Day 42 (very) full day in St. Pete

     Today we spent the whole day enjoying some of the many things to do/see in St. Petersburg, Florida. We started with breakfast, including beignets,

 

at an open air cafe along the water side park area in downtown St Pete. Then we walked about 5 blocks along the waterfront to the Salvador Dali Museum. This new building (picture) is a beautiful piece of art in itself, and even the large glass areas are built to withstand hurricane force winds. The beauty of the building is immediately evident on the inside as well. In the center of a huge open area, there is a spiral staircase that appears to go on up infinitely. Perhaps wisely, the exhibits were on the top/third floor where they are safe from storm surge.

  Once we got ack outside, I got to rest (and see some interesting geology) by sitting on some "lovely" algal mats in these huge limestone boulders that were designed as seating.

We then headed back to the boat for lunch, and along the way we passed more of the fun street art. It was at lunch that the Admiral surprised me with tickets to tonight's baseball game between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Toronto Blue Jays.

 The beautiful domed Tropicana Stadium is only about 12 blocks west of downtown, but even better, there is free bus service from downtown to the stadium. Our seats were described as "5 rows behind the Visiting Team's Dugout". What a treat! We got there about an hour before game time. Lots of people were trying to get autographs and pictures. ESPN sportscaster Dick Vitale was also sitting down in the first row, and he was very obliging about posing for photos. In the middle of all of the activity (oh yes, there was also batting practice, etc.), I had my first ballpark foot long hot dog in many years. Hmmmm, with yellow mustard and raw onion, can life get any better? Well, it sorta did 'cause, the popcorn was also pretty good.  

The final picture is pretty much the view that we had of the game, and just for the record, the Rays were ahead 4-0 when we left in the top of the 8th inning (4-1 was the final score). We might have stayed longer, but the thunder outside was also pretty loud inside... We only had a 100 yard walk from the exit to our bus back downtown. Thankfully, the thunder/lightning were all in the distance, and we only had a few drops of rain during the short walk back to Lucky Us. Another amazing day on our trip!