian Towers. I'd forgotten that in addition to the groovy sculpture on the wall (see yesterday's post), there are groovy sculptures over the doors!

A little bit of wishful thinking, here.

There are a lot of awesome murals all over town. This one might be my favorite, showing a monstrous machine shaped like the old municipal pier destroying the city.

I also really liked this cat, appearing to projectile vomit pizza.

I tried to go to Haslam's, which is a legendary used book store near our hotel. Sadly, it was closed. I'd heard that it was closed during the Covid lockdowns last year, to the extent that a lot of people were concerned about its future. I don't know why it was closed yesterday, though -- maybe just because of the Fourth of July.

To compensate, I found an amazing vintage store a few doors down called Wendy's Closet, where I got a great t-shirt.

Again -- St. Pete is so colorful and vibrant!

We'll be headed back to Tampa today.

Go Bolts

Surprise! I'm in St. Petersburg! My stepsister's husband is running a race today on and around the city pier. We drove down yesterday from North Tampa and checked into the Hilton. The plan is to spend a couple of days here -- they have approximately 500 friends in town from all over the state and they're going to be visiting with all of them. I'm going to absent myself from some of that socializing, because even though I'm vaccinated I'd like to keep my exposure to different people to a minimum, but I suppose it will inevitably be a bit of a whirlwind.

That is NOT the Hilton in the picture, by the way. It's an apartment building for senior citizens near the St. Pete waterfront called Presbyterian Towers. The building itself is a bit grim -- and what's with all the tiny windows? Those apartments have a waterfront view! You'd think they'd take better advantage. But I do like the zippy paint job and I've always been a fan of that somewhat mysterious sculpture on the wall. It brings to mind Neptune's trident, whether or not that's the intention.

So here's a random story. My Dad used to keep a pencil cup on his desk at work that I'd made in kindergarten or thereabouts. It was a juice can wrapped in blue finger-painted paper, shellacked with glue. After he retired he brought it home, and it sat on his desk there. My stepmother, who has been cleaning things out, gave it to me the other day, and although I appreciated her saving it, I honestly didn't want to haul it back to London.

But I was curious to see the juice can underneath the wrapping. So I peeled off the paper and washed off the remnants of the glue, and was left with this -- an example of Minute Maid packaging from 50 years ago! I kind of like the logo. Maybe I should put it on eBay?

Some of you asked in comments yesterday whether I am aware of the hurricane churning toward the state. Yep, I know all about it. The forecast, last time I checked, has it passing as a tropical storm right over Tampa and Jacksonville at mid-week -- just about the time I'd planned to drive up to Jacksonville myself. So, yeah, I'm not thrilled about that timing. The rule with hurricanes, though, is that anything can happen. We never really know what they're going to do until they're doing it. I'm taking a wait-and-see approach.

There's also some big excitement about the Tampa Bay Lightning, our hockey team, which is on its way to some kind of championship. Hence the "Go Bolts" graffiti above. Wig Villa isn't boarded up for the storm -- it's just boarded up because it's closed. I had to take a picture because I'm always a sucker for a wig store, even a closed one.

St. Pete is very different now from the way I remember it in the '80s and '90s. Central Avenue then was quiet and somewhat derelict. Now it's thriving and lined with bars and cafes and quirky little shops. It's been quite a transformation.

There are lots of groovy murals everywhere. Apparently St. Pete has a regular mural festival. This one is by Dasic Fernandez, whose art I used to see in New York when I lived there more than a decade ago.

Here's the view from my hotel room -- Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays, our baseball team. It's just a few blocks away. I know as much about the Rays as I do about the Lightning -- in other words, nothing -- but I like the way the dome seems to reflect the cloudy evening sky.

Doe, a Deer

After I left Dunkin' Donuts yesterday morning, I walked back to my stepmother's house, and on the way I passed some woods where I saw deer quietly grazing beneath the trees. I didn't have my camera, so I kept going, picked it up at the house and went back for some pictures.

I think I've forgotten essential information about living in Florida. For example, you don't want to leave the house without considering the weather conditions. In England, you can walk in the rain and it's no big deal. Life goes on. But when I went back to photograph the deer, this happened:

It wasn't just rain -- it was a freaking monsoon. And did I have an umbrella? No.

I stood beneath a cabbage palm and for a few minutes it kept me surprisingly dry, but eventually it got saturated and lost whatever protective capacity it had. So I wound up walking home in the rain. I have never been so soaked in my life. I hope those deer appreciate my effort.

It was pretty rainy all day. Perhaps because I'm in the land of my birth and upbringing, I got to thinking nostalgically about weather forecasts. We used to have a legendary TV meteorologist in Tampa named Roy Leep, who I just learned died about a month ago. He was well-known enough that the writer John D. MacDonald, who was pretty famous back in the '70s and who lived in Sarasota, worked him into his novel "Condominium." On page 464, one of MacDonald's characters says, "You know, I don't ever really believe anything about the weather unless I hear Roy Leep say it's true." That's pretty much how everyone in Tampa felt.

When I was a local news reporter, back in the ‘80s, we used to call the National Weather Service directly to get a forecast. There was a toll-free number for weather in peninsular Florida, including a boating report. It was always a recorded message, made by a guy who sounded a million miles away, shrouded in the static of distance. He’d mention exotic parts of the state like Cape Sable and the Sebastian Inlet, and although it wasn’t always the same guy doing the recording, they all had the same mild southern twang that sounded comforting and peaceful coming through the white noise background of the phone line. "Bay and inland waters a light chop," he invariably said.

It's pouring rain right now, actually.

Anyway, yesterday, after changing, I met my stepmother, my nephew and my step-sister's husband for breakfast at a neighborhood cafe. Then I spent most of the day hanging around and reading. It was fabulous. I must admit I kind of like the fact that the guest house where I'm staying has no Internet. It forces me to focus on my book. My attention span is getting a workout!

Oh, and remember Maybelline? Well, she's still here, and she says hello. (When I made this video I had to pet her through the fence because I was on my way out to dinner, and getting into her yard would have meant getting enthusiastically pawed!)

Bahama Breeze

Well, I made it to the Sunshine State, and without too much difficulty. My Covid test and official CDC "attestation" that I have been vaccinated seemed to satisfy everyone at Heathrow and I was allowed to board my plane with no drama, and the flight itself was uneventful. There weren't many people on the aircraft. In my portion of the cabin, which I calculated could hold more than 100 people, I counted 23 passengers. Most of us had our own rows.

I read about a third of a book called "Moby-Duck," about the accidental release of thousands of children's floatable bath toys into the Pacific Ocean in a shipping mishap in 1992, and where currents and other elements of nature took them. Interesting! I also watched the movies "Supernova," with Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci, and "Cabaret" with Liza Minnelli -- a curious film to find on an airplane, I thought.

On its approach to Miami, we flew over the Bahamas, where I snapped this photo (above) of some random islands.  I was just happy to see land, the first since the UK with the exception of a brief glimpse of Bermuda. I looked the islands up later and it turns out they're Nunjack Cay, Crab Cay and Green Turtle Cay -- and weirdly, I have a good friend whose family long owned a house on Green Turtle. They may still. I'm supposed to see her in a few days, so I'll have to ask!

This was the view looking down on northern Miami Beach. You can't really see it in the photo, but the condo building that collapsed in Surfside is just below that rectangular patch of green by the beach in the center of the photo (a beachfront park).

And here's the view of Miami proper, with the bridges leading to the beaches radiating out to the east, past the cruise terminals at the Port of Miami.

After we landed at the airport and were taxiing to our gate, I was surprised to see this plane on the tarmac. "Is that Air Force One?" I thought. And I believe it is -- Joe Biden was in Miami yesterday visiting the site of the condo collapse.

My onward flight to Tampa was much more crowded but also mercifully short, and my stepsister and her husband picked me up at the airport. I'm staying in my stepmother's guest house, which is pretty great. The only downer is there's no WiFi. I can usually piggyback on my stepsister's (she lives right next door), but for some reason this morning I couldn't connect.

So I walked in the dark, dewy morning up to Dunkin' Donuts on the highway, which according to Google and the sign on its door opens at 5 a.m. But it was still locked up tight when I arrived at 5:30, so I sat on the curb (where I could at least access the WiFi) and worked on this post. Finally someone opened the door at 5:53. I asked if the dining room (ha!) opened at 6, and she said, "No, we're supposed to open at 5 but I think we just forgot."

Hmmmmm.

I also note that the tables haven't been wiped since closing yesterday. But hey, I have coffee and a jelly donut, so the morning has improved.

It's-July-Already iPhone Roundup

This morning I'm making a few last-minute preparations before heading to the airport to fly to Florida. While this photo (above) seems very Florida, it was actually taken in the Isle of Wight -- where palm trees are not generally known to be a regular feature of the landscape. Go figure!

With that, let's kick off another roundup of random iPhone photos. Enjoy them while I finish packing. I'll be coming to you tomorrow from the Sunshine State!

A laminated sign on a lamppost on Finchley Road. It is a very littery stretch of road, sadly.

Is this graffiti of a pregnant woman? Possibly Marlo Thomas of "That Girl"? Because that's what I'm seeing.

Sometime in early 2020, one of our neighbors planted this amaryllis in the ground. It looked like someone gave it to them for Christmas and they weren't sure what to do with it. I was horrified because amaryllis are tropical flowers and I thought sure it would die -- I've never seen anyone grow an amaryllis outdoors in England. It struggled along through a dry spring and then this past cold and snowy winter -- but lo and behold, it bloomed again this spring. I can't believe it even survived! I'm not sure whether my neighbors knew what they were doing or just got lucky.

A whimsical sticker on an escalator in Waterloo Station. It was on the riser of the steps, the part that vanishes when the escalator comes to the top. I was impressed that someone moved quickly enough to stick a sticker there.

This was our breakfast silverware at our hotel on the Isle of Wight. I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but it was really weirdly proportioned. The fork was strangely long and the spoon was a large-sized tablespoon. It's like it was made to feed giants. And what's with the larger and smaller butter knives?

A quirky little Smart Car on the Isle of Wight. See the old Gulf Oil logo on the front, above the grill?

An anti-lockdown sticker on the Isle of Wight. (Dave and Olga in the background, fleeing from my omnipresent camera.)

And finally, a typically super-polite sign in a public restroom on the Isle of Wight. I found it funny that they felt they had to apologize for the "decoration" (i.e. the condition of the paint) because it didn't look so bad to me!