The big Tampa day started off with sleeping in. The AirBnB had a white noise machine next to the bed where the note on it said "advisable" -- being a dude that sleeps at home with an air purifier on, I am all about the machine noise. But even that didn't prevent wakeup from heavy trucks and loud motors beginning at about 8am. Regardless, I did not accept waking up until going on 10am.
Called to speak w/ judge listed for TX speeding ticket (today being 10th calendar day since received ticket). After 11 minutes of listening to the same country song on a loop (something about ""Sweet Perfection... on a rollercoaster" ... and then some bitterness about not being the woman the dude chose (or whatever)... seriously to the point in boredom of where I searched the song lyrics trying to find song title and artist (but to no avail)), the person on the call said that the officer [officer name on ticket] had not turned in tickets yet and that I should call again towards the end of next week. Said had "noted in system" that I had called. Uh, if you have no record of my ticket, how are you going to associate my call w/ the ticket? Hm.
Got myself together and headed out for the day quite a bit after 11am. Wanted to drive through downtown Tampa before heading over to Dali Museum in nearby St. Petersburg. It turned out that St. Pete is a whole other town about 20 miles from Tampa, across a long ass bridge. Not unlike San Francisco and Oakland's divided life. Who knew. No toll though. Sweet.
Had read that parking was a rip-off at $10 for the Dali Museum as well as that nearby downtown St. Pete was worth exploration, so navigated myself across and over for the ~25 minute drive to the museum, but cut left at entrance and parked in a city lot maybe 3 blocks away. Intentions were to find lunch and wander a bit, then hit museum for afternoon activity.
Wandered some and decided on marina-front dining spot that I expected to be mediocre given location, 3 star Yelp rating, and un-lit-ness (place was named "Fresco")-- and it fit right in expected dining lane. Sat at the bar in the outdoor deck of the place, ordered the fish n chips special and had it with a draft Yuengling.
Left marina-side dining spot and scouted out the Starbucks in the downtown St. Pete area -- was about 4 blocks over, 3 blocks up. Eventually found it after wandering through some between-blocks outdoor mall sections that caught my interest. Although, notable that even in the month of January, the upper 70s temperatures and ~60% humidity per my phone had me in sweat status for outdoor on foot exploration.
Had an unexpected scolding/lashing from a military vet in said ambling about downtown St. Pete. Crossing an intersection where gentleman was set up at a table soliciting donation for in-need military veterans, he asked me if I was willing to donate to veterans in-need. After shaking my head "no" as I was passing I was told "You're not in compliance with God's words, sir." Decided was one of those things to just let be -- was it worth telling said gentleman that I had donated just the day before to same cause, even getting a little US flag as a memento? Anyway, five points for him. May he sleep well tonight. And may his God be a little less judgy over the small stuff. As in like how I allocate my pocket change.
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And on to my Dali Museum experience. My whole reason for visiting Tampa (and St. Petersburg). A Starbucks cold brew coffee was procured for the walk back down to the museum. Sort of, but not fully, cooled me down from the warm sweat-inducing FL weatherbodies.
The Dali Museum building itself is pretty impressive. Walked around the whole thing before entering since I was on foot anyway. Triangle bracing giving all the structural support needed for otherwise flowing glass work along the bay-facing part of the facade that curves around to the side and front entrance.
I was prepared for it but the $24 entry fee felt a little steep. But whatever -- to see the largest collection of Dali paintings in the US, after having been turned on to art overall and Dali as an artist way-way back in my senior year of high school -- credit card was swiped and I was wrist-banded and in.
They had earphones with narration for the main collection paintings and the special Magritte-Dali exhibit going through May 2019, and I took them since they were free. Glad I did -- the perspective for some of the individual paintings in the museum was definitely added value to the experience. Elevator flight up to the 3rd floor for the exhibits and I was there to dive in.
The third floor (only floor with art) was divided into two sections -- the permanent collection on one side and the said Magritte-Dali exhibition on the other. I started with the permanent collection.
Among the notables were a painting that at "20 meters" away was Abe Lincoln, but up close was Dali's wife (nekkid) looking out from a balcony.
Also in its original authenticity was a painting I had seen other times on display but without explanation. Interesting to learn that this painting, in addition to having Venus De Milo inspiration, it too had a far-away optical illusion component. At far distances it is a matador, with green tie and red cape that takes shape if you relax/adjust your eyes.
Entirely unexpectedly was the opportunity to delve into a Dali painting as a 3D experience, thanks to none other than Oculus VR, LLC. This is officially my work life crossing over into my personal life -- I worked on a research contract with Oculus VR just this past year that we signed mid-year. And also discussed a contract for a scope of work that may or may not work out for the coming term.
Anyway, it was the opportunity to delve into the painting "Archaeological Reminiscence of Millet’s “Angelus”" for an exact 180 seconds. I was like 6 people back in line when I got there and it went pretty quickly with two different viewing "stations."
The website at https://thedali.org/exhibit/dreams-vr/ explains it better than I, but suffice to say was pretty cool. Was tempted to get back in line to do it a second time.
I headed over to the special exhibit, which ended up being set up primarily as individual side by side comparisons of each artist's work dealing with a particular topic. In this collection I saw another painting I was familiar with (was surprised though for how small it was):
There were also some mixed media art on display in addition to paintings. More for the Venus de Mio form from Dali but with all of the tiny home ingenuity, on the human form (drawers for storage)
The most surprising piece of art on display was a shoe that Dali had created: "Surrealist Object Functioning Symbolically-Gala's Shoe." Immediately took me back to my high school art class project, where we were to each pick a "used" show out of a box and create an artistic piece that represented a famous artist.
For the project (I remember it was titled "Sole of an Artist"), the artist that I picked was Salvador Dali (after perusing numerous art magazines and info on famous artists). And the shoe that I picked from the box was the single high heeled women's pump heel. Such a trip to see this.
Anyway, the special exhibit ended with an interactive sky experience, with speaker sound effects that punctuated the aural space with occasional deep relief "ahhhhh" sighs.
And finally, after that, opportunity to use your cameras & phones to take pics of oneself inside a Dali painting. I must thank the older couple who were using the station before me for helping me figure out how to get it to work. Basically you used your hand to get the camera to do a 3 second countdown to take your pic, then you had 8 seconds to snap a pic of the pic on screen for your own use. The couple said I look scarier in the pic on the screen than I do in real life. Ha.
A few more shots of the interior.
After all my museum-ing, and a good solid amount of time spent in the 1st floor gift shop, I headed back to my car, but only after walking out to the promenade park area and catching sightline looking back towards downtown St. Petersburg.
Navigation had it that it would take me ~40 minutes to get from downtown St. Petersburg back to my place in Tampa on account of traffic. En route I stopped each for gas and at a Target for more provisions on the St. Pete side before getting on the bridge where said traffic snarl-ups began.
Made it back to my place soon enough, and got to the business of figuring out my Atlantic Ocean destination digs for the next part of my trip. Friend #3 had recommended that I check out Daytona Beach instead of Jacksonville as my East Coast destination city, and in reading up w/ all things considered decided to take the leap and switch out my East Coast city destination. Would be roughly extra hour drive time on Friday to get myself from FL coast to Birmingham, AL for Friend #4 visit, but with it already being 7 hours -- one extra hour should be manageable.
Ended up going hotel for the two nights -- booked Daytona Beach's highest rated hotel/resort per TripAdvisor, no less. Although surely the time of year is playing in to the not-baller status nightly rate I secured for an oceanfront room w/ a balcony.
Dinner this night ended up being a bit of a debacle. Had wanted to check out the one brewery here within walking distance for dinner, but in walking there -- found out that the entire interior was under construction, and only beer was being served in outdoor patio on account of said construction.
I had walked by my original choice #2 and noted that it was completely dead (a Cuban/Italian spot, selected based on notes from AirBnB hosts and my own quick Yelping), which made me not want to pull trigger on being sole later dinner diner. So -- stopped at 7-Eleven en route back to walk to tiny house for some house beer, and ordered up some delivery sushi thanks to Uber Eats.
Sushi place was also on AirBnB hosts' list -- another spot closeby, maybe 1/2 mile way. Went back and forth on just walking back out to it but decided was feeling tired enough that didn't want to walk anywhere else.
Dinner splurge yielded me California Roll for the Californian in me, Shrimp Tempura Roll cuz I like those a lot, and the El Pollito roll cuz it had fried chicken and sounded decadent and unique to the South. All 3 were solid choices.
Spent the rest of the home evening here updating this blog with the last 3 days (need to get a solid morning coffee routine going) and grooving out to Spotify tunes in this tiny house. I admit am getting home ideas: Lots of smart use of space for under stairs, bathroom, and wall cut-aways for shelving. All the DIY home ideas germinating in the Tampa tiny house for my final Gulf Coast night.
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