j.jireh adventures: day #3-St. Petersburg time

sleeping in is a luxury i took for granted during much of college. a daily occurence here in fl for the Henrys.
day three- yesterday- we went in to st. petersburg to experience the city in all its glory. armed with more than a handful of tourist pamphlets, magazines, and printouts, we arrived at the Pier to get some lunch and sift through the literature to choose our top things to do while in the ciy. Good ole st. petersburg is not to be confused with st.pete- a beautiful beach at the tip of the islands we are staying on... no-st. petersburg is a adorable little city more towards the mainland, but still nestled on the bay.
after arriving at the Pier we were apprehended at the visitors center by an eager, and informative lady. She enlightened us about the awesome trolley in town they call the "looper" It runs a full loop around downtown for only a quarter a ride. It has a guided tour and stops at all the main hot spots for you to jump off, or on. We took full advantage of this during our day.
before we set out though, empty bellys took priority. We decided to check out the Columbia- a spanish restaurant on the 4th floor of the Pier. We shared a plate of an empanada, roast pork, boliche, and plantains. very good.

the most intersting part, however, would have to be the dessert I talked Jeff into getting. We are on mission to find the best Creme Brulle in Nashville, and our search has moved to Fl for the week. The Columbia had what they called "Crema Catalana." When we requested it I thought I detected a little gleam in our waiter's eye. A few minutes later he returned with a shallow dish of cream.. and a blow torch. He sprinkled sugar over the cream and then lived out a pyromaniac's dream, right there next to the linen napkins and multiple forks. Even the fussy old lady two tables down stopped complaining long enough to watch our beautiful dessert being created. While this version of our favorite dessert did not win the prize as the best we've had... it got 5 stars for the entertainment value...
Th Looper became our new best friend. We got a 50 cent tour of the city and later were spared walking hundreds of blocks as we visited different places. I will have to say that as much as we tried to prepare for this trip by resaerching things online, we didn't pay as much attention to the closing times as we should have. After checking out the Baywalk shopping area, we ambled over to the Museum of Fine Arts... a full twenty minutes before they closed. So we dejectedly crossed the street to at least find a cup of coffee for Jeff and happened upon this amazing Gelato place...

A cup of Bacio, Baileys, and Dulce de Leche... and who knows how many calories later... we set out for the Dali museum with renewed energy. We hopped on the Looper and then was dropped off with four blocks to walk. We were greeted by a less than hospitable lady at "customer service" asking us if we knew the museum closed in half an hour without even a hello. Apparently our huge amount of tourist literature still had the summer hours on it. A bit frustrated at our second failed attempt at being artsy, we took a pic on a Dali-esque bench outside and walked the 6 blocks back to the Baywalk.

Although things didn't go as we had hopd- museum-wise... it gave us a good opportunity to do something i had hoped to get to do this trip. a new movie came out this week called Fireproof... its by the same people that made Facing the Giants, and Flywheel. We may not have gotten to see the Indian Jewelry at the MFA or some really weird paintings at the Dali... but we did see a very powerful movie at the Muvico 20. I cried, Jeff cried... it was really a great movie.. we highly recommend it. www.fireproofthemovie.com
Afterwards we finally succeeded in doing one thing we planned, checking out a tapas restaurant called Ceviche. Probably one of the most creative and delicious places we've eaten at. Tapas is a Spanish dish that is basically like an appetizer. Each person chooses two tapas and shares with everyone else. We had to wait 40 minutes to get in, and it was worth every minute. I had the "Tabla de Quesos" a wooden cheese block covered in five different cheeses, pears, grapes and figs. That was my fav.

I also had ground veal stuffed roasted red peppers, which was Jeff's fav. He ordered Atun Estilo Tartaro, which turned out to be a big ball of raw tuna mixed with capers and spices. I tried a nibble, it was... intersting :). He bravely ate it all. He also ordered Cangrejos de las Casa, a Crab cake on a slice of tomato.. much better, thankfuly cooked.