The Florida Orchestra’s Annual Free Pops in the Park concert takes place tomorrow, October 16th, at 7:00 PM in Vinoy Park in downtown St. Petersburg.  Once again this year, it looks as though the concert timing coincides perfectly with our new cool front that arrived just last night, so it should be a glorious evening to throw down a blanket, eat a picnic dinner (or maybe just dessert), and enjoy the wonderful music that the Florida Orchestra always delivers.  The park setting is just a very fun way to listen to the Orchestra, and the musicians always seem to thrive on this outdoor setting – I guess it’s a nice change of pace for them.  If you want to get a good spot for your blanket, go early – this is a very popular happening!  And, as always, the concert finishes off with the 1812 Overture, played at the same time as a nice little fireworks display is set off over the Vinoy Basin – it’s a perfect pairing!  If you’d like to go, and you’re not familiar with Vinoy Park, it’s at the far east end of 5th Avenue North, where 5th Avenue dead-ends at Tampa Bay.  Parking will be available at lots around the downtown area, or along Beach Drive or along NorthShore Park…

This concert has been presented for free, outdoors, each year for the past seventeen years thanks, in large part to local Realtor Helen Torres who seventeen years ago pledged $20,000 per year to the Florida Orchestra for the next twenty years in exchange for this annual outdoor concert/gift to St. Petersburg.  Three more years in her pledge – I hope that, at the end of the twenty years, someone else steps up and takes over for Helen.  In the meanwhile, we’ll continue to attend each year and to enjoy the music.  In the words of Joni Mitchell, they’ll be ”playin’ real good, for free”.  Just another one of the many reasons that St. Petersburg is a fantastic place to live and play!

But a full bakery, with lots of amazing choices!  That’s what I’ve been waiting for!  And it happened, early yesterday morning, at the new Cassis Bakery on Beach Drive. French pastries, croissants, eclairs, artisan breads, even homemade sorbets and ice cream.  If you’re a sweet lover and a downtown St. Pete lover, now’s your chance – you definitely have an excuse to indulge!  Take a sneak peek by checking out the photos below – for a better look at any of them, click on the photo for a full-size version.

One of my favorite water activities is getting out in our canoe.  Living in Northeast St. Petersburg, there are plenty of places that I can go to canoe, but one of my favorite areas is the Weedon Island preserve, at the north and east end of the city,  just this side of the Gandy Bridge on the edge of Tampa Bay.  There’s a nice launch area, and parking just a few feet away, so it’s ideally suited to canoes and kayaks.  And, although you can just head out and paddle wherever you want, there are actually two canoe trails laid out, marked with numbered signs. They lead you through some areas of open water plus a lot of little canals that crisscross through the mangroves. It’s a beautiful place to go, and it truly feels as though you’re far away from city life, out in the wilderness. You can print out a map of the canoe trail, just for moral support, at this link. But there’s no need to – the trail is clearly marked from start to finish.

If you don’t own a canoe, there is a local outfitter that has a roadside rental concession just a short distance before the launch point. If you drive toward the launch point on Weedon Island, you’ll find the outfitter and you can rent a canoe or a kayak.

To get to Weedon Island, you can either turn east off of 4th Street North onto 83rd Avenue, continue on as it turns into Patica Rd NE, then turn onto Weedon Drive NE – you’ll see a sign pointing the way. Or you can turn south onto San Martin Drive off of Gandy Blvd (just east of Derby Lane Dog Track) and then turn onto Weedon Drive NE when you see the sign. It’s a fun adventure, it doesn’t cost much, it’s good for your soul, and it’s right here in St. Petersburg!

The atmosphere was almost like a festival – I think that, even though it’s only mid-March, the weather was just so great that people couldn’t help but smile.  If you  haven’t made it down to the Market, make it a point some Saturday morning.  It’s there each week, in the parking lot next to Al Lang Stadium, and there’s no charge to get in.  But do bring money, ’cause you’re going to want to be bringing some things home!  (Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention the huge, warm, sticky, delicious cinnamon-raisin bun that my wife and I split as a mid-morning treat.  Yum!) 

For details on the market, check out their web site.  This weekly event is just one more of the reasons that it’s so nice to live in St. Petersburg…

This image was taken last week at the Vinoy Basin.

Balloon Man and Friends (click for larger image)

One of the things that makes St. Petersburg a great place to live is that we have ’big city’ amenities, but we still manage to hold onto some of the old small town flavor of yesteryear.   Today’s post is a good example of this concept.

Last Saturday, in our neighborhood, we had our third annual neighborhood block party.  The party was officially sponsored by our Neighborhood Crime Watch, and, to be sure, there were some crime watch themes running through the party.  But, beyond that, it was just a fun social event for the neighborhood, one that was a very nice step back in time.  Neighbors from an area of several blocks converged on one closed-off block for a few hours to enjoy a variety of activities and to catch up with friends.

Saturday was a perfect day for the block party – skies were blue and the humidity was low and there was a nice breeze that kept things reasonably cool.  And another thing that the breeze did was to spread the delicious aroma of the pulled pork barbeque that was being cooked up in the center of the block!  Pulled pork, hot dogs, baked beans, pasta salad, chips, cookies – there was a veritable feast available for anyone who wanted it!

Mayor-Elect Bill Foster (click for larger image)

Activities, in addition to just visiting and catching up with friends, included, among other things, a balloon man who not only made great balloon creations, he also cracked jokes constantly and he even did some of his balloon craft while riding a skateboard!  There was a live three piece band, making music through the afternoon to keep everybody’s feet moving.   There was a table set up to do face painting for the kids (and for any adults brave enough to submit to the will of the artist).  There was a pony hanging around a large empty lot, giving pony rides to anyone who was small enough to fit.  And there was a great demo given by the St. Petersburg Police K-9 unit that was fun to see.

We had a visit from a few of the city’s Crime Watch Police coordinators.  And we had a visit from our new Mayor-Elect, Bill Foster!

The party ran from 1:00 until about 4:00 – one of the later events for kids was a pinata-bashing, which yielded lots of candy and other goodies as the legs broke apart and the bedraggled creature gave up its treasure.

It was a fun afternoon in the neighborhood and it made it feel good to live here in St Petersburg…

Watching the K-9 Demo (click for larger image)

All That Remained... (click for larger image)

And what a perfect night to have an outdoor concert!  The sky was largely blue, but there were just enough clouds to make things interesting as the sun moved lower in the sky.  Temperatures were in the 60′s, people wore sweaters and jackets, and it just felt good!  The music began around 7:00 PM and ended around 9:00, with fireworks over the Vinoy Basin as the 1812 Overture was played by the Orchestra.  One encore, Three Cheers for the Red, White, and Blue, brought everyone to their feet, and as people began their mass exodus from the park, you could see that many of them were still marching to the silent drumbeats in their heads…

If you missed the concert, I’m sorry.  But it’ll be back again next year, thanks, in large part to local Realtor Helen Torres who sixteen years ago pledged $20,000 per year to the Florida Orchestra for the next twenty years in exchange for this annual outdoor concert/gift to St. Petersburg.  Four more years in her pledge – I hope that, at the end of the twenty years, someone else steps up and takes over for Helen.  In the meanwhile, I’ll continue to attend each year and to enjoy the music.  In the words of Joni Mitchell, they were “playin’ real good, for free”.  Just another one of the many reasons that it’s great to live in St. Petersburg…

Pops In The Park (click on photo for larger image)

So, if I’m ever likely to catch a beautiful sunrise, it tends to be on a Saturday or Sunday.  This morning, we drove downtown and walked to the end of the pier, just to see what there was to see.  We saw several schools of dolphins, but they were too far off and too fleeting for me to catch them with a photo.  But the walk was not wasted – the sun was just rising, there were a few clouds in the sky for the sun’s light to reflect off of, and it was just a beautiful Saturday morning start to our day!

Saturday Morning St Petersburg Sunrise (click on photo for larger image)

Sawgrass Lake Park is a 400 acre park with a boardwalk that’s a mile long, an additional dirt trail that’s half a mile long, and one of the biggest maple swamps on the West Coast of Florida.  There’s a two story observation tower overlooking Sawgrass Lake.  There are birds of all kinds living in the park, and it is described by the National Audobon Society as one of the best birding sites in Florida.  And if you saw my alligator post a few weeks ago, then you know that there are plenty of gators living happily in the waterways here. 

In addition to all the wildlife, there are picnic shelters with grills, and they’re large enough for big family parties.  And there are hills – not huge, but steep enough that they’re great fun for kids to roll down or to be pulled on sheets of cardboard!  There’s a very old stand of citrus trees deep in the woods that was once part of a grove planted by early Pinellas settlers. 

Sawgrass Lake Park is just a great getaway for anytime that you want to leave your stress behind for a little while.  It’s just north of 62nd Avenue North on 25th Street.  For more information, including a map and a diagram of the park, visit their web site.  

Sawgrass Lake Park (click for larger view)