Thursday April 16: Dali Day

Steve had the bikes off and we were ready to go by 9 or so.

Weather is quite warm - highs in the mid-80's and very humid.

This is the kind of day where biking is best in the morning when it's cool hence the early start for the day.

Destination: the Dali Museum.

St. Petersburg is a great place to bike! Everything to see is mostly in a large rectangular area right by the marina. There is also a trolley that runs around the area as well. Once again a great time to be a senior: only a quarter to ride :-)

The museum itself is an amazing building and the history of how the collection happened is quite interesting.

Reynold and Eleanor Morse first saw Dali's work at the Cleveland Museum of Art. They ended up with a lifelong friendship with the artist and eventually donated more than 200 of his works to the museum here in St. Petersburg.

For more info on the museum and the Morses, click here.

A different side of the building.

And of course we LOVE audio tours, right? This one was quite well done - with the history and the background for many of the paintings.





Below is a really cool painting that from 20 meters away, is a portrait of Lincoln.

But up close, it's a picture of Dali's wife looking out a window overlooking ---- forget where :-(

Here's the same painting from 20 meters away.

Another fun painting: The Hallucinogenic Toreador.

The green is the tie of the bullfighter and he is looking to his left holding the red cape. It took me a while to see the face and even then it seemed to come and go. Maybe that's why he named it such??

Regardless, it really was a very impressive exhibit. And I definitely learned a great deal about Dali!!








Inside the glass on the third floor of the museum - looking out over one of the marinas on the waterfront.



This place definitely was a reminder of Chicago - just a smaller scale.


Steve particularly liked the staircase which wound from the first floor to the third floor and apparently spirals were one of Dali's favorite objects.

We did manage to find the Fountain of Youth along our path. Steve decided he should take a drink - just in case it was for real :-)


Other sightings: the local soccer field with the lamest forwards I've ever seen ....


a giant sundial - sadly it was cloudy so we couldn't use it to tell the time ....

and a cool looking building that reminded us of St. Augustine....




Not sure where we'll go tomorrow but I'm sure it will involve more bike riding around!