Monday is a good day for a long walk . . .

This is actually a post that I had wanted to do on Monday, but got side-tracked. Monday was a beautiful sunny day, very windy, but nonetheless I was enjoying this October day in shorts and a tank top. I decided that I would take a long walk...and do it in sneakers not in flip flops! You know, my feet hurt at first!

I walked east towards Tampa Bay. (The red line on the satellite map.) Once at the Bay, I headed south and walked the sidewalk that went along the bay and the beach. My goal was to walk all the way down and out to The Pier. About halfway, in one area of the park I walked past the North Shore Pool, a municipal Olympic size public pool, which I didn't realize was there. Then thru Vinoy Park and past the new boat docks being built in the North Yacht Basin. What was cool was that all the way down every so often I could see a dolphin or two swimming parallel to the shoreline and fairly close.

Once I reached 2nd Avenue, I headed east again on the strip leading to The Pier. The wind was so strong at some points, that I was struggling to try and place one foot in front of the other. Well, not quite that bad, but I thought for dramatic effect...oh, nevermind. Maybe the sneakers were too heavy?

I hung around the Pier for a while, checking out some of the gift shops there. Got a bite to eat and attempted to sit out on the outside patio, but the wind was a bit too much. And then a couple of the birds hanging around out there hopped up on the table where I was eating. I decided that between the birds and the wind, I was better off inside. On the way in, I noticed a sign near the door, "wild birds can be aggressive". Good decision to eat indoors!

I walked back west heading towards downtown. I then headed north up Beach Drive Northeast. Along the way I noticed a couple of sandwich and dessert shops that looked like they would be worth a future investigation.

I then headed back towards the Bay and headed north along the path that I had come down. I kept walking past my street and up and around, following the sidewalk along Coffee Pot Bayou, staying on that all the way up to the park at 30th Avenue North. That's the yellow-orange line on the satellite map.

So, where are the new pictures? I left my camera safe at home. I figure maybe I'm overdoing it with the pics, so decided to give the batteries a rest. If only...