First, my coughing report . *cough* *cough* Amy had a cough in January that lasted 10 weeks. I’m hoping I don’t beat her record.
But back to sunny Florida, BCV – surely somebody has coined that phrase, Before Coronavirus, haven’t they?
Anyway…after our afternoon at the Sunken Gardens in St. Petersburg on Thurs. Feb. 20th we drove up the street to a Trader Joe’s. Normally i’m very excited about trader joe’s because i don’t get to go to them very often, but i was a little bit too hot and tired to fully appreciate the wonderfulness of the store, and mom, of course, isn’t a shopper so we didn’t go around scooping up everything.
but we did get some stuff and then headed over the bridge to Tampa where we’d be spending the next five nights.
The traffic was slightly horrible on the highway and we somehow avoided a long line of cars, diverting to different side streets to get us into Tampa. We passed a fantastic boulevard along with water lines with huge mansions and ended up downtown, managing to avoid the clogged highway entirely.
why did we switch houses mid-trip? well, the house in St. Pete was kind of pricey and had three bedrooms which we didn’t need, plus I’d never really been to Tampa and the air b&b we were headed for looked beautiful. The backyard overlooked a river which flowed out to the bay, so the owner had written that you might see small alligators and manatees on the river. Plus they had a kayak. It sounded different and lovely.
But in reality…when we got home from Florida i wanted to review the place on air b&b but i felt it was a delicate situation. Even though the house was really lovely, clean, well-furnished, and the owner was very helpful, the neighborhood was kind of shady. as we drove up the main street we passed pawn shops and rundown buildings and it looked unsafe. When I finally wrote my review of the place I did talk about the beauty of the house but also mentioned the neighborhood, because if i was going there I’d want accurate information.
we turned down a small side street, and there was our house.
Like i said, it was lovely. here’s the first picture i took, a black goose down on the dock.
and a video of the backyard and the river…
I think it was looking for its mate, and it found her, so that’s good.
The first thing I noticed inside was this giant vat of Nutella. I believe Nutella is my favorite food so i never have it because i’m likely to eat the entire thing in one sitting.
it was an opened jar, so somebody had left it behind. hmm, should you eat from an open jar of Nutella?
of course i did.
the kitchen had granite countertops and new appliances.
The dining room where we actually ate at least a couple of meals.
the enclosed sunroom in back of the house looking out over the river. cool ceiling light.
Living room, also lovely with a comfy recliner couch.
And here’s a full tour of the place.
we enjoyed our meal from Trader Joe’s out on the deck; it looks from this photo that we had some kind of healthy salad, good for us! I started getting bitten by something, probably mosquitoes, so i was able to use the vanilla spray that i’d brought.
we spent a whole lot of time trying to figure out how to use the array of TV remotes. Owners should always leave detailed instructions about them because it seems they’re more and more complicated and nobody has the same configuration.
whew, a very busy day. BCV.
ok then,
g.