Oh St. Pete.

So, Steph, me and her hubby Patrick set out to explore lovely downtown St. Petersburg on our bicycles yesterday afternoon.

As we rode down 1st South, I noticed something a little strange even for the burg. It would seem that every highschool marching band in the tri-county area was lined up facing Central. Scattered amongst the pained faces of these adolescents were clowns dressed in full costume, driving around in their little clown cars. All the streets east of 16th were closed and, apparently, the city was preparing for a parade! How quaint. I'm assuming this had something to do with the Honda Grand Prix (http://www.gpstpete.com/) that is to take over our fine city this weekend.

You mean to say that the streets will be flooded with race car fans. And that i'll be awakened every morning by the sound of very, very loud cars and the smell of burning rubber?! All in the hopes of further boosting our economy and bringing more tourists in to ruin our little paradise? Oh, joy.

And yes, i'll be attending.

Anyways, we skirted into the parade lines quite easily via bike and managed a front row spot just in time to see a caddy drive by with a large magnet that read "Mayor Rick Baker". Awesome. But Mr. Baker wasn't actually in the car. No sir, he was walking by and shaking the hands of all the fine citizens of St. Petersburg. That is until he reached the three of us. At which point he waved, backed away nervously and jumped back into the caddy. Maybe we were really stinky from riding our bicycles.

Patrick and I accidentallyonpurpose joined the parade for a block before moving on to the Cider House where I drank a hundred beers and knitted a bit of my scarf.