Fun Family Trip to St Pete Beach

[gertie]

Here is an excerpt from my blog posting, if you want to see the pictures that go with it, see the blog :

We took a little last minute vacation to St Pete Beach, Florida, and found it really nice. Friends living there warned us against the trip saying it was too hot. I told them we live in Texas. It's humid. We live in Texas. We went anyway. I'm sure it isn't normal for there to be squalls of showers coming through to cool the air every day thanks to a tropical storm in the Gulf. Even so, at times it was so humid walking out of our room our glasses fogged over blinding us. It never seemed to matter, there was always the beach.

We stayed at the Beachcomber Beach Resort and Hotel. It wasn't a fancy place, but it was nice and clean. Our room even had a kitchen!

We made a sand castle. Honest, we only had that bucket of pina colada at Jimmy B's to get the bucket for making sand castles. If you go, sit by the outdoor bar. The burgers are pretty good. Skip the potato salad and have the fries, they were the best!

Went out to eat Sunday brunch at Palm Court in the Tradewinds Island Grand and boy, was it good! They had a sword fish infused with ginger I really loved. Outside we found Koi and one fat swan waiting for their dinner, too. Lucky we found the feeder. Boy, did they know the sound of coins dropping in that feeder!

We ate a lot while we were gone. Skidder's is a diner a short walk south from our hotel. We had a really nice breakfast there, and the coffee was really good. We also had a really nice breakfast at Paradise Grill another day, just a short walk up the beach. As far as we could tell, it was just a part of St Pete Beach, but they had a sign that said "Upham Beach". Somehow I only have a picture of the sunset from Upham Beach. I guess you'll have to go if you want your own picture of paradise.

We rode the Shell Key Shuttle over from the Merry Pier in Pass-a-Grille early one morning. While we waited for the shuttle to leave, we watched the birds hanging around. Look at that great big pelican! We got excited when we got our first glimpse of Shell Key.

It was threatening storms but we didn't mind. The clouds just made it cooler. By the time we got around to the Gulf side, it seemed to be clearing. We found a lot of shells. Found a hungry bird, too. He wanted some of our picnic lunch. We saw a pelican finding his own lunch.

We really enjoyed Shell Key, at least until the storm snuck up on us. I didn't mind that much since I was in my swim suit anyway. The winds attacked Restil while he was trying to protect the camera with the umbrella and he got a little testy. Finally the shuttle arrived to pick us up, and we headed back to the hotel after our little fresh water shower. Because we could not stay the full day due to the weather, they offered us a half price trip the next day. We were sad we couldn't make it, but we had plans to go to the St Petersburg Pier that day.

We had breakfast our last day at Beverly's La Croisette.





We had a lot of fun listening to the groups of locals gossiping. Our waitress had a lot of smiles and a great attitude, and my Florentine Benny was awfully good. We really enjoyed St Pete Beach, Florida, and we really enjoyed the Beachcomber Beach Resort. I'd like to see a little more of Tampa and Clearwater. We never quite had the time to drive over, it seemed.


((Sorry, had to get that one picture in. Not sure if that is supposed to be a crepe or an english muffin, but it sure looks silly!))




gertie.drivemeinsane.com/

[Deleted]

My parents lived not too far from St. Petersburg for about 15 years, so I have been through there many times. It always seemed like a good alternative area to take a vacation than the overcrowded Atlantic coast of Florida. I know the area is a big favorite of Canadians, and the supermarkets all have a Canadian section, particularly in the winter months.

[Jazz]

You sound as though you had a great trip, Gertie. My parents lived in St. Petersburg for 25 years and I spent six winters there going to school when I was growing up. You brought back many memories. Its been about 30 years since I’ve been, but I used to love going to the small Pass-a-Grill beach, with the 20’s hotel, Don Cesar at the north end. The Hurricane Lounge was right on the beach and at night some great musicians would just drop in to jam. I once walked in and found myself listening to Wynton Marsalis.

[Deleted]

I have never been there,but,have fond recall of many of my relatives,aunts and uncles going there in the winter from N.Y. and on one or two occasions when I was very young my parents going,a very unusual thing to happen during my youth. I know I still have a postcard of some palm trees that they sent us,and I have hoarded it ever since....
Yes,one never hears anyone in the know say ,Saint Petersberg,it's always St. Pete.
Thanks for this Gertie

[Deleted]

I continue to say the full name of cities, so I am probably not in the know.

Actually, having watched television in the area for so many years, I saw that the locals have tried to erase the competition of the cities. Some of the radio stations will still stress "Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater" as the location, but all of the rest have settled on the name "Tampa Bay" for the area, particularly because of the various sports teams that they share. The site of the St. Petersburg Times is www.tampabay.com .

[gertie]

Oddly enough, we were told by a local although it is "St Pete" never "St Petersburg", Pass-a-Grille is never referred to other than by the full name. Seems like everyone used to live there or has family that lived there. My husband was surprised when we told his mother we were going to hear that his grandparents used to own a condo there and many family vacations were spent there from before he was born up into his very early years. Although he had seen beach pictures from this period, he assumed it was the condo they later owned in Boca.

We had a wonderful time, thoroughly enjoyed it. Before we went, there were a lot of things we thought we wanted to do, but we ended up just hanging on the beach a great deal of the time. Very relaxing.

[lola]

It sounds like a fun and lovely time, gertie. Thanks!

[gertie]

I do have one comment on St Petersburg, just something I noticed. So many shops closed up and empty, so many "for rent" signs in front of shops and restaurants. One hears about the horrid unemployment rates in Florida, of course, but it was quite something to see how things actually looked there. Is it like that all throughout Florida?

[thill25]

Aug 25, 2010 22:24:14 GMT gertie said:

I do have one comment on St Petersburg, just something I noticed. So many shops closed up and empty, so many "for rent" signs in front of shops and restaurants. One hears about the horrid unemployment rates in Florida, of course, but it was quite something to see how things actually looked there. Is it like that all throughout Florida?

Central Florida has been absolutely HAMMERED by the recession. Unemployment statewide is still near 10%, and for the first time in a llllooonnngggg time we actually had a net loss in residents.