Florida 1

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 It is quite a contrast switching from hiking mode to “visiting” mode.

We head to Saint Petersburg’s area (no we're not teleporting  to Russia, this one is on the Florida West Coast!) and luck out finding a nice artsy Airbnb in Tarpon the sponge town.


Our first visit is for  the Tampa Ybor quarters which boasts a very interesting tobacco/cigar making history as well as a funny street-free-chicken population.



We're far from our beloved wilderness world here! Tampa is big town stuff with too many multi lane highways and miles of street malls.


Visiting the Riverwalk at Tampa


So the next day we head to a proxy wilderness, the Botanic.Garden but no luck seeing alligators there.

We've gotta check at least one Florida beach also.


Muriel painting Jeremy with sunscreen. Yep! black skins can get sunburnt also!


State Park beaches are busy on Sunday, a good walk is required to get away from the crowds but it's worth it!


Honeymoon Island State Park


After 3 days wandering around the Tampa St Petersburgh area we drive back to Marc and Fred's place in Vero Beach: the sailing trip to the Bahamas is confirmed! Yesssss ! We start making all the purchases to stuff the boat for 2 weeks autonomy with food, water,gas... way more than what we can carry on a backpack! 🎒


Yeah, caddies at Sam's club are way oversized!


Cherry on the cake: Joao finds an old windsurf gear set online to take on the boat. Next blog will be about the ⛵ Bahamas sailing trip!

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