July 29: St. Petersburg, Florida, Day 2

Dear Friends and Relatives,

Boy, I thought Dallas and Houston were humid, but I believe St. Petersburg is even more so.  However, with a really good night of sleep behind me, i woke refreshed and ready to go.  We had an excellent breakfast of fruit salad, British muffins, and soft-boiled eggs as well as yogurt with honey, coffee, and pomegranate juice.  As clouds were beginning to roll in, Nancy and I took our umbrellas and started on our trek of the day.  Our first venue was the Chihuly Collection, sponsored by the Morean Arts Center.  The Collection is a stunning permanent exhibit of world-renowned artist Dale Chihuly's unique artwork.  This presentation is one-of-a-kind, as it is the first installation of Chihuly art in a building designed specifically for that purpose.  It is designed so that the art and architecture work together to create a visual experience.  The Collection is marked at the entrance by an iconic 20ft. sculpture created especially for the site. 

The Collection includes Chihuly's spectacular large-scale installations such as "Ruby Red Icicle Chandelier," created especially for the Collection, along with several other popular series works, including "Macchia," "Ikebana," "Niijima Floats," "Persians," and "Tumbleweeds".  The visual experience is a knockout!  

Chihuly was a pioneer of the studio glass movement, and is credited with transforming the methods of creating glass, leading to the development of complex, multi-part glass sculptures which always astonish, no matter how many times one sees them.  I had seen many of his glass sculptures at the Dallas Arboretum, but I never tire of viewing them again, in a different setting.  

I bought Alexandra a glass gift at the end of the tour and before we moved on to have lunch across the street, at the City Bistro.  There, we had the special soup of the day, a potato soup with leek and bacon, and half a chicken salad sandwich, along with a very fine root beer.  

From there we went to the Morean Art Center, a few doors down, to see the works of area artists in all kinds of different media.  I was able to find a wonderful, whimsical set of earrings for Alexandra's upcoming birthday.  At the end of that tour we were off to the Hotspot, following the process of creating a glass art object.  Two glassblowers took us from gathering the molten glass from the furnace, working it on the pontil pipe and glory hole, and cooling down the object in the annealing kiln.  We viewed the gaffer blowing glass, while the assistant narrated the science behind glass and the artistic vision guiding the process and all of the steps involved as the work is being produced.  Afterwards, we went to the adjoining Hot Shop store, where I bought a beautiful yellow Christmas ornament in glass.  

Then we were off to a lovely arcade of shops closeby, where we stopped at an Indian shop and Nancy bought a yellow/green dress and I bought a purple shirt.  Everything was on 25% off sale.  From there we stopped at an ice cream emporium, where Nancy had ice cream featuring peanut butter and chocolate chunks, and I had coffee ice cream, both of which were scrumptious.  While there, a squall passed through and we experienced a heavy rain.  It did not last too long, however, and soon we were off to our last stop of the day--the Morean Center for Clay, located in an historic train station.  There we saw an exhibit of local artists' pottery of all kinds, and where we viewed kilns and pottery wheels.  

From there we drove home, enjoyed some time showing off the wares we had bought to Jim, who seemed to enjoy them all.  We prepared a late-afternoon Happy Hour consisting of various kinds of soft cheeses, flax chips, crackers, hummus, various kinds of dips, and juices/wines.  Cleaning the kitchen afterwards was followed by a slide presentation of Nancy and Jim's photos of France and Ireland and my photos of St. Petersburg, Russia.  Since I have 1058 slides, and nobody in his/her right mind wants to see all of them in one sitting, we will see the rest another day.  Right now, everyone is pursuing little chores and concerns, and I am doing my blog.  Terribly humid tonight, and more rain predicted for tomorrow.  Good day today, however!  I am really psyched about being with these friends again!  As ever, Sylvia V.