Finally! We found what sounded like our
kind of place – Central Coffee Shoppe – an old fashioned diner.
Off we went on the bikes to Central Avenue – the main drag in St.
Pete's that is the location of just about everything that is worth
seeing/doing.
They even had homemade corned beef
hash! Sadly, it was not up to what we expected. No problem, we'll try
again tomorrow at a different place. :-)
The plan was to visit the Sculpture
Experience after breakfast (it was just a couple more blocks from the
boat). Sadly I found out just before we left the boat that it was
closed on Mondays. Figures. Anyway since it was just another block or
so down the street from the breakfast place, we decided we should
ride by it just to verify that it would indeed be open tomorrow. |
| Steve with Jon Hair |
Weird. No hours listed. Even more weird
– there were clearly folks inside and the door was not locked! So
of course Steve walked in and the owner/sculptor came around the corner. Turns out that he was just moving
into this new place (right next door to the Chihuly museum) and
wouldn't open until NEXT Wednesday. Very sad.
I had read about the artist Jon Hair. He was
originally from Ohio, went to Ohio State, taught at the U of Akron –
regular home town guy. And he was the guy inside working to finish up
the displays! Steve shared we were traveling by boat. Oh, where are
you from? We said Ohio – seems he grew up in Mansfield and used to
ride his bike to Mohican State Park – near Loudonville. My old
stomping grounds.
After lunch Steve decided to ride to
the Sunken Gardens. It has a very interesting history being started
by a former plumber back in 1903. Basically it had a small lake 10 feet below sea level that he drained and made into a garden. He continued to develop the gardens to a spectacular gem.
The city bought it in 1999 with the goal of preserving what had
become a beautiful and unique area a short distance from downtown St. Pete's. For the history, check the website by clicking here.
On the way are a series of HUGE banyon
trees in one of the parks just north of downtown – very close to
the boat. This is one of half a dozen of these tree.
Of course Steve seems to always have
something he wants to do or fix on the boat. The other day it was finally
time to fix the doors. The wood doors that open into the cabin have
strip of very hard plastic (on the bottom of the door) that slides on
a strip of stainless steel. After a while, junk builds up on the
plastic and makes them difficult to open (think it's the salt water spray along with dirt)
We leave in a couple of days - one more art museum we want to see tomorrow .....
Well, how could he turn away fellow
Buckeyes, right? Come on in he said – and procedeed to give us a
tour of the place!!
 |
| Lion mold for University of Arkansas at Ft. Smith. |
He was quite an interesting person.
Went to Ohio State for a degree in Fine Arts, ended up working for an
ad agency and at the age of 50 had what he termed was a 'mid-life
crisis” and started doing large scale sculptures.
His work is amazing. It includes 2
huge sculptures that stand at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado
Springs – which we actually saw when Matt and Wendy lived there for a
while. A small model can be seen in
the background of the picture below.
Jon explained how the sculptures are made - starting with making a small figure and working from that to make the full size figure mold.
Many of his works are various college
mascots with his newest that he is currently working on: the Gamecocks of the University of South Carolina - it is truly amazing. Especially when
he explained the process and what goes into making these extra large
size sculptures. (Go to his web site to see this sculpture and many more: click here. )
 |
| Steve sitting with Mark Twain |
Overall a really fun experience. I
think I'm going to encourage him to make a video of him explaining the work that goes into making a large sculpture like he makes. I would love a video :-)
Anyway, that was enough for me so back
to the boat for a break – after of course we went back to our Thai
place for lunch :-) I mean how often do we ever get here?
After lunch Steve decided to ride to
the Sunken Gardens. It has a very interesting history being started
by a former plumber back in 1903. Basically it had a small lake 10 feet below sea level that he drained and made into a garden. He continued to develop the gardens to a spectacular gem.
The city bought it in 1999 with the goal of preserving what had
become a beautiful and unique area a short distance from downtown St. Pete's. For the history, check the website by clicking here.
The Sunken Gardens included a very nice
flock of flamingos!
On the way are a series of HUGE banyon
trees in one of the parks just north of downtown – very close to
the boat. This is one of half a dozen of these tree.
Of course Steve seems to always have
something he wants to do or fix on the boat. The other day it was finally
time to fix the doors. The wood doors that open into the cabin have
strip of very hard plastic (on the bottom of the door) that slides on
a strip of stainless steel. After a while, junk builds up on the
plastic and makes them difficult to open (think it's the salt water spray along with dirt) |
| Before |
 |
| After |
A second job that has needed to be done
since we bought this boat (so 11 years) is to redo the doors on the
flybridge storage area. Really? 11 years? But they definitely look
nice now :-)
The many murals of St. Petersburg –
just a sampling, of course!
We leave in a couple of days - one more art museum we want to see tomorrow .....
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