The Best of the Bests for 2013

     Before 2014 gets going with a whoosh and a bang, I want to to reflect on the many traveling "bests" we enjoyed this year whether it was far afield in Montreal, along the Mississippi River, in a wintry New York City or closer to home in St Pete. Jerry and I know how fortunate we are to have the time, good health, and resources to travel the way we do and we make the most of it. But isn't just places or meals or sunset views that bring us happiness. Our travels are filled with opportunities to meet people, moments to reflect on history and culture, time to enjoy the bounty of nature, and space for reflection. It is the richness of experience that calls us to travel. 

     Here are a few "snapshots" of what we loved in our travels this past year.

Best Breakfast: We love a good breakfast to start the day whether at home or traveling. These three spots tied for honors in 2013: 

      Voula's Offshore Cafe, Seattle, WA

      Beauty's Lunchonette (since 1972), Montreal, QC

      Slim Goodies, New Orleans, LA

Best Birthday Celebration: Celebrating Canada Day (July 1) with thousands of Canadians in the Old Port of Montreal, complete with cake, bagpipers, and the swearing in of new Canadian citizens.

Best Scenic Drive: Highway 1 on the Oregon Coast on a misty day.

Best Animal Kiss: Giraffe at San Diego Safari Park (they have reeaally long tongues)

Best Oddball Museum: The Seattle Pinball Museum. For just $13 we played for hours on 50 well-maintained machines dating from the late 50s to present day. 

Best Farmers Market: Hands down:  Marche Jean Talon in Montreal. Jerry's favorite farmers market anywhere in the world. It's our first "pilgrimage" stop every time we arrive in Montreal. 

Best Pie Shop: Rustique Pie Kitchen in St. Henri neighborhood of Montreal. Delicious mini pies and all sorts of other goodies. My favorite? lemon meringue...no...apple...wait...the pecan...maybe the s'more pie? 

Best Donuts: A tie between The Donut Den in Nashville and Randy's Donuts in Inglewood (right near  LAX airport). Both places have the fantastic maple donuts. Randy's rocks the french cruellers. Although Tim Horton's in Quebec has the fantastic french cruellers, too.  Does anyone still wonder why I'm not a size 8?

Best Foodie Adventure: A May weekend in Montreal with my mid-twenties son and his friend Louise. We ate and walked and ate some more. Restaurants? Au Pied de Cochon, Garde Manger, Toque!, Beauty's Luncheonette, the Creperie at Marche Jean Talon, and Rustique Pies.

Best Winter Meal: Any meal at Hearth in New York is a great meal, but our meal with our son on a cold day in the middle of winter was spectacular. Hearty food, delicate gnocchi, great service, and long talks over wine. Perfection. 

Best Oysters: For west coast oysters: Taylor Shellfish Farms Melrose Market in Seattle. For east coast oysters: Maestro S.V.P in Montreal. 

Best Opportunity to Eat Lots of Pie: Judging at the National Pie Championships in Orlando. Nothing quite like sharing a weekend with a couple hundred pie-loving judges and 400 contestants from all over the U.S. 

Best Way to Work off some of that Pie: Three afternoon/evenings at Walk Disney World: EPCOT, The Magic Kingdom, and the Animal Kingdom.

Best Ride on Public Transit: The Charles Street Trolley in New Orleans on a warm summer night.  Close second? Sausalito ferry on a sunny day (love that view of the Golden Gate bridge).

Best Meal in San Francisco: Spruce.  The meal was excellent, inventive without being unnecessarily over the top. Fresh, quality ingredients. And, a young man who we've known since he was 8 works in the kitchen. It was really something to look through the viewing window to see him do his stuff. It was just yesterday we were fishing on Lake Bonaparte and roasting marshmallows over a campfire. 

Best Bookstore: Elliot Bay Books on 10th Avenue in Seattle (Capitol Hill). I could move in and stay.

Best Bookstore Celebrating It's 80th Birthday: Haslam's New and Used Books, St Petersburg, FL. An integral part of the St Pete community for 80 years, they threw a great party! 

Best Luxury Hotel: The Hermitage in Nashville. Jerry's favorite anywhere, any year. An oasis in the middle of the wonderful madness of Nashville during the CMA Music Fest every June. Love the "cookie hour" in late afternoon.

Best Bed & Breakfast (with a talented piano playing owner): J.N. Stone House and Musicale, Natchez, MS. 

Best Lodging with a Twist: The Shack Up Inn, Clarksdale, MS: A motel made up of  resurrected share cropper cabins and cotton gins on the old Hopson Plantation located in the cradle of Delta blues music.

Best Fruit Stand: Dickey's Peaches in Musella, GA. Late May to early August is peach picking time and they always have fresh peaches for sale. We love to sit and watch the sorting and packing operations while wiping the peach juice from our chins. A third generation tradition in central Georgia.

Best BBQ on the road:   Blackstrap BBQ in Verdun, Montreal. 

Best BBQ close to home: Fred Fleming's on 4th Street North in St Pete, FL

Best Cemetery: Cote des Neiges, Montreal. Beautiful and monumental headstones and crypts that tell stories covering 150 years in the lives (and deaths) of Montrealers. 

Best Botanical Garden Display: Montreal Botanical Gardens with this year's astonishingly imaginative and artful Mosaiculture International Competition and the always delightful Butterflies Go Free Display.

Best Bridge: The art deco  bridge in Florence, Oregon (Hwy 101) 

Best Scenic Drive: Highway 101 in Oregon from Coos Bay to Lincoln City.

Best Piggy Bank: The big bronze pig, Rachel, at the Pike Place Market in Seattle. 

Best Place to Buy Flowers: Pike Place Market in August...dahlias are in full bloom. 

Best Concert:  Thursday Night (first of 4 nights) at the CMA Music Fest in Nashville. (Luke Bryan, Taylor Swift, Tim McGraw, Miranda Lambert, Zac Brown Band.

Best Concert While Freezing our Fannies Off: Alan Jackson at the Plant City Strawberry Festival (yes it was cold in Florida, in the 40s cold)

Best Snoball: Rootbeer flavored snoball from the guy in the French Market in New Orleans.

Best Snoball outside New Orleans: the Snoball shack in Treasure Island, FL 

Best High Tea: Queen Mary Tea Room in Seattle (ask to sit by the doves)

Best Baseball Game: Any day the Tampa Bay Rays are playing at home at the Tropicana Dome. But especially Opening Day when I got to help unfurl the ginormous American Flag on the field before the game. 

Best Lonely Lighthouse: The lighthouse standing guard over the Louisbourg Harbor in Cape Breton. Just us and a few seagulls and the Atlantic Ocean stretching out to Ireland.

Best Lobster Roll: Thirsty Whale in Bar Harbor, Maine. Had a great game of dominoes in between bites of oh so fresh from the seas lobster.

Best Pilates Session while Traveling: Simply Balanced in Nashville, TN. Our classes there have become a tradition helping to unkink our muscles after boot scootin' at the nightly concerts at the CMA Music Fest. 

Best Cruise: Holland America's autumn cruise from Boston to Montreal through the Canadian Maritimes on the Maasdam.

Best Fireworks: Montreal's Annual International Firework Competition held for two months each summer. Weekly fireworks set to music created by the best talent in the pyrotechnic world. 

Best Temporary Exhibit at a Museum: The Beatles retrospective at the Musee Pointe-a-Calliere in Montreal. 

Best Cat: The gray mouser that hung out on the porch of our sharecropper cabin at Shack Up Inn in Clarksdale, MS.

Best Author's Reading: A tie: Jeff Klinkenburg at the Inkwood Bookstore in Tampa and Khalid Housseini at Tampa Theatre.

Best College Campus for Birding:  Eckerd College in St Petersburg, FL. Roseate spoonbills, nesting osprey, white ibis, egrets, and herons. 

Best Bird Sighting of the Year: Sandhill Crane families with little chicks just east of Sarasota, FL. Close second: nesting owls in Fort de Soto Park, St Pete, FL.

Best Koi Pond: Marie Selby Gardens, Sarasota, FL

Best Banana Cream Pie (my husband's favorite): Yoder's Amish restaurant in Sarasota, FL (yes there are Amish in Florida too...they drive three wheeled bikes instead of horse drawn buggys.)

Best Cabins at a State Park: Spacious well maintained log cabins (made from cabbage palm trunks) built in the 30s by WPA work crews at Myaaka State Park in Florida (just east of Sarasota).


Best Sunset: The view across the Mississippi River from Natchez Under the Hill, MS. 

Best Place to Spot Gators: Myaaka State Park (especially on Lake Myaaka...take the boat ride).

Best Shelling: Sanibel Island, Fl

Best New Find in Tampa: The Oxford Exchange: bookstore, coffee/tea bar, gift store, and bistro. A place to pause and reflect in comfort.

Best Local Festival/Fair: The Plant City Strawberry Festival in Plant City, FL. I dream all year about their strawberry shortcake, chocolate dipped bacon, and concerts. 

Best Local Market: Mazzarro's Italian Market in St Petersburg. From cannoli to fresh bread, excellent meats to fine cheeses, house made pasta to salame, coffee bar to lunch counter, this is THE place to go.

Best Way to Start a New Year: Watching the first sunset of the year with picnic and champagne on the beach in Pass-a-Grille (St Pete Beach), Florida with our grown son. Watching he and his Dad walk along the surf line deep in conversation is great way to start a New Year.

Best Time with Our Grown Son: Our two week drive from So Cal to Seattle. 

Best Friday Night Date: Shuffleboard with my husband at the St Petersburg Shuffleboard Club celebrating 100 years of operation. (And shuffleboard isn't just for old folks anymore, lots of "younguns" on dates and families with kids...great fun).

Best Family Meal: Christmas Day Dinner at the Olympic Fairmont Hotel in Seattle. 

Best Time with Old Friends: This is a hard pick as we had many fun visits this year. But for sheer volume and amount of laughter, the winner this year would be my 40th high school reunion (El Rancho High School, Pico Rivera, CA).  There is something about discovering that we may have more wrinkles but we don't have less fun.  

Watch Baseball in Comfort in Downtown St Pete.

Don't let the baseball purists tell you otherwise. Watching the Tampa Bay Rays play baseball in the air-conditioned  Tropicana Dome is pure comfort!

Our crazy section attendant Eddie, during the 7th inning stretch

Players may like real grass. Some fans may believe that it is part of the game to sit in heat and humidity or endure long rain-delays.

But not these fans.  And fans we are.  We're season ticket holders who even when traveling follow games on MLB.com and twitter. We love our Tampa Bay Rays, we just don't love sweltering in the sun or huddling on a concourse while a thunderstorm passes.

There is nothing, nada, not a thing pleasant about sitting in a stadium on days when it is 90 degrees with 90 percent humidity outside. And, we're happy to be inside on those afternoons when pop-up thunderstorms, pop up right over southern Pinellas County sending lightning, hail and water spouts right into downtown St Petersburg.

Lucky for us, all we have to worry about is the walk to and from where we parked the car.

Once in the Tropicana Dome, we can head straight to Section 301 with a few detours for beignets, BBQ pork and hand-carved turkey sandwiches, and fresh squeezed lemonade. 

The Trop is a great venue for visitors to enjoy baseball. Rays fans are in general a friendly bunch (except to loud-mouth Yankee fans...sorry if you are one of them...consider yourself warned).

Rusty Kath provides entertaining in-house emceeing (listen for his occasional pithy remarks dropped in among the latest announcement of who has won Pepsi Bottle Race). 

Rays players often sign autographs right before the game down by the Rays dugout.  On Family-Day Sundays, there may even be autograph tables set up at the edge of the field for the latest favorites. 

The price of tickets is very affordable especially compared to many other stadiums MLB.

Food is good baseball park fare. We love the BBQ pork sandwiches from Everglades BBQ or the fresh carved turkey sandwiches from The Carvery.

Come up to Sections 300, 301, or 302 and join legions of season ticket holders who know the best kept secret in the Trop. High seats behind home plate? You can see everything! The prices are great and we have the craziest section attendants!

Parking is available at the Trop and at private lots north of the field.  Parking on 13th Street north is free if you get there early enough to get a space. A free shuttle is available from downtown St Pete parking structures (about 1 mile down central) with parking at the downtown lot just $5.

Check out the Rays website for special concert nights during the summer. Have small kids? Most Sundays are Family Days. Kids can run the bases after the game.

Kayaking In a Mangrove Tunnel, Weedon Island Preserve, St Petersburg, FL

There is more to the St Petersburg/Clearwater area than beaches and boating. There are quiet pockets of nature filled with beauty and wild creatures. Weedon Island Preserve is one of those spots. Located on the northwestern shores of Tampa Bay, it is a quick 20 minute drive from downtown St Petersburg. Its 3190 acres is made up of marine ecosystems accessible by kayak, boardwalk, pier, and a small system of upland trails.

One mild November morning, I met my friends Tim and Lisa Salt from the UK at Weedon.  They had arranged to rent kayaks for a half-day paddle through a well-marked water trail. Sweetwater Kayak Rentals delivered the kayaks to the water’s edge and provided life vests, paddles, and good advice. For the kayaking novice, Sweetwater will provide an escorted kayak tour, but we have all had our hands on a paddle before, so with a bit of a shove, we were off onto the waters of Weedon Preserve.

We paddled in sheltered bays watching American oystercatchers and egrets scavenge for food. We pulled up near a sandbar, "rafted" together and had lunch in the sun. The sand bar marked the entrance to one of many of the sheltered mangrove "highway" tunnels.  We glided through the earthy-scented mangrove tunnel where the outside world melted away into quiet paradise

Jerry and I enjoy driving to Weedon in early evening. We like to watch the sunset from the fishing pier. On our last visit, a Great Blue Heron walked along one railing while we leaned against the other, content to savor the late afternoon light. A swish in the water marked a small group of dolphins, one a youngster.

Weedon also has a 45-foot observation tower nestled along one of the upland paths. A walk up the observation tower is rewarded with an expansive view of the mangrove “islands”.   The sun shimmers off the waters that surround the dense, lush mangrove jungle.  The downtowns of Tampa and St Petersburg are just a glimmer on the horizon and seem a world away. 

For more information about Sweetwater Kayaks, check here:http://sweetwaterkayaks.wordpress.com/

For more information about Weedon Island Preserve, check here: http://www.weedonislandpreserve.org

MINGLING WITH MANATEES ON COFFEE POT BAYOU

Two broad snouts snuffle up from the water at the edge of the walking path along Coffee Pot Bayou. A manatee and her baby drift over to the storm drain to drink fresh water coming down from nearby Lake Crescent. The baby cuddles close. A small group of locals lean over the edge of the concrete bulkhead to watch "their" manatees. They speak in happy whispers and take photos with their cell phones to send to friends in colder climes.

Common to the bayou for most of the year, manatees are almost an everyday sight during the cooler winter months when colder waters of the Gulf of Mexico and Tampa Bay drive them to the shallow warmer waters of Coffee Pot Bayou. As spring approaches groups of courting manatees can be seen rolling around each other in the shallow waters.

Keeping them company are statuesque Great Blue Herons and Great Egrets, shy Green Herons, and gregarious Laughing Gulls. Red-ear slider turtles can often be seen popping their heads up in the water or sunning themselves on boat ramps. Even a dolphin or two join in on the fun.

The broad sidewalk along Coffee Pot Bayou is part of a 2-mile walking/biking path that extends from downtown St. Petersburg following along the edge of Tampa Bay before entering Coffee Pot Bayou. It is a safe, well-lit path with fantastic views, comfortable benches for resting, access to a small beach off of North Shores Park, and opportunities for fishing.

Our manatee spot is at Coffee Pot Blvd and 23rd Ave NE.  There is a small area for parking. 

Charming Brown Headed Nuthatches at Cape San Blas Light

There were tall long needled pines standing around the base of the Cape San Blas Light.  While enjoying the view of the Light in late afternoon sun I heard the distinctive chatter chirp in the trees of a little nuthatch.  I took these photos with my new Panasonic Lumix and was so happy with how they turned out.  I took and watched the happy trio poking around for lunch in the bark for a long time. It made a nice afternoon memory.

Which way did he go???

Belly up to the bar boys!  There was a small hole of some sort right by the middle birds beak that they kept digging around in for lunch.

Now you see me, now you don't? Hey...I'm right in the middle!

Two Great Locals Spots in One Day

Hungry for a hamburger at lunch time we went to the Dairy Inn on 9th (address). This modest fast food establishment with picnic benches is always busy and sometimes VERY busy. We ordered their “almost famous” burger which was perfect. It was as good as Five Guys (sshhh…don’t tell because we really like Five Guys). And they had shoestring fries(my favorite) and a terrific vanilla shake. They also have soft serve icecream…but we were too full to try one of the sundaes…THIS time. They also have salads, philly cheesesteaks, hot dogs, and numerous other sandwiches…but we will go for the burgers!

This evening we joined our friends Ronnie and Ellen at the Old Northeast Tavern at 201 7th Ave North (on the corner of 7th Ave North and 2nd Street North in the Old Northeast…where else). A locals spot with two rooms: one a large pub bar with a GIGANTIC TV and board games and a quieter but still friendly dining room. Guiness on tap (as well as a slew of other beers). Had an excellent pear and mixed green salad and a think crust garlic shrimp pizza. Not so loud we couldn’t talk…always a bonus. Good service. We will be back…its walking and biking distance from the house.

Gelato in ST. Petersburg

Paciuga's is a great little gelato place on Beach Drive in ST. Petersburg. It isn't as good as my favorite spot in Montreal...but it's the best place I've found in the states so far. They have a myriad of flavors...so far I've like them all (but I get the smallest cup now...don't want to be wearing the gelato...just eating it). see www.paciugo.com

La Cabana del Tio, Clearwater Florida

This is one great hole in the wall restaurant. La Cabana del Tio at 1709 Drew St, Clearwater, Fl. A small storefront restaurant and take out where they make corn tortillas by hand all day long...you can buy them go. FAbulous, absolutely fabulous carnitas...they have lots of other thing...but we always have the carnitas. And orange soda from mexico....yum! There is a counter and about 3 small tables...most people seem to take out. but we can't wait that long to eat the carnitas tacos

St. Pete in June

Have had a nice few days so far. Have had productive meetings with our architect. We have discovered a couple new places to eat that don't violate our new nutritional goals (on the way to be healthier and thinner people). And we've had some really nice drives and walks. Our best find for new restaurant is "Red Mesa" on 4th St somewhere in the 40s. Latin inspired food. It was PACKED for lunch and should be. Jerry had the pork verde which was very good. I had a seared scallop salad with tomatoes, hearts of palm, and pine nuts with a light vinagrette....excellent.



Drove out to St. Pete Beach area on the weekend and had dinner at a "fish place" at St. John's Pass. An area that defines the word "touristy" but it has great views and is very festive.

We saw dolphins in the channel from our dinner table. There were also lots of egrets, herons, and laughing gulls in addition to the dolphins in the water.

St. Pete Saturday Farmer's Market

St. Pete has a Saturday Farmer's Market from November (I think) to end of May. It's located on Central Ave. Great food, good produce, plants, crafts, music...a great time. We especially like all the dogs like this pooch that was being pushed around in a pink pup stroller (Outward Hound was the make).

The pineapple and melon were ripe and sweet. Fresh squeezed orange juice was just what the hot morning needed. We bought a teeshirt made out of bamboo!!! And didn't pass up our favorite turnover stand (apple and cherry) yum!

A Rain Squall on St. Pete Bay

Over Labor Day Weekend, we were in St. Petersburg, FL working on plans for the remodel/addition to our new place there. We stayed at the Renaissance Vinoy overlooking the marina in St. Pete. It was hot and humid with many late afternoon thunderstorms. This one marched across Tampa Bay into St. Pete around 6pm and all but blocked our view of the end of the St. Pete Pier. It was nice to be inside watching the US Tennis on TV.