Tampa is Pretty in Pink

Hello Everyone!

Fall in Florida is lovely, and we'll be headed to Clearwater shortly to watch the Steeler game. I will be spending at least a quarter or two on the beach.

Anyway, we have a range of miscellaneous pics from the last few weeks, so let's catch up.

First, some pics from a walk at Kapok Park. They have a disc golf course there (very popular here in FL), and Glenn wants us to attempt to play. I guarantee we will just be hitting Frisbees off of trees or losing them in ponds.

Anyway.

Some fall foliage

The metal basket in the foreground is what you are supposed to throw the Frisbee into. Sure.

This, according to my bird guide, is a Limpkin.

Glenn's panorama.
 

Ok, so that was a pretty morning amongst the trees in Kapok. The following weekend, we decided to go to a place in St. Petersburg called I.C. Sharks - they are a restaurant, bait shop, boat rental, and seafood market. Nice folks.

We decided to rent a Boston Whaler for half a day and see if we could successfully fish on our own. (Spoiler alert - nope, we could not. :-)

Neither Glenn or I have much experience piloting a boat, so we were a bit afraid we might die. But we couldn't have picked a nicer day.

Fishin in the mangroves

yee-haw!

We ended up only catching about 4 grunts (pigfish), but we did survive the trip and it was fun being out on the water.

As you also know, I started my new job on Oct. 5th, which I am totally loving so far. Such a big difference. On my second week of work, I was able to start exploring Cypress Point Park on my lunch hour, which is literally next door to my office. It has a beautiful trail through the woods, and winds up at Cypress Point beach, which is a secluded little piece of shoreline on the Bay. (These pics I took with my phone.)

 

Not a bad way to spend the lunch hour!

 

Sitting on the dock of the bay!



The following weekend, Glenn and I went to St. Pete for a fun dinner. The bad news is that I later got food poisoning and was sick as a dog, but before that, we took some nice pics at the harbor at dusk.

Here you can see they've almost finished tearing down the horrible old St. Pete pier. It will be cool to finally get a new one.

The following day, since I was sick, we just had a lazy day at home.

Glenn took my camera and chased butterflies again. :-)

So I think I am caught up to this weekend. Yesterday morning, we got up early and headed to Amalie Arena in Tampa for their Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk. About 20,000 people were there.

These girls were on stilts.

The mascot from the Tampa Bay Lightning was there.

Among other dignitaries...

(Warning...timelapse video ahead...not sure if this will work...)

So anyway, that's all that's new here. Hope you like the pics and that you are all enjoying Fall so far.

Go Stillers! :-)

Sailing and Fishing, Oh My!

Hi Everyone -

Tomorrow I start my new job and, alas, our brief stay-cation is over. Still, we've made the most out of our time off, taking long walks and bike rides and generally enjoying ourselves.

Yesterday, Fall arrived. Sunny and low 80s with no humidity. Today, it has been raining off and on, but I won't complain. The AC and heat are both turned off as we enjoy the mild temps.

Thursday evening, we decided to return to the Kai Lani for another sunset sail on the giant catamaran. It turned out to be a beautiful evening, so I'll just barrage you with some pics with little commentary.

 

 

It was a lot of fun. We saw dolphins too, listened to some music, and just generally enjoyed the fresh air.

Friday, we decided to go fresh water fishing in Lake Tarpon over at John Chestnut Park. One important thing to note is that if you go fresh water fishing in Florida, the alligators will seek you out. They will chase after your bobber, they will chase after anything you reel in (including seaweed) and just generally be jerks.

It's a little nerve-wracking. Even though these guys were only 3 or 4 feet long, you still don't want to accidentally hook one. Plus, they are faster than you think.

We started at a little shelter on the lake.

After no luck and a rather annoying gator, we moved on to a nearby stream, which is really pretty.

Glenn caught this little guy.

We had to move upstream, though, because this dude would not leave us alone. It is a little scarier when there is no shelter or boardwalk separating you from him.

He looks like a sea monster!

So anyway, we moved and Glenn caught a nice catfish.



I also caught a much smaller catfish, which I am holding far away from me...

Saturday morning, we went on a long walk in Safety Harbor - as I said, the weather was cool and beautiful, and for some reason, all the colors looked more vivid.

 

 

Saturday night, we went and saw the movie The Martian, which was really good. Glenn even stayed awake for the whole thing!

Anyway, I guess that is all that is new to report. Hope you all are doing well and have a great week!