An Ode to Florida : Reflecting On Our Year in St. Pete

We bid adieu to St. Petersburg three weeks ago and I've been meaning to write some sort of reflective post for nearly as long. But how do I sum up our year in Florida? Trying to do so is a bit of an overwhelming task but ... here goes.

We had our highs and we had our lows, that's for sure. The move to St. Pete was not a smooth one, nor were G's first days and weeks at his new unit. (Similar to our current transition to Jersey.) And I wasn't sure I liked, or would grow to like, living in Florida. (Kinda how I'm feeling about Union City right now.) But once we made it through some serious financial drama (that happened through no fault of our own), unpacked and settled into our apartment, and survived the brutal summer humidity, the hubs and I began to enjoy our new life in the Sunshine State.

We celebrated our first married Thanksgiving and Christmas (with a visit to the Oakdale Christmas House!), and rang in the New Year—in our pajamas, no less.

While I didn't cross everything off my Florida fall and winter/spring bucket lists, G and I did go on many, many adventures. 

Together we...

Explored indie biz-focused fairs (Localicious and Localtopia), partook in boozy events (Oktoberfest Tampa, Guavaween in Ybor City, the Gasparilla pirate fest, the Tampa Bay Margarita Festival, and First Friday, with tubs of beer, in downtown St. Pete), shopped for fresh produce at the Saturday Morning Market (here and here, here) and picked up pre-loved wares at the Brocante Vintage Market.

Toured the Sunken Gardens, Great Explorations Children's Museum and The Florida Aquarium.

Fell in love with the Oxford Exchange and made multiple visits, for dinner, brunch and a book signing, and sometimes just for the delicious coffee.)

Walked around the gorgeous University of Tampa campus.

Viewed world-class art (and stunning architecture) at The Dali, the Chihuly Collection, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts and the Mainsail Arts Festival.

Enjoyed beachy days in St. Pete (Treasure Island, Fort De Soto dog beach and the boardwalk at John's Pass Village), Clearwater, Dunedin, and a Miami Beach.

Attended games to watch local teams—the Buccaneers, Dolphins, Rays and Lightning—play G's favorite sports (football, baseball and hockey, respectively).

Sailed Tampa Bay at sunset.

Took a (BIG!) bite out of the Tampa Bay culinary scene, with visits to: 

Birch & Vine and The Canopy (day and night) at The Birchwood, 

Bella Brava (with the most enormous baked pasta dish you've ever seen), 

Cassis (for a light lunch and our one-year anniversary dinner), 

theAvenue (to cheer on the Chargers), Lucky Dill (for breakfast and lunch),

Annata, 400 Beach, Sea Salt, Rocco Steak, Ceviche,

Tryst, Red Mesa Cantina, Z Grille, Hook's, Cafe Del Mar, Engine No. 9,

Frenchy's Rockaway Grill, The Getaway, RumFish Grill, 

the restaurant at OE (for a gourmet brunch and dinner)

Anise Global Gastrobar, Taps, Hablo Taco, Bar Louie,

and even Bob Evans.

Sipped on... craft beers at dog-friendly Green Bench Brewing Co., 3 Daughters Brewing
and World of Beer (Pup Crawl! Football Sundays! The Jackass!),
various varietals of wine at Try Wine and the Locale Market bar,
classic cocktails and Moscow Mules at Mandarin Hide,
and some of the best java around at Kawha Coffee.

Our favorite "souvenir" from Florida has to be the one and only Jasper, the furbaby we welcomed into our family just months after arriving on the Gulf Coast. But the best thing about our time in St. Pete, and the reason it ended up being difficult to say goodbye, was the people. 

The friends we made in Tampa Bay 

are what made it feel like home. 

Without them, Florida would have been 

a beautiful but lonely place to be.

At the end of May, I organized a going-away pool party at our apartment complex so G and I could see everyone one more time before heading off to Jersey. It was a sun-soaked day full of good food, strong drinks, inappropriate card games and lots of laughs. The perfect way to wrap up our year in St. Pete.

Until next time, Florida! Thanks for the memories.

Art & Architecture : The Dali Museum

During our last weeks in St. Pete, I felt the pressure to accomplish the remaining items on my bucket list. Fortunately, the hubs and I were able to make it out to The Dali Museum one Thursday evening (to take advantage of the discounted admission) to check out not only the surrealist art inside but the stunning architecture of the building itself.

The Hallucinogenic Toreador.

If I’m honest, I was initially more excited to tour the grounds than look at the art. I’m not much into surrealism. But I was pleasantly surprised when not only I but also G thoroughly enjoyed the Dali’s permanent exhibition. And it was all thanks to a docent-led tour. If we had simply strolled the galleries on our own, we never would have appreciated or, heck, even noticed all the nuances and optical illusions present in Salvador Dali’s work, never mind the significance of such details. My husband is most certainly not an art museum-loving kind of man, but while looking at the paintings on the tour and listening to the docent’s explanations, I was giddy each time I heard him murmur with interest: “Oh yeah. Whoa. I see it!” While I’m grateful that G will accompany me on these types of cultural excursions, it’s even better when he actually enjoys himself and we can talk about what we saw and learned together.

My second favorite part of the day? Yes, the architecture and the grounds, of course. The building’s exterior is such a curious and fantastical thing. The "enigma," a large, free-form bubble made up of 1,062 triangular pieces of glass, seems to be bursting out from the simple concrete walls. The geodesic dome reflects the beauty around it: the blue sky, the clouds, the palms, the bay and the museum garden, which is a lovely area to just sit for awhile, and let time melt away (on the melting clock bench, no less). A colorful, whimsical art installation has formed on a tree, where people hang their admission wristbands. Inside the museum, a spiral staircase—resembling the helical shape of a DNA molecule—takes on a life of its own, reaching toward the glass ceiling and the sky above. Before we left, gray storm clouds were rolling in, typical of a Florida summer evening. It’s an ever-changing scene out the Dali’s massive window; nature is painting a new canvas all the time. 

Many more photos from our evening at The Dali after the jump (click the Keep Reading button below), including a look at some of our favorite works!

Our First Anniversary : Honeymoon Island & Sea Salt

On day two of our first wedding anniversary festivities (catch up on day one here), G and I journeyed north to Dunedin to visit Honeymoon Island. I had heard it was one of the best beaches around, not to mention its romantic name seemed perfect for the occasion. 

While it was a beautiful beach,  the shoreline was a bit narrower than I had imagined and much, much rockier. The strip of sand was also surprisingly busy for a Tuesday. (Though, the beachgoers were mostly senior citizens, I'll admit. That's Florida for you!) While lounging on chairs in the shade, eating our Firehouse Subs picnic, I noticed that everyone seemed to be wearing sandals or water shoes while slowly, carefully tiptoeing into the surf. And for good reason we learned, when we finally got up to go in. The hubs and I did the eee-ahh-ooh-ouch dance as we stepped into the Gulf Coast waters. Nevertheless, we still had a good time together. Honeymoon Island is a beautiful place and absolutely fantastic for shelling. I could have stayed for hours and hours with my head down, just looking at the sand and picking up interesting shells and stones. (A favorite pastime as a child and still as an adult!) My husband basically had to drag me away.

After checking on the dogs at home and freshening up, we cruised over to downtown St. Pete for an early but long and leisurely dinner at Sea Salt, a new restaurant G and I had visited once before for appetizers (oysters!) and drinks. This time we got the whole experience, starting with a salt tasting. 

A trio of salts was served with the bread and olive oil. Our server explained each salt, including which one to only taste in small amounts because of its incredibly potent flavor, reminiscent of hardboiled egg. (Seriously.) G favored the mild pink Himalayan sea salt while I quite liked the weird egg-y one, as well as the mellow, red Alaea Hawaiian sea salt. 

Since we enjoyed the oysters we tried last time (our first time giving them a go!), we decided to be adventurous yet again and ordered a half-dozen of the sommelier’s choice. The oysters were larger this go-around, a little more imposing for us newbies, but they were still good. After mentioning my observation to our kind server, we learned the selection was from East Coast waters, whereas the smaller ones we had last time were harvested from the West Coast. 

We were presented with a complimentary farro-based amuse bouche before we enjoyed our entrees: the Black Grouper for me, with fava beans, smoked salt fingerling potato, raisin tomato and a black truffle butter sauce that I couldn’t get enough of. G had the Ora King Salmon served with black cyprus sea salt barbecue and chorizo-beluga lentil ragu. The orange-glazed fish looked stunningly beautiful set against the inky lentils.

Before we could even contemplate what to order for dessert, out came a giant cloud of cotton candy. After seeing a few other surprised guests receive a bowl of sugared air, we realized it must just be Sea Salt’s thang. Cotton candy for everyone! But, moments later, another dessert arrived at our table, just for us: a decadent orb of fudge topped with sea salt, of course, and caramel sauce, with the words “Happy Anniversary” written out in chocolate.

Yep, it was a sweet night with G for sure. And I wouldn’t want to share all these adventures (culinary or otherwise, fuzzy selfies included) with anyone else.

Our First Anniversary : Let's Sail Away Together

Hello, world! We’ve made our big move to New Jersey and there’s so much to catch up on! The hubs was stolen away soon after we arrived, kidnapped to Rhode Island for the past nine days while I have been living in an empty apartment with nothing but one suitcase of clothes, an uncomfortable air mattress and two confused pups. No TV, no internet. Just my iPhone and skyrocketing data charges. Thankfully today our apartment finally got hooked up to the world wide web. But before I fill you in on everything that has happened since we packed up and left Florida, I want to share a few more stories from our St. Pete days… Starting with how G and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary!

Right after we got married and moved across the country, the hubby and I thought it would be wonderful to take a cruise for our one-year anniversary, since it is so easy to do so when you live in Florida. But we didn’t start planning or budgeting for such an excursion and before we knew it our first year was almost up! Having just returned from a long, expensive California trip in February and March and with our big Jersey move on the horizon, we decided it would be more practical to plan a low-key staycation. G took two days off work—Monday, May 18, our actual anniversary, as well as the following day—for us to celebrate.

On May 18, we started the day with a delicious at-home brunch. G made a chicken sausage and veggie frittata and we toasted to each other with mimosas in our hand-painted lavender wedding flutes. 

We then exchanged gifts. 

The traditional theme for a first wedding anniversary is paper, which I gave the hubs a heads-up on, just in case he wasn’t aware. (He wasn’t.) While we have two beautiful wedding albums (including this Shutterfly album), we didn’t have any of our wedding photos hanging on the walls in our home. Not even any in tabletop frames! So I printed out a bunch of my fave shots and placed them in three collage-style frames that have a beachy, rustic vibe—a perfect fit for the style of our wedding. For one of the frames I calligraphed part of the lyrics to our last dance song, Sara Bareilles’ “I Choose You.” I also finally put the frames from our wedding to good use, swapping out the Instagram sign and escort/favor table signage for photos of us.

I was nervous what G would think of my gift, since it was more of a gift for our home than just for him, but he loved all the frames. And when he unwrapped the one with the calligraphed lyrics, he exclaimed, “Whoa!” And then, a few seconds later after reading the words, timidly asked, “This is our wedding song, right?” Haha. Yes, honey. Our last dance song. Men.

G, on the other hand, did get me more personal presents, just for me: a luxe leather clutch to hold my pens and a chartreuse zippered leather journal (paper!) that says "winks & whims" for my calligraphy, a summery coral-and-turquoise necklace, and a beautiful lavender-scented candle, since one of our wedding colors and flowers was lavender. All so very thoughtful!

We relaxed together for a bit before getting ready for the evening, which started with a rooftop drink at The Canopy and then popping over to Annata to grab a charcuterie plate to-go and another glass of wine while we waited. Of course, the service there is always impeccable so one glass of wine at the bar turned into receiving a sample of another wine, an amuse bouche and, when they learned we were celebrating our anniversary, complimentary glasses of bubbly. 

We would have loved to stay at Annata longer but, alas, we had to guzzle and run to meet up with the night’s main event: a sunset sail on Tampa Bay.

I had never been sailing before, and neither had G, but being in the Coast Guard has kind of made him lose appreciation for the novelty of boating. Whenever I suggested a sailing cruise in San Diego he balked, saying “been there, done that.” Fortunately I was able to convince him to do it for our anniversary, and it didn’t hurt that I presented him with a killer deal with Simple Sailing on LivingSocial. While there was a possibility of having two other couples join us on the sail, we lucked out—we had the boat all to ourselves. Three cheers for celebrating on a quiet Monday!

The views from the boat were gorgeous and the sail was calm, peaceful and romantic, even though we did chat it up with Captain Scott quite a bit. During our three-hour cruise, we sipped bubbly, nibbled on our charcuterie, helped pull the lines to let the sail in and out, and snuggled on the bow, our feet dangling just above the water. A pod of dolphins even swam up next to us a few times to say hello, which was a truly special sight. We then watched the sun set, dipping below the St. Petersburg skyline, before turning back to shore. It was a magical evening.

(Gratuitous sailing and sunset photos ahead!)

After our sail, the hubs and I walked back to Beach Drive for a late dinner at one of our favorite St. Petersburg restaurants, Cassis American Brasserie. I had the herb-crusted grouper, G chose the sea scallops, and we shared a basket of fries because they are too good not to. We sat outside, enjoyed the almost-summer air and talked about our time on the water.

With (sadly) no room left for dessert, we headed home full and happy. But don’t worry, we had our fill of sweets on day two! Stay tuned… (and, as always, thanks for reading!)

Update: Here's the link to the Day 2 recap.