St Petersburg :: City of Murals

Life Reimagined by Sarah Sheppard

We recently spent a week down in Tampa and St. Petersburg Florida. I can't say that either of these places were anywhere near the top of my bucket list, but I have to admit that I was very pleasantly surprised by how much we enjoyed ourselves. We managed to have something planned for everyday we were there, which was a full 10 days. We did everything from aquariums, to museums, walking tours, amusement parks to zoos. My husband completely overbooked us, but my daughter and I willing tagged along from one place to the next. 

Xtreme Ethel by Derek Donnelly

For me the highlight was St. Petersburg. It's an artist enclave, or Florida's version of Portland, OR's NE Hawthorn street, or San Francisco's Noe Valley. Need I say more. I felt like I was at home in this eclectic little town. We took an afternoon to walk the murals just off Central Avenue. You just walk over to the alley off of 8th street to start the tour. It runs roughly another 4 blocks straight through the back alleys with one mural after another. The thing that captured me most was that this was an endless display of art, outside and open to the people. Art should be enjoyed, and this series is worth the walk. 

Snake Woman by Leon Bedore

I'm not sure if I could say which one was my favorite, although anyone who knows me knows just how much I love Frida. And yes, there was a mural of Frida smiling right at me. I did really love the one by Sarah Sheppard called Life Reimagined, which is about disrupting aging. She explains that the gears represent the grind of the working world. The woman is part Banyan tree that sinks its roots into the community and her arms reach out to the Phoenix. She is looking for her rebirth and what is to come next in life.

by Shark Toof 

As we started our tour, the first mural we saw was one of a skateboarding granny called Xtreme Ethel by Derek Donnelly. This mural depicts Ethel Percy Andrus in her 70s who was a woman ahead of her time. She was the first female school principal in California, and in retirement she found that too many talented older people were 'put out to pasture.' She wanted to change what it meant to age, so she created several associations (the most notable one being AARP in 1958) to empower older Americans to continue to pursue their passions with independence, dignity and purpose.  

Space Rainbows by Ricky Watts

Another mural I loved was Ricky Watts' trippy Space Rainbows. Ricky says that his art is "psychedelic, abstract eye candy." He says that public art brings energy to a community, which I have to agree with since this mural tour has people strolling from block to block down back alleyways as though they are wandering the halls of a museum. The art is all out in the fresh air with the sun shinning down on it. Perhaps that is why they decided to call the St Pete's Mural Festival SHINE. The city continues to encourage new editions to the collection and actively seeks out artists to paint more. I never thought I'd be drawn to a city based on street art, but I for one will want to return to this city of murals just to see what's been added to this outdoor collection. 

Hiking Florida :: Rocks for Brains

Windley Key Quarry

Brain Coral (close up on right)

One of the places we hiked in Florida was called Windley Key Fossil Reef Geological State Park. The stone formed during the Pleistocene age (about 100,000 years ago) and consists of scleractinian coral, or brain coral. Windley was one of the tallest reefs, and when the sea level dropped it exposed the reef, killing the coral which is the foundation for Islamorada, one of the many island groupings of the Keys. 

The Beadgirl is partial to coral. She has been creating these sweet coral reef pieces with polymer that include clusters of brain coral along with kelp, starfish and sponges. The detail she includes is so amazing. 

For Mother's Day last year she handed me this hand painted ocean box and inside was my own coral (shown here). So when we discovered this park the Beadgirl was anxious to check it out. We ran around snapping pictures of all the coral patterns in the rock. Windley is one of several quarries where Keystone, or fossilized coral limestone, was cut and extracted for use in building the railway that connected Miami to Key West.

The railway was built in the early 1900s to connect the chain of Key islands; that up to the turn of the century were only accessible by boat. Henry Flagler, who was one of the founders of Standard Oil, was looking to profit from increased trade out of Key West which was the closest deep water port to the Panama Canal. It took him 13 years to build the 128 miles of track down to Key West. Flagler used the stone as land fill in places to secure the rails.  

Today Windley Key is a park with only the quarry walls and rusty machinery left standing. The quarry walls show the many layers of coral along with all the visible inclusions of shells in the stone. When you pick up the rock it is lighter than you might think given the air pockets in the stone formed around the coral. You can actually find the stone everywhere on the island. I picked up one to bring home for Christine, my rock hound friend. It has amazing grooves left from the coral.

We drove the full length of the Keys while we were there. The railway is no longer operational, and in many places the railway bridges are simply crumbling into the Atlantic. The drive itself was a bit surreal. On one side is the Atlantic; the other the Gulf. The road is nearly at sea level and gives you the feeling of driving through the ocean. Odd, but peaceful.

The Atlantic (from the car window) along Key West highway

Hiking Florida :: Digesting Alligators

Alligator digesting a turtle

We did a lot of hiking while we were down in Florida. Flat hiking that is, as Florida isn't known for its hills. One of the places we explored was the Everglades. The landscape is gorgeous and varied from one area to the next.

Everglades River of Grass

We hiked through marsh lands that looked like a savannah, tree hammocks, dense mangroves to wide open ponds choked with lilies that are home to birds, turtles and alligators. The trails were easy to hike as there was a network of wooden bridges that made it easy to navigate through the marsh.

Close up of grasslands with White Ibis

One of the most interesting things we saw was an alligator up close, on land. We chatted with the park ranger who explained that this guy had been lying there (perfectly still) for 5 days digesting a turtle he ate. She explained that if you looked at his stomach you could see the circle from the turtle's shell and the gap just before his hind legs showed how stretched his stomach was from the turtle. 

The area is considered a tropical wetland, and it serves as a drainage basin for southern Florida. One term I loved (identified by writer Marjory Stoneman Douglas) was "River of Grass." Which is just so true. When you look out over the grassy savannah you realize that it is not solid ground, but a large waterway filled with dense grass. During the wet season this slow-moving river grows to 60 miles wide and 100+ miles long. 

Marjory was a journalist, feminist and environmentalist. When she was younger she spoke out on women's suffrage and civil rights. In to her 70s, she took a central role in protecting the everglades and earned the nickname the Grande Dame of the Everglades. She lived to be 108 and and collected all kinds of awards including a Presidential Medal of Freedom. I would have loved to spend a bit of time with her listening to the tales of her life.

Sunshine in Winter

Yellow Crowned Night Heron

When you live in New England February can feel like the longest month of the year. We decided to take a break and head down to the Florida Keys, and I tell you the morning we left we just couldn't get out of town fast enough.

My husband had booked a flight for 10am, but of course the airline re-booked us without notice to an earlier flight. That meant getting up and out the door with two teenagers by 5am. Anyone with teenagers knows just how difficult a task that is. The temperature was 3 degrees (fahrenheit, or -16 celsius) with a wind chill that pushed it to roughly 15 below. That meant having to lug heavy winter coats with us to Florida. Seriously? 

It was all well worth it. It rained the first 2 days, and I couldn't have cared less. I was in flip flops and capris and loving every minute. I can't say that I did much else but soak in the sun, walk a bit along the coast and do a little bird watching. It was perfect to just be.