Indian Rocks Rocks

     Uncle Jack and Mrs. U.J. spent a few more days at the beach last week but in Florida for a change. Some dear friends who recently moved to Indian Rocks Beach near St. Petersburg invited them to come down and see their new house so they did.  It's a beautiful house with palm trees all over the place and a lovely view of the water out back, beyond the swimming pool and jacuzzi and the boat dock.  This is a setting for Florida living at its most luxurious and they look forward to returning often and staying longer. According to their hosts it seldom snows in IRB which is a big point in its favor if you ask Uncle Jack.
     Indian Rocks Beach is part of a chain of barrier islands that runs for hundreds of miles down Florida's heavily developed west coast.  For reasons of history and topography it is much less awful than many Gulf resort towns like Clearwater immediately to the north where skyscraping condos and big box shopping centers have taken over. Even on the coveted gulf-front lots smallish cottages and old-fashioned two and three-story condos vastly outnumber the new and the tall.  For anyone contemplating a non-glitzy Florida getaway next winter Uncle Jack suggests that you check out Indian Rocks Beach. Nice town.
     Needless to say the residents of IRB and all the nearby towns were anxiously seeking news about the oil scourge that is steadily moving east through the gulf.  Whether or not it will impact the local beaches is a moot point at this stage but it is horrible to contemplate nonetheless. Cries of "Drill baby drill" have been blessedly muted in Florida since the big blowout.
     The formerly white sand beaches of IRB have been renourished a couple of times since 1991, a fact that is obvious to an experienced beach-watcher like Uncle Jack.  The beach is wide at the moment and quite o.k. for all normal beach activities even though the powdery sand has been replaced by a kind of gray, finely ground shell gravel barged in from a dredging project somewhere in the vicinity.  The cement-like stuff packs hard enough to resemble a sidewalk at low tide which permits bicycling along the water's edge---another strong argument for the efficacy of beach renourishment.
    

View from the back window of our friends' house in Indian Rocks Beach.  They are currently trying to decide what kind of vessel will grace their boat lift.

                                              Pool and jacuzzi. Uncle Jack was tempted to jump.

                                              Tourists living the high life in Florida.

Tourists in front of the Salvador Dali museum in St. Petersburg.  Dali was one of the great wackos of the 20th century but he did paint some fascinating pictures, many of which are housed in this building.  It will be soon replaced by another much grander structure now under construction nearby.

Top picture shows the entrance to the great pier at St. Petersburg, a true temple of commerce of the junkiest kind. Unlike Jennette's Pier it has no redeeming features if you ask Uncle Jack. Bottom pic shows the approaches to the pier house.  Only in Florida.  Or maybe California.

                                        Large-billed panhandler seeks food from our host.