Travel Notes

This last weekend in St. Petersburg and Sarasota was a lot of fun, and not just because of spending time with a good friend and making at least one new one.


Boatboy the photographer (and tour guide and chauffer)

I've never spent much time on the west coast of Florida, but it's a whole different world than Miami. The pace is slower and the landscape isn't as "tropical;" there are a lot of trees that look like the trees up north like live oaks and not as many palm trees. There are even some rises and falls in the land that could be called "hills" in some places, but I wouldn't go that far.

There are definite signs of a Midwest influence in this part of Florida. Coming around a corner I saw a Bob Evans restaurant, something I haven't seen outside of the upper Midwest. In places like St. Armands Key, which is the winter home to a lot of well-off Midwesterners, there were shops whose names I'd last seen in places like Petoskey and Harbor Springs, Michigan: Kilwin's Fudge and The Mole Hole gift shop. My guess is that the people who spend their summers in Michigan spend their winters in Sarasota and they like the comforts of northern Michigan fudge in both places. (That also explains why tourists in Petoskey are privately referred to as "fudgies.") St. Armands is next to Longboat Key, home of Rep. Katherine Harris, the soon-to-be trounced Republican Senate candidate from Florida. Boatboy claims there is a portal to another reality when you cross the bridge. I did have a strange tingling sensation as we crossed over...I suddenly felt like supply-side economics wasn't such a bad idea. But it passed quickly, thank Dog.

Gas is twenty cents a gallon cheaper over there, too. But I was pleasantly surprised by the mileage I got on the Mustang. On the trip over and back I did better than 21 mpg. Not bad for a V-8.

Speaking of traveling, I chose my music as I was running out the door, but I was happy with the selections:

In the Digital Mood - The Glenn Miller Orchestra

Days of Future Passed - The Moody Blues

The Beatles (the white album)

Bookends - Simon and Garfunkel

Surrealistic Pillow - Jefferson Airplane

The Eagles' Greatest Hits, Vol. I

Sounds of Summer - The Beach Boys

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles

Yeah, my age and generation is showing, eh?

St. Petersburg is also home to the Salvador Dali Museum.



The place is amazing. The collection has more than just the works of Dali; there were pieces by other surrealists such as Joan Miro, and they're displayed in an intimate atmosphere where you can get close enough to the works to feel a connection to them. Unfortunately, photography inside isn't allowed, but the statue of the park bench in the front is a reminder of Dali's style.



I remember the first time I saw both a picture of Dali with the wild eyes and the upturned moustache and the famous paintings of the melted watches and the sculpture of the "lobster telephone."



I was in high school and I felt a twinge of identification with his slightly warped view of life. I think Dali viewed life as a dream -- sometimes as a nightmare, especially during the Spanish Civil War, but I also got a taste of his sense of humor; dark and sometimes adolescent.

So the next time you're in St. Pete, stop by the Dali museum and say Hello. (Think about it...)