Florida Wrap

The passage of days and (especially) the changeable weather—it was cold today—are making Florida seem distant, so it’s time to wrap it up with some odds and ends.

Current events, if you pay any attention to them while traveling, take a slightly different cast somehow. You later think, “I was there when such-and-such happened.” Since we had no fewer than two TVs in our suite, one for each room, the adults in the party avoided the fate of Cartoon Network OD (and it doesn’t take much). We did not, however, avoid hearing about two hyper-covered deaths, those being of course the seriously unfortunate Terri Schiavo and the considerably more fortunate John Paul II.

I have nothing to add to the endless commentary on them. But I will note that we heard final word of the Pope’s demise not on TV, but on the radio on Saturday as we crossed the Howard Frankland Bridge, which is actually a long causeway connecting St. Petersburg with Tampa.

What’s the next Pope going to call himself? So far, I haven’t seen that question discussed by the media. But I did discover today that bookmakers have given the matter consideration.

Ft. DeSoto State Park, which is at the tip of a chain of barrier islands dangling southward from metro St. Pete, has the best beach I’ve seen in years. I don’t mean its smooth sand and long vistas, though it had those. I mean that it was practically empty, despite being such a lovely, classic beach. I read that it is a weekend destination for people who live in the area, and we avoided that mess by going on a Monday. If the air had been about 10 degrees warmer, it would have been perfect.

At the Florida Aquarium in Tampa, we saw many sea creatures, and some from the rivers and lakes of the peninsula. But none as bizarre as the leafy sea dragon, which I’d never encountered before. It was as if a sea horse were dressed up to dance at the Copa.

A catchment behind the Best Western was the place to take your pets for a walk. I know this because in front of the area a sign said DOG RUN. Also on the sign: a cartoon dog, much like the beefy mutts you might see in a Tom & Jerry cartoon, down on his (anthropomorphic) knees, front pews in a beseeching pose, cartoon sweat around his face, which said without words, Please, I gotta go!

A better sign was near a small Tampa lake I wandered by. No cartoon creatures, but it did warn that swimming in that particular body of water wasn’t safe. Why? Alligators. When I saw that, I really felt like I was in Florida.