This travel update is for part one of our two-week stay in St. Petersburg, Florida, USA. It covers December 31 through January 8.

December 31, 2002 – Saturday: Moving to St. Petersburg

We were already mostly packed up for our short 40-minute trip to St. Petersburg, but we were up early anyway this morning and loaded the car. I’m trying a new packing method today, we’ve each got our large new suitcases that we bought for our 4-month trip around the Caribbean, mine is black and Patti’s is blue. We’ve also got 6 document boxes which fit pretty well into the Prius’ form factor and leave space at the back for the less modular bags and boxes.

And, believe it or not I can actually see out the back window if we get things packed right!

Our route took us north over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over the mouth of Tampa Bay.

Our new Airbnb is a one-bedroom apartment on a quiet street in an old neighborhood of St. Pete. From the street we walk back along the sidewalk to the rear building and our apartment is on the ground floor.

From the front door you walk into the living room and then straight into the kitchen.

In this picture the door on the right is into the bathroom and the door on the left leads into the bedroom.

The kitchen has full-sized appliances, which we like.

The bathroom is small but functional.

The bedroom is roomy.

We’ll be comfortable here.

We dropped off some stuff at the apartment then drove over to Tampa so I could get a pair of walking shoes at the New Balance store at Westshore Plaza shopping mall. Our new podiatrist had given me a discount coupon for this store and recommended the 928 model walking shoe. I don’t really have any big problems with my feet when I walk, but I do want to get some running orthotics sometime soon because my current running orthotics are 7 years old and don’t seem to be working as well as they used to. But, I got these walking orthotics anyway just to see if they help with anything and they do fit into the New Balance 928s pretty well.

When we got back home we unpacked. Since it was New Year’s Eve we had planned to walk over to the St. Pete Pier to see the fireworks there but it was an overcast, drizzly evening and we ended up just getting into bed around 9:30 PM. We’re not huge party people.

January 1, 2023 – Sunday: The Bucs Game

Happy New Year! We finished up with unpacking this morning then walked over to a nearby sports bar to meet my sister there and watch the football game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Carolina Panthers. I’ve been a Bucs fan since 1976 when my high school marching band played a halftime show for one of the Bucs springtime exhibition games.

There are lots of nice wall murals in this neighborhood, here’s a few examples we saw as we walked.

I was wearing my Bucs gear for the game.

And here’s me and my sister. We were at Ferg’s Sports Bar on Central Avenue, it’s a huge venue with 90 TVs. Notice my Bucs socks.

And we were happy that the Bucs won, “clinching a play-off berth”, as the sportscasters say.

Back at home this evening Patti worked on getting some live TV capability. We’ve got 2 big Samsung TVs here, the one in the living room has Apple TV and the one in the bedroom has Amazon Firestick, and the internet Wifi is strong and fast, but we like to get local live channels for news and Jeopardy! which you can’t do with any of the free Internet streaming services that we know of. So, Patti signed up for a 1-month trial of Hulu live TV ($70 per month) and now we can get the local channels live.

January 2, 2023 – Monday: We went for a walk

We’re living in the “Historic Uptown” neighborhood of St. Petersburg. There’s a logo for it. Some of the houses here have flags out front with this logo on them.

We decided to go for a walk today in our area. There were a lot of nice older houses close to where we live.

And the streets and sidewalks are pretty with lots of old foliage.

We walked east to Tampa Bay where there’s a nice walking path along the seawall. I was wearing my new shirt that I got the day after Christmas on sale.

There’s a long beach on the bay.

We walked by the Gizella Kopsick Palm Arboretum where I got this picture of Patti with an Encephalartos ferox.

“Currently, there are more than 500 palms and cycads representing some 150 species from around the world. Development of the arboretum is a continuing, never-ending project. The collection will grow as new species become available.”

It was a really pretty arboretum with a red brick path to walk.

We enjoyed this sundial where you are the dial. Patti was standing on the “January” area and you can see her shadow was at 2:00 PM, which was very close to the actual time.

We walked by Snell Island where I’m told the houses cost upwards of $5 million.

I really like these big old trees, this one was in someone’s front yard.

Our walk was about 5 miles total, not very far for us, but it was nice to be outside in the lovely weather.

When we got home we drove up to Publix grocery for some provisions then had a happy hour on our deck. Here’s Patti on the phone on the deck.

January 3, 2023 – Tuesday: Presentation Practice

Next week we’re going to deliver a presentation about our vagabonding lifestyle to some other clients of Scott, my financial advisor. So, today, we went by his office to practice. The presentation will be delivered online using Zoom so we loaded my PowerPoint file onto his computer and went through it. Scott had a lot of good suggestions and it was fun talking about the last 5 years and how our vagabonding has evolved.

After that my sister came by for a meeting with Scott then she and I went over to the pier for happy hour. We got our picture taken with the big Tiki god.

January 4, 2023 – Wednesday: a day at home

I spent some time this morning revising the PowerPoint presentation we’re giving next week and doing some other things on the computer. In the afternoon I went for a jog around Crescent Lake which is a pretty little lake close by.

Patti has a free 9-day trial of HBO max that she got through Hulu and tonight we continued watching season 10 of “curb your enthusiasm”. I’ve always enjoyed the humor of Larry David.

January 5, 2023 – Thursday: A visit from MED-EL

After looking at the three major manufacturers of Cochlear Implants I’ve decided to go with MED-EL, which is an Austrian-based company with lots of support in the US. Their manufacturer’s rep in the southeast USA is Lauren and she came by this morning to give us more information about the device and answer questions. It was a good meeting and I’m hopeful that my implant will help me hear better.

MED-EL’s global corporate headquarters is in Innsbruck, Austria, so I’m hoping I’ll somehow get invited to spend a couple of months there and we can do the Sound of Music tour and hike in the Austrian Alps.

After that Patti made lunch, one of her Patti original recipe tomato bisque soups with pasta and peas and fresh tomatoes.

This afternoon I went for a walk around our neighborhood (Historic Uptown) and Patti went to an exercise class at Orange Theory. On my walk I was happy to see a lot of older houses fixed up and looking nice. All different, many with tropical foliage.

Here’s a yellow house on the corner.

I liked the splash of red brick here and the colonnaded portico.

This was a friendly-looking place.

I liked this blue color with the green door and matching palms.

This looks like a jungle house.

So does this one.

This yellow house appealed to me, with the agave out front.

And I like this blue color.

I got to Historic Round Lake Park and walked around it.

It’s a very pretty little lake and there’s a large banyan tree. Those are always fun to see.

January 6 – 8, 2023 – Friday through Sunday: Socializing

It’s nice to know people from around here and get together with them. You know that old saying “make new friends and keep the old”. Most of the time when we’re traveling we’re making new friends because we don’t know anyone in the area. In St. Petersburg, Florida, however, we know people.

On Friday we had dinner with Scott & Lisa and Bob & Kate at the 4^th Street Shrimp Store. We walked over there from our Airbnb. It was a cool evening but we sat outside and talked about travel and had a good time. Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture of the six of us.

On Saturday my old childhood buddy and his girlfriend, Mike & Fayth, came over for dinner. Patti made pizza and we had a nice time catching up. Later this month they’re going on a trip to Japan! Mike is quite a photographer so I’m looking forward to seeing his pictures of the trip. Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture of the four of us.

On Sunday my sister came over to watch the Buccaneers football game with us. My old graduate school buddy Dave came over too and Patti made chicken cordon bleu for lunch for the four of us. The Bucs lost, but they’re still going to the playoffs. Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture, yet again.

Special Feature: Google Maps Timeline for 2022

Google sent me an email reminding me that this timeline was available so I looked at it. I thought it was a nice reminder of 2022. You can see our 4-month trip in the Caribbean and our 5-month trip through Portugal, Spain, Gibraltar, and Morocco. Plus 3 months spent in Florida. It was a fun year with lots of new places and things learned.

2023 may not be as adventurous as 2022, but we’ll see.

Future Plans:

• December 31 – January 14: Airbnb in St. Petersburg, FL
• January 14 – 23: we’ll be house and pet sitting for my brother and his wife when they’re on vacation
• January 23 – May 2: we’ve got a “vacation cottage” reserved at Flamingo Lake RV Park in Jacksonville. That’s where I’ll be recuperating from the Cochlear Implant surgery and we’ll need to go back to the audiologist at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville frequently so she can make changes to my programming.
• May 2 – June 2: we’ve got a mobile home reserved at the Twin Shores Mobile Home Park on Longboat Key near Sarasota. We’ve stayed at that park before but in a different unit.
• After June 2, no plans yet, but we’re thinking about doing a road trip up the east coast to Maine and back