Liz and Ben do St Petersburg Florida 2023

We have had a quiet day today. Despite the temperatures being in the 80s, it has been cloudy with lightning and thunder in the distance and the odd spot of rain. The forecast is for one more cloudy, possibly wet day tomorrow and then we should be back to sunny days. After lunch we eventually walked to our beach which at first was deserted but gradually more people appeared.  Osprey We sat and admired the view out to sea of the lightning, boats bobbing on the water and the seabirds for a couple of hours. Ben got a good photo on his mobile phone of an Osprey perched on a house roof close to our beach.  Eventually the rain drops got bigger and more frequent so we walked back to our apartment. Supper was New York Strip Steak, which was excellent!

Mangrove Lake There was heavy overnight rain yesterday but it had all dried up by this morning. It was cloudy, though, and we weren't sure if there was going to be more rain today. There were eventually some patches of blue sky so we decided to book golf for the afternoon at Mangrove Bay where we played on Wednesday. Today we were joined by 2 men, young compared to us, who were good golfers but as usual quite wayward, one more so than the other. They were good company and needed to be as the pace of play was very slow. Our tee time was 2.15pm and we finished at 6.55pm. There was nearly a bust up as there were a couple of young lads playing in front of us with music blaring from their buggy. The 2 men behind us were cross because of the slow play and there was an altercation between the 2 men behind and the 2 lads. It all ended amicably but the music continued for the rest of the round. Ben played well today, I don't think I have ever topped so many balls. Possibly I was intimid...

First catch The weather seems to be changing. There are 2 or 3 rainy days forecast but still high temperatures. Today was a hot sunny start but the wind gradually increased on the coast and the skies clouded over-still with temperatures in the mid 80s. It turned out to be a fishing day. We went to the Fort de Soto park and Ben fished from the end of the pier. I went for a long walk along the shoreline to where the beach is closed to the public as it turns to a nature reserve. I was just turning round when a man asked me if I had seen the manatees. He said he and his friend had been swimming in the sea and a group of about 20 manatees had come and was swimming with them. He pointed them out to me and I could see their huge black bodies just below the surface of the water. I tried to film them but they were too far to show in a photograph. We returned to our apartment and had tea but it was too cloudy for a sunset this evening. any spare bait or fish!

Liz belts another drive down the fairway We had booked to play at Mangrove Bay golf course at lunchtime today. It proved to be a good decision as we both agreed it was our sort of golf course, interesting but not too difficult. We were joined by Ko from South Korea who spends half the year living in America and the other half in South Korea. His golf was quite erratic, he must have lost a lot of balls in trees on either side of the fairways but he was very pleasant to play with and talk to. The weather was mostly sunny with a cloudy spell in the middle but still hot (87F) and very humid. Again we could see the thunder clouds forming in land. On the way home we found an excellent seafood restaurant. Ben had tilapia and battered shrimps and I had bacon wrapped scallops and shrimps stuffed with crabmeat. it was very tasty and I'm sure we will be back there before we leave.

A Dali masterpiece We decided to visit the Dali museum today. The building itself is modern and futuristic and reminded us of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, which also had some of Dali's work. We visited the theatre first to watch a film describing surrealism, and another on Dali's huge influence on the surrealism movement, which developed between WW1 and WW2.  The exhibition was interesting but not Liz's favourite type of art. The story of Dali's life maybe explained his art, as after the first world war he joined a group who wanted to lighten life with surrealism. Most of his work  is in the museum in St Petersburg. There was a display of artists' dreams with an explanation of the dreams underneath. After we had looked at the displays we had a go with the AI dream app which depicted our dreams from our written description - we have included the AI interpretation of the dream data we provided! We also experienced virtual reality of surrealism using a headset. Ha...

long holes with lots of water According to the weather forecast yesterday evening we were due to have thunderstorms this afternoon. We decided to play golf this morning so we would be finished hopefully before they materialized. We played at Heritage Harbour, where as the name suggests there was plenty of water to keep us on our toes. The starter was incapable of sorting out the tee times and he ended up with a 5 ball at our tee time. He sent Ben and I out on our own eventually and when we got on the first tee it looked as if there was a 6 ball in front of us. They ended up as a 5 ball with one of them not playing. They didn't hold us up so it didn't really matter. We had a good game with Ben and I tying the match.  The fairways and greens were in good condition, however, there were long distances between greens and the subsequent tees.  The cart path wended its way through wild sanctuaries.  We saw quite a lot of wild life including a large turtle, osprey, cranes, and a ...

We had a leisurely start today with a trip to Walmart at about 11am. Ben wanted some fishing bits and bait and we needed some food and drink items (note here that the 'hunter/gatherer' is somewhat hit and miss).  Temperature was again circa 88F, with lots of sun.  We have been diligent and have suitably doused ourselves in factor 30 - which is running out! When we got back and unloaded we set off for the fishing pier. It was very hot again and the beach was crowded with large families who looked as if they were meeting up for an afternoon on the beach. Ben fished for about 3 hours with one small fish to brag about.  Whilst there were lots of bites, Ben only saw one decent fish caught. It was perhaps no surprise as there were 2 dolphins continually 'patrolling' the pier area where Ben was fishing from! I sat and read and went for a long walk along the shoreline. There was no  distinction from one beach to another as today people seemed to be prepared to walk further t...

Today was a golf day and we played at Manatee Golf Club, which was about 40 minutes south of us. The course was long for me and I struggled with driving today. It was, however, a pretty course with lots of lakes to go in if you strayed off the fairways. Ben played well with some long putts sunk (he also carved 4 balls from his drives into the water, but has 'erased' that from his memory).  Needless to say,  Ben is keen to return there!  The golf course was under the approach to Sarasota Airport and there was a constant stream of  commercial airliners and business jets descending over the course. Roseate Spoonbill We saw more wildlife today including a baby alligator and a much larger one, an Osprey, as well as a roseate spoonbill bird. After our tea we went to our beach to watch the sunset.  The wedding was in full swing. It was low tide so was a pleasant setting for the the bride and groom who were having lots of photos taken. Everyone was barefoot and the phot...

5th floor Ticka bar at the end of the pier We set off this morning to go to the Dali museum which had been recommended to us, but somehow managed to end up at the IMUSEUM of contemporary glass. It was an amazing place with galleries of glass sculptures made by people from all over the world. They varied from sculptures of Japanese women to abstract ones using different shapes to make works of art. It was displayed with different colours of lights which brought out the best of each piece. Dali museum another day!  We then went on to St Pete's pier which was very busy. The pier is one of the world's most modern. We walked to the end of the pier and had a drink in the bar on the 5th floor from which there were fantastic views of Tampa Bay. The speedboats were dashing in and out of the harbour and Ben was taking photos of the light aircraft taking off from the airport. We ate an ice cream on the way back from the pier and watched the children jumping on the water fountains as they...

did Liz get over the water? We have had another hot golf day today [88F]. We played at Bardmoor country club and were buddied up with a mother and son. The son was visiting his mother and insisted on playing from the back tees (7015 yds). One or two of his tee shots were good but most were erratic resulting in numerous lost balls. His mother was off putting, not having played for 2 years she told us as she was working during the week. The course was the greenest we have played and pretty but the greens were very fast and tricky, resulting in mostly 3 putts per hole. On the way home we stopped at an Italian restaurant which was good. It is difficult to find restaurants which are not chain burger bars. We have found that most of the eating places are used as either drive thru or takeaway with few people eating in the seating area. Par 5 

Ben spent part of the morning trying to sort out the keyboard of his laptop having knocked a glass of orange juice over it yesterday. Fortunately the computer is working but the keyboard must be stuck up with juice. He eventually found that it is possible to show the keyboard on the screen and operate it with the mouse. I am struggling with this now.  The 'hunter gatherer' provides! We decided to go to the fishing pier and beach at lunchtime. The wind had lessened and changed direction from the last time we went. Ben decided to go to the end of the pier where he had some success including a "blue runner" fish which he was able to gut and eat for tea. I went for a long walk along the beach. The shoreline is covered with lots of different coloured shells and there were quite a few people collecting them. I eventually reached the end of the area where people were and was walking along the shoreline on my own. We came back for tea and then walked to our little beach to wa...

 When we went to our car this morning Ben found a sticker on it saying that we did not have a pass for parking on the complex. After driving round the place we came across Rob who showed us where the office is. Ben went in to pay his $10 but they couldn't take a credit card or cash so we had to go to Publix and buy a $10 money order.  Having sorted this we carried on with our plan and drove to Clearwater Country Club to play golf. It was very pleasant weather conditions with sun and a cooling breeze. The course was in much better condition than the previous courses we played at with lightning speed greens. Needless to say I think I 3 putted on every green so Ben won today's match easily. On the way back we stopped at a German restaurant which I had seen advertised. We thought we would sample the food which was supposed to be authentic. It didn't really resemble the food we used to get from the schnellimbiss 50 years ago but maybe our memories are beginning to fade as we get...

After last night's thunderstorms, today has been fresher (80 F) with quite a strong breeze. We had to do some shopping first and managed to find the local Publix which was very much more upmarket than the Walmart we went to last week.  After our shopping trip Ben wanted to go and do some fishing at the pier we went to on Sunday and I could sit on the beach or walk along the shore line. When we arrived the pier was facing straight into a very strong wind, which Ben decided was far too strong to successfully fish. So instead we decided to drive up the coastline to St Pete's beach and further North as far as Clearwater, before we turned around and drove back home.  Liz on the beach The beaches were very white and stretched for miles.  The route we took was off the main highway and alongside the hotels which lined the beaches. Even out of the holiday season there were lots of people about and there was an 'air' of busyness.  When we planned our trip we had the option of ...

 We looked at the forecast this morning and were uncertain if we were going to experience afternoon thunderstorms. We decided to go for golf and hope that there would be no storms. Everyone we have spoken to here says that they are desperate for rain and we have seen the very dry conditions particularly on the golf courses. Ben has said they could have some of our rain from Lutterworth! Today's course was at The Preserve Golf Club which is near Bradenton to the south of us. The drive involved travelling on a 4-lane highway with a 70mph speed limit.  It is fair to say that we were the only car obeying the limit and it is routine for local drivers to under and over take - not for the faint hearted!  When we arrived at the course the temperature was 89 ᵒF  and during the afternoon it went above 90 ᵒF  degrees. On the plus side we were provided with ice and water before we started and after the 9th.  It was a typical Florida golf club layout with the  fair...

bait shop We started off today going to a bait and tackle shop nearby so that Ben could find out about the local fishing. He was given some good advice and we ended up going to the Fort de Soto Park near to the sky way bridge. The park had a lovely beach with a pier which Ben could fish from. He spent about 4 hours happily fishing and managed to catch 2 fish, a small one and a large one, he tells me but I was not there to see it! As he fished the dolphins were swimming all around the pier and were eating the fish from the hooks of the fishermen. There were also lots of pelicans flying around and they seemed to be more successful at catching the fish than the anglers! While Ben was fishing I went for a walk along the beach and for the rest of the time sat and watched the world go by. It was another sunny day with a slight breeze which made it very pleasant. Dinner!! This evening we went to a huge restaurant in a marina near here. We did very well as the barmaid accidently poured our...

Golf superstar! The course we played today was about 20 miles north of here. It was obviously a popular one as it was much busier than we have found before. It was ladies day and very slow. The course was short with quite a few par 3 holes and so we ended up having to wait on every hole. The starting system also seemed strange as we started off playing with another man as a 3 ball. A man on his own caught us up so we became a 4 ball. The 2 men stopped on the 9th so Ben and I were then on our own for 2 holes when a man and a lady from behind joined us so we were a 4 ball for the rest of the round. The man was a retired lorry driver from New York, now living in the area and the lady worked in the golf shop at the course so was playing golf for nothing. She started off after joining us with with very good golf but tailed off towards the end. The course was very rough and the greens even slower than back in England at the moment. The weather was lovely with sun and a pleasant breeze. Suns...

Today has been a lovely sunny day with temperatures in the 80s Fahrenheit. There has been a breeze which has made the day very pleasant. View from the Clubhouse We played our first round of golf today and my first round since the beginning of December. We played at Riverside Golf Club on a course which was on a complex of 55+ old fogies with lots of villas alongside the fairways. We were made very welcome and well looked after (perhaps we fitted well into the 'old fogy' description!!) Ben went into the Pro Shop after we had finished to buy a couple of ball markers as mementos of our visit.  We were asked if we had enjoyed our visit and after answering 'yes' we were given the ball markers!  It was a pretty course with quite wide fairways with areas of water running alongside some of them. There were lots of turtles sunning themselves and an osprey hovering over a pond looking for lunch.  No sign of any alligators.  The grass was a bit bare in places but we gather the ...

Travel day can be summed up as a day of queuing.  We had a relatively straight forward drive to Gatwick via the M40/M25/M23.  Needless to say there was some queuing on the M25!  Having arrived at Gatwick South terminal we set off for the bag drop (we had already checked in and got boarding passes the day before) when we were 'redirected' to the main queue (all destinations) as we had oversize bags (golf clubs).  We consequently queued for over an hour before we could check in the bags.  Having deposited suitcases, we were advised we had to take the golf clubs to an oversize luggage check-in - which we expected and was very quick.  The 'idiot' who redirected us unnecessarily should be shot!  Icefields approaching the Canadian Coast (at 38,000 ft) The flight was comfortable and uneventful.  We breezed through immigration to the bag collection area.  Our golf clubs and Liz's suitcase appeared minutes later.  After that no bags appeared and ...

We are booked in, finalising packing -  and all set for an early departure to Gatwick in the morning. Weather looks pretty good - perhaps the odd thunderstorm or shower in the afternoons as temperature hits the 90s F!!!

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