June 13, 2011 -- A Visit to the St. Pete Pier

I feel very fortunate to be able to share, with Quintin, so many special memories of my own childhood. I lived my entire life in a beautiful home in St. Petersburg's Old Northeast. When I moved to Zephyrhills with Kevin, I learned to appreciate its own special beauty -- mainly, its many green spaces and plentiful wildlife. I still feel a deep connection with St. Petersburg, however, and am blessed to be able to enjoy both cities! These photos were taken on a day when I brought my wonderful grandmother to a women's group meeting at the St. Pete Pier. While she enjoyed lunch at The Columbia, Quintin and I fed the pelicans -- an activity Grandmother had introduced me to as a young child. (As a side note: Grandmother hated the thought of me touching raw fish, and was not really a fan of the pooping, crowding birds at all -- it was, rather, a testament to her indulgent love for her grandchildren that we ever fed those pelicans!). There are some other things from that day that I remember -- that I spent most of the time on the phone working to get our private insurance arranged and started, so that my attention was divided between a health agent asking invasive questions and my precious son, who was trying to get me to watch him "play" (minus quarters) the arcade games at the Pier; that my grandmother was getting quite frail, and that despite this, she insisted on walking from the front of the Pier to the rear, because Quintin was begging for ice cream and because she wanted to get my husband some special fudge that he'd expressed a love of. Again, I'm reminded of how quickly things change: The Pier just closed its doors, two weeks ago, for a final time while city officials argue over its fate; and, we buried my grandmother's precious body at the start of this year. How glad I am for these shining photos -- for the joy of those captured moments with my beautiful boy!