Dlog: St. Petersburg
Max and I found ourselves absolutely loving St. Petersburg. Although we don't consider ourselves city-people, this low-key city captured our hearts. We really loved the emphasis on the arts, the relatively easy access to nature, the fascinating history of the place, and the eccentric mix of people present in the city (including, but not limited to Jesse's relatives). Max enjoyed the well-built and thoughtfully designed bike lanes and Jesse relished soaking up the sun on the white-sand beaches. We were kept very busy during this period: from bike rides and pickleball to sailing and even a trip to the emergency room, we made the most of the visit and gained some new unexpected experiences.
February 6th:
Finally, we were able to leave St. Pete with a newfound appreciation of our functioning bodies. We paid a visit to Aunt Amy's house for a quick lunch stop. It was a delightful little meeting! Then, we traveled the rest of our way to the Van-life festival in Melbourne, FL (VanFest Liftoff). We arrived in the late afternoon and got to chatting with folks right away. The van continues to be an excellent conversation starter; remarkably, this holds true even at a van-life festival!
February 5th:
Today was one of those days where it really helps to have a flexible schedule. We had planned to leave today and spend a night on the road to the East Coast of Florida where we would attend a VanLife festival. However, Jesse came down with one of the worst migraines she's had in a while and we found ourselves in the Emergency Room around 2pm. Needless to say, we opted to stay another day so Jesse could sleep.
Max took this time to catch up on miscellaneous tasks around the house and on the van:
- 8.5mi run out to Jack's Pass (a boardwalk with some little shops)
- Packed the Van
- Finished up laundry
- Took all 3 of the house's dogs to the local dog park.
- Sanded, rust-proofed and re-lubricated our sliding door assembly which screams like an ogre every time we open or close the door.
- Spent the late hours of the night installing our frustratingly mismatched dashboard console. BusDepot
February 2nd:
Today was another boat adventure day! We took Aunt Beau and Uncle Ken's boat out into the Gulf for some fishing. Cindy and Tony joined us as well. It was sunny, but there was a chill in the wind. As a group, we only caught about 5 fish (Max and I didn't catch anything), but the company was fun and the scenery was beautiful.
February 1st:
Many of Jesse's family grew up sailing. Her great uncle was a fairly well known sailboat builder and passed down the family boat named "Dungle Jums". Aunt Cindy took us out on Dungle Jums today and it was a special treat, especially considering the family heritage and memories held in this boat. If only those fiberglass walls could talk...
The winds were calmer than forecasted, so the sailing was slow but pleasant, and the scattered clouds tempered the blazing midday sun. After showing us the ropes, Cindy went below deck and allowed us to sail the boat on our own. We both immediately took to the challenge of perfecting our tack. Several hours later, the wind shifted and died down and we decided to go in for the day. For the remainder of the day, we were convinced that our next vehicular house would be a sailboat. It remains to be seen how far we will let this delusion will go. Thank you to Aunt Cindy for taking us out sailing!
January 30th:
This was a nearly perfect day in my (Jesse's) opinion. Our first stop was at our favorite Italian cafe called La Casa Del Pane. This is a restaurant which my family has been patronizing since I was 4-5 years old. My family has been loyally visiting this cafe and The Bon-Aire motel on St. Pete Beach for nearly 20 years. They have incredible croissants, sandwiches, and milk-coffee drinks. The employees all speak Italian behind the counter and a catholic priest dressed in his vestments handed us a pamphlet advertising Sunday Mass shortly before ordering an espresso at the bar in Italian.
Fully satiated and overly caffeinated, we drove the van down to St. Pete beach and got free parking at Aunt Cindy's office lot. This was a crucial step in having a perfect day. Paying for parking is one of Max's pet peeves and is often a source of strain for the two of us. He would spend hours driving around looking for a free spot and I would rather make the process of parking as brief as possible. Anyway, we casually snuck through one of the hotel's beach access and took a spirited and chatty walk a couple miles down the beach, stopping just in front of the Bon-Aire Motel. There was quite a lot of disturbed sand moved around by the recent hurricanes and certain sections of the beach, which were surprisingly crowded, sounded like construction zones and bulldozers instead of seagulls and crashing waves. Luckily, the Bon-Aire was far enough away from these sections that you couldn't hear the bulldozers. We sunbathed and read for a few hours. After we both had gotten a good fry (yes we did use sunscreen), we popped up to Sand Bar Bills Bar at the Bon-Aire and got some frozen Piña Coladas to cool off. Our walk back to the van was much more leisurely and we spent the rest of the afternoon at aunt Cindy's house.
January 29th:
Rode our bikes on the Pinellas trail from Cindy's house to downtown St. Petersburg. We played pickleball at these crazy competitive pickup courts and got crushed. Then, got Hyppo Ice Cream bars to console ourselves. We rode our bikes to a quieter court and played our own game of pickleball, then rode home and made dinner.
January 28th:
We recently made a BusDepot order with all the new parts that would make our interior more comfy:
- Dash console (an organizer that mounts on top of our current dashboard)
and gloze box organizer
Jesse the Passenger Princess currently struggles to organize all the knick-knacks, devices and plethora of drinks we carry when driving. - New side mirrors
- Fuse assortment (for back-ups)
- Some cabinetry trim that's currently missing
- Insulated windshield cover (for privacy and keeping the sun out)
January 27th:
Beautiful breakfast with Harvest Host eggs. Max bike ride on Pinellas trail. Run with Jesse/Lola at night.
January 26th:
We arrived in St. Pete and our first stop was Jesse's mom's favorite bakery, La Casa Del Pane. We also video-called Jesse's mom to rub it in her face that we were in sunny Florida and we were at her favorite bakery.
