St. Petersburg & Sanibel Island

Each year the Ruggles celebrate July 4th with a family get-to-gether. Naturally PJ's favorite grandma Paddy was to spend a week there. Great Grandma and Grandpa Ruggles have been wanting to 'babysit' PJ for a long while and with Grandma Paddy on the scene, this was a shoe-in for us to escape for a week!

Joe had some business in Lee High Acres which is a out lying area to Fort Meyers so we dropped PJ off and ran to get a room in Tampa or St Pete's in order to be well rested for the business at hand the next day. Well, we fell upon the Pier in St. Petersburg and we fell in love with the area. Above is a "me-make-it-myself" 360 shot from outside the 3rd of 5 floors. Cathy was inside at the bar playing video games. Below is a shot of the pier looking out at the pier from the road which leads to it. The following image is taken from the third level looking back at the city of St. Petersburg.

There are just tons of shops, restaurants, bars and all kinds of things to do. Cathy found a 'stress creme' in a shop on the first floor. It worked wonders on the sore arm PJ's weight inflicted on her. But, typical Cath, refused to spend the bucks for it. Now we're planing on driving all the way back to St. Pete's just to get more of the creme! I found (finally) the name of the casting material I needed to make the Angel Rocks in another shop. Below is Cathy racking up her winnings at Wild 8's at a bar over looking Tampa Bay - the actual 'bay' itself.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon adding our names to the MAXX machine, gulping down Bahama Mamas and enjoying a super delicious salad.

Leaving the Pier we got to see what is a common site right outside the front door - pelicans.

Back on dry land we began hunting for a place to bed down for the night. There was - as is always the case - a major drive along the bay's shore (called BayShore Drive) and by chance we spotted this very swanky resort called The Vinoy Resort. A historic and very upper-crust hotel. Plush, in fact. But, hey, too pricey for us right? Well, we drove up to a valet and asked right out if there was vacancy and how much? He replied as if humoring us, but actually called the front desk, got a price that we couldn't say no to ($159 for the night) and booked us right there. Stole away our car and just about carried us right up to a room that I haven't seen since Gurney's Inn and Cathy never saw before in her life. Summer rates, of course, but we had a ball. There were some dinning rooms we were not permitted in due to dress codes, but we poked around like a couple of kids anyway. The view from the room, see below, was only made better when a storm rolled in from the gulf of Mexico around midnight.

Stocked bar - I mean STOCKED! All the cable channels. A view - aces! A TV/VCR and phone in the bathroom, in the separated toilet. Full bath. Cotton bath robes, iron, room service, full balcony and more.
After chasing PJ around since Christmas without a break, this was very much heaven to us.
Until morning came.
St. Pete's is laid out just like Manhattan. Avenues and streets chris-crossing, every other street is a one way and all roads are very broad. So if I told you the Salvatore Dali Museum is on second street, you'd think it'll be easy to find, right? WRONG. We never found it even after 45 minutes of driving all around the second and 2nd streets. SO we gave up and decided to find a Denny's and catch some breakfast. Well, we had to leave St. Pete's and hit the Interstate in order to find a Denny's.
OK, we'll return to St. Petersburg - but for the Pier and Vinoy only.

We got into Lee High about 2PM. I was dumb struck to find that the scenery as witnessed by us was exactly - EXACTLY - as last seen by Doreen and I in 1992. Nothing has changed, nothing has developed. Here's a shot of the property:

I even think the bushes haven't grown any. I do have pictures Doreen and I took; there's no difference. But, goodness it was buggy in them-thar-tropics. So we decided to visit Fort Meyers. Dorie and I had spent an enjoyable day there back when. Nether one of us though were ready for what we came upon. A dream!

We got lost in Fort Meyers. On the bad side of town. Had we not been Bay Shore folk, we would have been very frightened. Ft.. Meyer's under belly makes Wyandanch look upper class.
Pulling out a map, we both noticed that we were not far from a bridge that lead over to Sanibel and Captiva Islands. I had heard of Sanibel, but only in passing. It has a lighthouse that is among favorites for collectors like Cathy and I. So we headed for the bridge.

I can't even begin to explain the absolute splendor and beauty of Sanibel Island. Just can't convey it. Best bet is for you to actually visit the place or get over to Yahoo! and start visiting the tons of websites dedicated to the barrier islands. Sanibel is a nature reserve. You don't take down trees or move animals to build - you build around them. Here's a shot of the motel we stayed at:

See? And all the malls, restaurants, clubs and stores are buried in tropicals. My goodness we were in heaven for 3 days and never wanted to leave. And can' t wait to get back.
Sanibel is also one of like only 3 islands on earth that are positioned in such a way that each year all the sea shells of the Gulf Of Mexico end up on its shores. That's no aside, folks, you are walking on shores that are made up completely of shells. Conches, star fish, sea horses, spider crabs, calms, horse-shoe crabs, and things neither one of us ever seen before. Endless. Here's some pictures, but there is no way you can appreciate this without actually being there.

There just wasn't enough time to enjoy much at all. The activities read like a week at Disney - swim with dolphins, fishing, sailing, hand gliding, canoeing, nature walks (and I mean hard core nature walks like on the outer islands in the Carolinas - alligators and all) endless theme restaurants, shell collections up the wha-zoo, parks, and THERE IT WAS LIKE A BEACON IN THE DARK - The Sanibel Light!!!!!

As you know, Cath and I collect lighthouse figurines, photos, and trinkets. If you do too, you know that there are few lights that stand out, and Sanibel with its dual light keeper's houses is near the top of the list.

At a shop hidden in the tropical forest on Sanibel we found this lovely sculpt of the lighthouse. $280 which is a bit steep for us nowadays with PJ, but it will look wonderful covering our living room wall one day.

The image above shows Cath on a foot bridge that joins one of the beaches to a park. A half-handed comparison for Sanibel could be the Hamptons - East and Montauk. And only if you think of the summery feel to the Hamptons - the pedestrian life style. Oddly enough the property values are comparable. The smallest lot we could find was over 2 million dollars.

We did not like leaving Sanibel Island and will be back very, very often.