We arrvied at St. Pete YC on Monday Nov 16. This is a great facility. It is a large club with over 2,000 members with a central downtown location next to a park and the central harbor. There is always something going on at the club with entertainment every night in the bar/lounge. The food is good and the prices reasonable compared to our club. We have had the opportunity to get around the area quite a bit and like what we see.
Over the weekend there was a lot going on. Every Saturday there is a farmer's market on the waterfront. This weekend there were 2 art shows going on downtown and a sand sculpture contest on the beach. The pictures above show some of the results. (Pay close attention to the clown face). On Saturday night they held a "Chill Lounge Night" in the waterfront park across from our boat. They bring in wicker lounges with canopies and set up a large bar while the local restaurants set up food stalls. They also set up a large stage and a runway for a fashion show. The models for the fashion show were brought in on chaises borne by four "fireman" types each with gold painted chests. All in all quite a spectacle. The fashion show itself was closer to a strip tease act than fashion show.
Another interesting feature in St. Pete is the floating and powered wedding chapel barge shown in the photo.
We rented a car for the weekend as we were going to a Dixieland Jazz Festival in Clearwater on Friday. Our friends the Williams from LYC had put us on to this 3 day festival and what a hoot it was. It is the first event we have gone to where we brought down the average age of the audience. We only went on Friday, but they had at least 20 bands playing for 3 days in about 5 different venues in 2 hotels. All the ones we saw were great. We plan to come back next year and stay for the whole event.
On Nov 25 Fred Sorensen and I brought the boat from St. Pete to Treasure Island on a rainy foggy day. Debby and Edie went shopping. The four of us drove back to the yacht club for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday which turned out to be very good.
