Florida, give me your beach ... but nothing else.

Posting on either of the blogs has not been top of my list for a few months. I find myself distracted by a variety of things. We'd been camping then flew off to Florida for a wedding and although it was only five days, it took up space in my brain for planning.

The wedding was great and I'm not usually a fan of visiting relatives for an extended time. We all stayed at a large resort, had our own car, and met and socialized with relatives off and on, then had the big party at the reception. My darling companion and I had plenty of time to ourselves to explore the west coast of Florida, St. Petersberg specifically.

The west coast beaches have always been my favorite. Jeeze, I talked my beloved into buying a RV so we could spend more time at the beach. The beach we stayed on was so different and quite beautiful. St. Pete's Beach has long flat expanse of beach with very small waves rolling quietly in to the shore. At least that's what the surf was like when we were there. The sand is very different, as well. Almost white and so fine that it compacts and you can walk on it with little problem. In the surf line it's hard like concrete. The water was chilly but not as cold as Ventura the same time of year. Every morning there was a virtual rush hour with all sorts of people walking up and down the shore line.

One day we traveled into St Petersberg with the intent of seeing some of Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings. I was thrilled to see a brochure for The Museum of Fine Arts with my all time favorite painting of hers, The Poppy. When we arrived more than half of the museum was closed do to construction but to my delight, there in the gallery was this beautiful red flower. Ah, but that was it, one painting by her and nothing else. So we made a pilgrimage to see one painting. The weather was beautiful, the museum sits across the street from a small bay, so it wasn't wasted time in the least.

If this was the only time I'd spent in Florida I would have moved there in an instant. But, I know they have hurricanes, bugs and humidity. Hey, they even had traffic, nope, I'll still take LA.