6 Months, Mangia, K-9s and a Pirate Ship in the Sun

This weekend marked 6 months that I've been living in St Pete. And I am STILL loving it!!! We had a couple mornings this past week where I turned on my heat to take the chill out of my apartment before I went to work. But by afternoon we were back up in the 70s. It seems like endless summer . . .

Late Saturday morning Wayne and I went to Mazzaro's. It sure gets crowded on a Saturday there! We browsed around and then had some iced Americanos and split a small strawberry rhubarb pie. Picked up a few things. I never could find lupini beans at the supermarket so I got a jar, and also got a jar of green olives stuffed with sundried tomotoes.

While we were sitting at the coffee bar, we were talking to these two ladies sitting next to us. One was an accountant visiting from East Hampton NY. They told us about this art and craft show going on in Gulfport where the one woman lived. We thought it sounded good, and it was a beautiful day to be outside, so we headed to Gulfport.

We were wondering when we got there, why there were so many people there with dogs and cats. It turns out that it wasn't an arts and crafts fair at all, but an annual event around dog and cat rescue. All of the vendors had something to do with dogs or cats. It was cute, but nothing there for us.

We weren't too far from the St Pete beaches, so we headed over to Treasure Island to spend a little time at Sunset Beach.

And of course, what do we run up against on the way back?

It was getting around dinner time by now, and all we had eaten was that strawberry rhubarb pie. We drove along Central Avenue trying to decide where we wanted to eat. I had heard about this Italian restaurant from one of the credit union members, so we thought we'd check it out. We got there about 5 minutes before it was scheduled to open, but there was no one to be seen inside. You'd think there would be some prep work going on. So instead, we went to Beak's Old Florida and had Fish and Chips. And lucky us, Mojitos were on special!

Sunday was even warmer so we decided to head to Clearwater Beach. Seems like the tourists were out in full force. (I can say that now...LOL!)

Dogs are not allowed on the beach, but for some reason an awful lot of people had their dogs there! This little pack came running out from one of the beach homes.

For some reason they flocked around Wayne. Luckily, they left no little presents on the towels.

When this cat come out, they all chased it. Here it is keeping it's distance and keeping an eye on them.

This guy flew overhead a couple of times.

And some people think there are colorful individuals only in NYC! Come to think of it...maybe he's down here for the winter?

And just before we left, this pirate ship went sailing by . . .