The Fountain of Youth

Well, I met my goal of turning 40 with my toes in the sand here in St. Petersburg.

This has been my best Florida vacation ever, I think. I wasn't stung by a jellyfish or bitten by a spider. My last business trip to Orlando saw the spider bite, which turned my leg black up to the knee and sent me to urgent care for a full day. This trip has been pure pleasure. And luckily, I found the Fountain of Youth, so now I won't need to worry about my age!

Here is a sunrise over the marina and Tampa Bay and a sunset over the Gulf of Mexico. I love the convergence of city and beach life here.

I was inspired by this street art, an angler fish, in Pass-A-Grille Beach.

Another inspirational visit was to the Salvador Dali Museum, just down from our hotel. I walked over while Jerry was at work and took in all the Dali pieces as well as a Warhol exhibit showing there now. I was lucky enough to see a Dali show, mostly of his sculptural work, in Florence, Italy years ago.

This museum has many of his miniatures. I haven't seen those in person before and they are truly amazing. The technical skill required to paint such realistic pieces on a minute scale was really awe-inspiring to think about.

The view of Tampa Bay from the Dali Museum

For my birthday present, Jerry secretly scanned in all my childhood slides, so it was a bit like finding the fountain of youth. When I was three my father died. He was very interested in photography and had taken all our family photos on slides. When he died my mother just stuck all the slides and the projector in the attic and then the basement and never printed most of them, so I have very few photos of myself before the age of four or so, and only one or two of my father. We got the projector out when I was in high school but it wasn't working by then, so I couldn't look at the slides other than by holding them up to the light.

It is both wonderful and painful to see us again in our youth. My father was magnificently handsome, so seeing him so young and happy and healthy was a forcible reminder of the great waste of his death. I am grateful to Jerry, because I don't know if I would have had the strength to view all those slides while scanning them. I remember when many of the photos were taken, and I've been waiting my whole life to see some of them. When I feel able to look at them some more I will share a few of the beautiful images of 1970s Northern California with you.

We are back home now. I was too optimistic when I started this post yesterday morning. My neck started itching yesterday afternoon and today I have a big itchy welt covering half my neck and chest. Something bit me, I guess. I hope this won't require another trip to the doctor and two weeks of steroids!