St. Petersburg to the Manatee River

Highwaymen Art

We are headed southeast and had time for a little more sightseeing before we headed out, so one more trip into beautiful St. Petersburg.  We went to the Historical Museum right across the street from the marina.  They had displays about the history of St. Pete (naturally) and a nice display on the art of the “Florida Highwaymen”, a distinctive group of African American artists who were trying to make a living in the 20’s and developed a distinctive style of painting Florida landscapes. 

There was also a display of the world’s largest collection of signed baseballs – which actually did prove to be interesting. They had over 4,600 balls with signatures from Babe Ruth and Ted Williams to Anastasia, a player with the Racine Belles, a women’s baseball team during WWII.  The featured display was about the first scheduled commercial airline flights in the US – from St. Pete to Tampa in 1914.  By land the trip took 12 hours, by train it was over 2 hours and by air it was a 20 minute flight.  This January they will celebrate the 100^th anniversary of that first flight.

St. Petersburg harbor

Around noon we departed from the St. Petersburg Municipal Marina and decided it may be our favorite stop so far on the loop.  Future Loopers – make the trip up Tampa Bay and spend some time in St. Pete, you will be so glad you did.

It was only a 3 hour trip across Tampa Bay, under the Sunshine Skyway, to reach Palmetto, which is a few miles up the Manatee River.  Our destination was the Riviera Dunes Marina, where we had been invited to a “crossing our wake” party by Jeff and Patty on ‘Osprey’.  Riviera Dunes is a beautiful marina, first class all the way with floating docks, a beautiful restaurant, condominiums and residences as part of the resort – and a nice dock area with grills and tables for those gathered to enjoy.

There were 12 people to celebrate with Osprey and a good time was had by all.

Sunshine Bridge, I-275

Riviera Dunes Entrance