Week 24


Week 24

Dec. 22-28


Monday


We left the marina this morning and traveled 12 nautical miles down the GICW to the other side of the bay to Madiera beach marina. The weather was perfect and the water was pretty smooth. It was a great passage and Elise and I sat on the bow the whole way. We didn't have any dolphins swim with us today, which was disappointing. We saw a big pink bird we're pretty sure was a flamingo. It was super windy when we got to the marina. Luckily we had 2 dock hands catching our lines.


We went for a walk to check things out. This place was hit hard by last years hurricane. So many business are closed and boarded up. There's a lot of construction going on. It was a really warm day, almost 80 degrees. We walked on the beach collecting more seashells. Elise even found a sponge.


We got the scooters down so Elise and i could go for a ride. We had to go across another bridge to get to treasure island where there was a paved bike path along the coast. On one section there were these huge sand sculptures.

On the way back we found the cute shopping district for madiera beach. We found some t shirts for Elise to take home to the kids.

We watched a movie and went to bed early.


Tuesday


We left madiera beach to travel to St. Petersburg. We got a dolphin to come swim with us almost right away. He stayed with us a long time. Elise was so excited. We traveled 21 nautical miles to St. Petersburg, FL. It was settled in the late 1800s by a Russian nobleman who named it in honor of the Russian St. Petersburg.


We walked to the Dali museum. It was very interesting with displays of Dali art and our favorite part was a special showing of a Van Gogh movie in a domed theater room. It told his story while displaying his works. We really enjoyed it. The museum is said to be a top 10 must see building to see in your lifetime in the world. It's a really cool unique building.






We took an Uber to the historic sunken gardens. Decades ago there was a sink hole that then filled with water. A plumber decided to drain it. The soil that had decaying flora and fauna created a great soil base for future vegetation. It's a beautiful 3/4 mile circle trail through beautiful gardens of plants from all over the world and some great fowls too i.e. macaws, toucan, cockatil, and flamingos! We really enjoyed it.









We walked back to the marina to go to a restaurant that was started by a famous novelist Randy Wayne White. The restaurant is named after his series protagonist Doc Ford. The food was outstanding.  We are on the bay.


We watched our Christmas tradition White Christmas.


Wednesday


Merry Christmas Eve! We traveled 12 miles today across Tampa Bay to the convention center marina in Tampa.  It's right in downtown, so very convenient. We love Tampa. It was decorated so cute. There's so many things to do. We went to a restaurant that was highly recommended for lunch. I caught a cold and was feeling terrible, so after lunch I went back to the boat for a nap. Ed and Elise took the scooters to go exploring. They went on the river walk and over to the Cuban district called Ybor pronounced ee-bor. They stopped at the grocery on the way back to get our Christmas food.






We made caramel apples to eat after dinner.

Elise and I went on an evening stroll on the river walk for over an hour. It was a beautiful night. We started to watch It's a Wonderful Life. We got halfway through before we started to fall asleep at loopers midnight (9pm).





Thursday


Merry Christmas!!! We opened the few small things we had and then I made us brunch while we finished it's a wonderful life. It was a beautiful sunny day. We went for a walk and then decided to get the dingy down and go cruising up Hillsborough River in downtown Tampa. Elise really wanted to see a gator. We went for quite awhile, but didn't see one. It was a beautiful ride and we made up new words to the song jingle bells using the the dingy.






I made us steak tenderloin oscar for Christmas dinner with a cherry cobbler for dessert. It all turned our really well. We got to talk to the kids and most of the grandkids throughout the day.

I was still feeling really crappy so I stayed on the boat while Ed and Elise went for an evening scooter ride. We watched the movie Elf and preordered an Uber for Elise. She needed to be picked up at 5 am in the morning. We can't believe how fast the week went and it's already time for Elise to go home!


Friday


We said good bye to Elise this morning at 5 am. We were so sad to see her go. It's been such a joy to have her on the boat this week.

We went back to bed for awhile and then cast off to go 31 nautical miles to Egmont key that has old war ruins on it. It was super foggy for quite awhile.

I stayed in bed most of the day. I feel like i have the flu. Ed put the zinc block on the propellar underwater when we anchored using goggles and fins.  The water is so clear we can see the bottom. It's not a very protected anchorage and we are rolling quite a bit with wakes from cruise ships and tankers.

 

Saturday


We got the dingy down and went exploring Egmont Key. There's a functioning lighthouse, an old cemetery, and some old Spanish American war batteries. We found some cool seashells. We saw a gopher turtle and some sea rays. It was a perfect weather beautiful morning.


We pulled up anchor and traveled 22 nautical miles east across tampa bay to Bradenton, FL. Twin dolphins marina.  The marina was super nice.



We cleaned and defrosted the freezer. We went for a walk to explore the village of art neighborhood. It's a cute little area with little bungalows painted all different colors. We ate at the restaurant right on the water at Pier 22. We ran into Robert Duvall from Canada.

 We haven't seen him for a long time. It's fun to reconnect with other loopers.


Sunday


We got a ride to church from Jeff Hottman this morning. They only had sacrament meeting. We were talking to the Elders that are both from Utah. Elder Austin Bell used to live in Taylorsville right by Brit and Glen, so I asked what ward he was in. Turns out he was in the same ward as Glen was, one of his young men leaders. He absolutely loved Glen! Small world!!!

They were short of priesthood holders for administering the sacrament, so Ed was asked if he would bless it. He hadn't done that since Josh became a priest.

We went to the Bishop museum for the afternoon. It has a good variety of displays i.e. indigenous people of old, prehistoric life, sea life, a manatees refuge where they are caring for 2 young ones until they're old enough to go out in the wild, a photography exhibit, and movies in the domed planetarium.


There's a really nice river walk that goes for quite a ways that we did an evening stroll on. We really like this Florida December weather in the high 70s F.  

See you next week...

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