In fact, I cannot even remember the last time I have seen one of these. It is the classic analog clock-style indicator of which floor the elevator is in. This is in the Vinoy hotel.

Where and when have you last seen one of these?

Upon Sandra’s advise, we hit the historic district of Pass-A-Grille after getting up in the morning. And walked up to St. Pete beach. The water looked beautiful and the beach was filled with shells.

May of 2007. We still were living in Dallas. The last vacation we took from Dallas was to the Smoky Mountains. The girls were really young (9 and 3). Our live in nanny Nancy was traveling with us too.

On our way back home, we stayed overnight in a hotel in Atlanta. Next morning, Sandra met us in the hotel and introduced herself as the real estate agent assigned to us to help in our relocation to Atlanta. That morning was spent getting to know each other and trying to scope out what kind of house we would be looking to buy.

That started our friendship of two decades. The last time I saw her was probably when we had called the previous owners of the house and her over to have lunch with us in our house. After that, it was mostly phone calls – sending references, birthday calls and so on.

She then moved to New York and subsequently to St. Pete.

It was so great to see Sandra after such a long time. Like that first meeting, this time too she gave us a good lay of the land in terms of real estate in St. Pete. Also some more places to visit in and around St. Pete. We will hit those areas tomorrow before we head back home!!

I had never heard of this town north of Clearwater. Sandra had texted us to visit this place. The cute downtown lived up to the expectations she had set. Very pretty. The best find was this waterside restaurant called Bon Appetit. The food was incredibly good. I will have to come back here again.