When we last left our hero, he had been drinking a lot in Florida. That theme will continue on day two, but not until later. He has things to do.
I mentioned the great location of the Hyatt Place in St. Petersburg. Just a few blocks from the water, you can enjoy a pleasant morning walk by Tampa Bay. It's full of water, which seems like a requirement to be a bay, and water is usually nice to look at. 
And you can see more water! And a fountain!
And if that fountain doesn't do it for you, then there is also the fountain of youth! You may associate that with the Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon. Or not, depending on your level of interest in Florida history. In either case, that ain't this one. In 1901, Edwin Thomlinson had a well dug and whose waters seemed to make people seem very happy and relaxed. Perhaps it was a magical elixir bubbling up from magical ground, or maybe it was the high lithium content in the water that did it. Unfortunately, the water is now plain old city tap water.
Those are just a few of the sites you can see on a walk. And those were about the only ones I saw because I needed to get back to enjoy a standard hotel breakfast before we began our most active day of the trip. We took a Lyft and headed across town to St. Pete Biking where we joined our history tour (on bikes!) with guide Steve. The tour took us along the Pinellas Trail, a trail that spans St. Petersburg, from bay to Ocean if one is inclined to do the whole things.
Our tour started at the bike shop and headed east to downtown. I heard much about sordid history of Tropicana Field (gasp!). About how the U Haul building on 1st Avenue South was the last remaining building of a collection of stores that would draw people from miles around. And that spring training and the New York Yankees was what put St. Petersburg on the map. That's why tour guides make the big bucks.
You know what biking does? Makes me hungry. Thus, we headed to Bodega on Central for some highly rated (according to Google Maps) Cuban food, a category of dining we don't have in Traverse City. When one gets to BoC, one orders at the window and the food is brought to one. BoC also has booze, and a mango wheat went nicely with my lechon sandwich.
That began the afternoon siesta to enjoy a break in this action-packed day.
Well-rested, and surprisingly hungry for dinner despite the large sandwiches, we journeyed to the St. Pete Pier, the city's most popular tourist attraction. While researching St. Pete, I saw that Doc Ford's was name the best casual restaurant in 2023. For the entire country! That sounded impressive, and their seafood-heavy menu looked right up our alley, so with our reservation in the computer, we headed over. Pro tip: Make a reservation. The place was packed.
And with good reason. The food did not disappoint. The missus had the recommended Yucatan Shrimp which I was happy to see because I wanted a taste. My macadamia nut crusted grouper was excellent. The drinks were tasty and reasonably priced, always appreciated.
Being party animals, and it was only 7:30, we walked to the end of the pier. This was our best chance to enjoy being outside because the weather was scheduled to turn cold the next day. It wasn't particularly warm this day either, but we had things to do. Our target at the end of the pier was Pier Tiki on the top floor.
The building may not look tiki-ish, but once you get up there, they made the effort to bring the South Pacific to Florida. Mission accomplished.
Being from Michigan, if you want to be around lots of Michiganders, go to Florida. As we sipped our drinks watching the amazing views of St. Petersburg, a bachelor party from the Great Lakes State showed up at our table. One of them lived in Bath where I went to high school, a rural community north of Lansing.
A few things about Pier Teaki. You pay for the view - you will not find those reasonable Doc Ford prices here. They have a number of specialty drinks and the Florida Hemingway is not one I would recommend, but the Pier Teaki Rum Rummer was very good - go with that one. The bill includes a service fee. Our bartended did point that out which I appreciated.
Anyway, the view. Pretty amazing if I do say so myself.
This is a long post and if you reached the end, congratulations. Leave a comment bragging about your ability to tolerate mediocre blog posts. You'll win nothing, but I appreciate your steadfastness.