Was this the first time Regent docked in the USA?  After arriving on time into Miami it took them an extra hour to begin disembarking and it was havoc.  Fortunately we had a lot of luggage so hired a porter which entitled us to cut to the front of immigration queue. 

We efficiently rented a car from Sixt at the Intercontinental Hotel and only discovered a crack in the windshield after we were on our way to St. Pete.  Fortunately no difficulty with the windshield along the way, though the crack did expand all the way across the windshield by the time we returned the car on the 29th in Tampa.

After arriving at Paul Merada's home in St. Petersburg, he made us dinner and we had a quiet night at home.

On Wednesday we worked out with Paul at Crunch, which was huge, packed and played fantastic music. 

Then we had lunch with Sher & Kevin and Colton.  Poor Bella was excited to see us but her hips are failing and she had difficulty standing. Dinner was with Marsha & Rhett.

Thursday we had lunch at Mazzaro’s where David enjoyed has his first Italian wedding soup.  We collected food from Mazzaro and Publix and later spent a few hour setting everything up for the evening’s party.

Jeff & Kevin arrived at around 4:30 pm and the rest of the gang showed up between 5 pm and 6:30 pm.  And we closed it all down around 10 pm.  Big partiers we are— not!  It was nice to see Cary & Christy White, Dennis Ryzcek, Karen Ryzcek Lucas and her husband Bill, Kitty Merada, Wilson, John & Nicole Costa and other friends of Marsha.  Since we missed celebrating David’s big birthday in January and Sher’s in February all together, plus Marsha’s birthday was the week prior, and mine the next, we celebrated all the birthdays in one go. The food was really good, and enough for the next three months, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. 

Friday was relaxed then dinner at Mar & Rhett’s. Saturday was lunch with the family at the Angry Pepper.  Then Paul and I walked over a few blocks to catch a few minutes of the St. Petersburg Pride Parade which we are told is the largest in Florida.  Very crowded and colourful.  By Sunday it was time to fly to New York. In the morning we dropped off the car and had breakfast at the Hard Rock Cafe at the airport with Steve Salzer.

Marsha is happy to have changed firms. Her prior firm set unrealistic goals and she feels that her new firm is much more realistic as to what can actually be accomplished.  Rhett has started in customer service at a bank and he finds people much nicer to work with than at the cable company.  He guesses they are more kind as the bank holds their money!

Paul is less busy at the Vinoy but he is chipper as always and was the consummate host.

As usual, it was great to catch up with family & friends in St. Pete.