A Friend in Florida in February

 

Clearwater/Tampa Bay

Everyone in cold climes needs a Friend in Florida in February, don't they? Well yes, normally it is a treat to get out of the unrelenting cold and step off the plane into the waiting arms of balmy breezes and unrelenting sunshine. But the week before I left for Florida it had hit 70 degrees in Washington, DC…twice.  With global warming, perhaps the need for Florida will one day be negated. 

My friends have a view with a house in Clearwater. Walking into their condo was like entering an Imax theater where the entire screen is locked on a water view,  in this case on Tampa Bay. Sliding glass windows from the living room lead onto the deck. Where you can watch sunrise, sunset, and a massive full moon if you time your trip just right, as I did.

The bay all day

 

Their place is hypnotic and soothing and tranquil and gorgeous.

And I must say I will give this guest stay “best proximity to great running path.” I simply made a right onto Bayshore Drive and ran to Safety Harbor (yes, this is the real name of a town). First thing I ran into was smiling people. Yes, full eye contact, grins, real greetings. Weird, huh?  And before I knew it I was having a very happy run, checking out a fishing dock, seeing the big beautiful bay front houses. And because the weather was so mild, I never got hot so I ran much longer than usual. It’s like getting a sunburn through a cloud cover. Five miles sneak up on you.

Casa Moderno

      

Safety Harbor

Much has been said about the “duh” in Florida.  As my friend and I drove around, we observed  many very ugly tract developments—strip mall after strip mall, billboards for strip clubs and for injury attorneys who were seemingly screaming down at you in your car.

And yet we managed to grab a big scoop of culture and wonderment by making the short trip to The Dali in St. Petersburg. Here we lunched by the water,  as if at a café in Barcelona, eating manchego cheese and tapas. There was a Frida Kahlo exhibition, and in her honor, I guess, there was a big visiting group of young girls with floral wreaths who appeared in the “Avant-Garden.” The tour guide for the Dali exhibit was wearing a shoe hat. I looked in vane for floral wreaths and shoe hats in the gift shop.  Susan likes to say I have a fondness for “festive headgear.”

The stache sculpture

Dali, you lovable whack job. Not only is your art insane but boy can you write a good title. I particularly like "Fountain of Milk Spreading Itself Uselessly on Three Shoes" …Dali does much more than fill the need for posters for college dorm rooms, as I once read.  His enormous canvases are awesome (original meaning of the word), especially The Hallucinogenic Toreador, all 157 in × 118 inches of it.  

I want this phone.  Please.

 

Frida, Frida, what an amazing woman. Her body was basically torn in two in a bus accident when she was 18 and she had 47 surgeries throughout her lifetime. She didn’t let her disability prevent her from a tempestuous relationship with Diego Rivera and becoming a kick-ass artist. She did nearly all self portraits because "I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best."

Frida

Festive headgear

We talked about Florida’s unfortunate lack of culture all the way to The Dali and back.

That night we dined at Green Springs Bistro with live music and gumbo and pecan encrusted sea bass and good Gulf stuff like that.

So my weekend in Florida was perfect, really. I had a divine run. People smiled at me. The weather was warm, the skies were cloudless.  We sought out and found culture, and best of all I got to spend time with a friend of 30 years. What’s not to like?  If you insist, I will find something.