Savoring Summer

While we were away...

...we spent some time at St. Pete Beach. If you have not done so, I can recommend it highly. The entire Clearwater-St. Petersburg area is filled with things to do, including being at the Gulf, which is as close to doing nothing whatsoever as I can think of.

We enjoyed our stay at the Post Card Inn (which incidentally was ranked among the "Today Show’s top 100 places to stay this summer, yesterday). We were ahead of the curve! Our little room was just "steps from the beach" and the pool was huge, so what more could you ask for?

We found some quaint places to dine--including Beverley's for breakfast--a cute pink and blue building at the corner of St. Pete Beach's most historic shopping street. I selected an omlette that was filled with tomato, avocado and sour cream... mmmm, mmmm, mmmmm! We also found a great English Pub, and a nice Italian eatery but we mostly did more picnic type fare or as we call it, silly supper, fruit, cheese and crackers, so as to not slow us down as we relaxed and saw the sights.

Oh then there was "Larry's"...boasting 80 different kinds of ice cream. No we did not try them all but we must confess that one evening we "didn't feel much like dinner" and ended up going directly for dessert. Judy had the banana split and I had apple pie a la mode. I will share a photo...

You know you could just travel the world trying the pie.

Or you could at the very least drive the nation to see what kinds of pies were out there that you might enjoy. In fact, I wrote an article for the "Drive the Nation" blog about that very subject. You can read it here: American Pie Challenge.

Lest you think all we did was eat on our vacation, let me say that swimming in the Gulf with schools of rays is something I will not soon forget. Nor will I soon forget poking around Pass-A-Grille, seeing the circus estate of the Ringlings, or happening upon a house designed by an apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright, which we ended up getting a tour of, by its new owner. As you know, I love seeing antique, second hand and vintage shops, so we did some poking around in that line as well. We came back with tans that were on the verge of burns, because we spent so much of our time just "steps from" our room, on the beach.

All in all being at St. Pete Beach was a great way to savor part of the summer.