A recent post I made on my travel blog about visiting the concentration camps (would you, or wouldn’t you?) reminded me about The Florida Holocaust Museum located in downtown St. Petersburg. When I was in college a few years ago, I spent an afternoon there by myself as part of an assignment, and now that my children are a bit older, I’d like to take them to experience the museum. There’s a new Anne Frank exhibit starting on September 29th, and running through December 23rd, and I think it’s an excellent way to show my children a bit of history. My girls have read books about Anne Frank, and my son understands a bit about World War II, so this will be a little more knowledge for them.

A History For Today will show the history of Anne Frank and the family’s story before and after the Nazi reign. The exhibit will feature photographs taken by family patriarch Otto Frank of his young daughters, Anne and Margaret. Many of the 70 photographs in the collection have never been seen before. This exhibit will be located on the 2nd floor.

Downstairs, you’ll find the regular exhibit, which at the time I visited, included a real boxcar used to transport Holocaust victims to the concentration camps. The main exhibits include pictures and artifacts from the time, and it’s a very sobering experience. The museum is a place for quiet reflection and reverence, and I urge you NOT to take children who can’t act appropriately.

The Florida Holocaust Museum is located at 55 Fifth Street in St. Petersburg, FL. The museum is open from 10am til 5pm every day, but they are closed on Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Admission is $8 for adults, $7 for seniors and college students, and $4 for students under 18. Children under 16 must be with an adult. Cell phone use, photography, video, and audio recordings are not permitted. Parking is free.

My birthday is Saturday. I’m sure that it will be a much more low key affair than it was last year, when I turned 30. 31 just isn’t as exciting.

I got to thinking about another birthday party I had, I think it was my 7th or 8th birthday. At that time, my parents, along with another couple, owned a small ice cream shop on Patricia Avenue in Dunedin, FL. If you ever went into Gee Whilikers (it might have been spelled G. Whillikers, I’m not sure) around 1983, or 1984, I was probably there. When you’re that age, having your birthday party in an ice cream store that your parents own is pretty darn cool. My parents gave us unlimited credit on the video games, which were Centipede, Tron, and Ms. Pac-Man. We had a coloring contest and ate a lot of ice cream.

The store was never a big hit, and it was a lot of work, so they sold it pretty soon after that. I’m happy I got at least one party there, and it’s probably why I still prefer ice cream cake on my birthday!

My husband’s high school reunion is in a week. I’ll be spending the weekend with him, schmoozing the Gulf High Class of 1987 at a resort on Clearwater Beach. Jim suggested riding the bike from our house to the beach for the weekend, but as fun as that sounds, I vetoed it pretty quickly. One, if it rains, we’re screwed. Two, I will have too much stuff packed for the weekend to tote on my back on the motorcycle.

It will be my first time out to Clearwater Beach in a LONG time. I don’t think we’ve been since they opened the new bridge! I heard they did away with the roundabout out there, is that true?

Honeymoon Island State Park and Caladesi Island are 2 of my favorite beaches. If you haven’t been to these Dunedin beaches yet, now is a great time, because a new nature center opened this morning at Honeymoon Island. The nature center features exhibits and videos about the history of the island and the current residents (most of the 4 legged variety). You can walk nature trails before heading to the beach, picnic areas, and playgrounds. You can also schedule hikes with a guide.

The new center is open daily from 9am til 5pm.

I was listening to Sirius (HairNation) on the way home from dinner tonight (PF Changs at Westshore Mall - yum!) and heard that Winger is doing tour dates in Florida this week. The band will be in St. Pete at the State Theater on Sunday, 2/11 at 7pm. Tickets can be yours on Ticketmaster for $14.99 to $18.00 plus fees. I’m just the right age to remember Winger…they were huge when I was in middle school and high school. Who could forget “Easy Come Easy Go”? “Seventeen”?

The State is a neat place to see your old rock idols too - it’s a small enough club that you can really enjoy the show. We were lucky enough to see Warren Zevon there several years ago, and Jill Sobule (she had the song “I Kissed A Girl” make it big in the 90’s) appeared that night as well. This was before Warren Zevon was diagnosed with inoperable mesothelioma, so we never imagined it would be our only chance to see him. But what a night it was - small venue, great songs…and he and Jill did a duet of “Up Where We Belong”, which was made famous by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes in “An Officer & A Gentleman”. It was an amazing night.

Technorati Tags: The State, Winger, St. Pete, Warren Zevon, Jill Sobule, St. Petersburg, Ticketmaster

I had the chance to visit Countryside Mall recently, and I got to thinking about all of the changes it’s seen over the past 30 years. I’m a child of the “mall era”, and I’ve been visiting Countryside Mall since I was a baby, which was just a year after the mall was built in 1975. It was one of a kind at the time, with two levels of indoor stores. Maas Brothers was the first store to open, on the south side of the mall, in the current Macy’s location. (First it was Maas Brothers, then Burdines, and now it’s Macy’s). Robinson’s opened opposite Maas Brothers in 1976, and that spot has also been occupied by Maison Blanche and is now a Dillard’s. Sears and JC Pennys have always been in their current locations.

I remember when the mall featured tan and brown tiles, and the ice skating rink in the center (aptly named, Centre Ice) was THE place to be seen on a weekend. I remember when there wasn’t a food court, but there WAS a McDonald’s downstairs. I remember when we didn’t have a Ruby Tuesday’s, but instead, a BrewMaster’s Steakhouse. I also remember the mall being redecorated in the late 80’s - the brown and tan tiles were replaced with pink and blue, and cloud murals were painted on the ceilings.

Now, Westfield owns Countryside Mall, and despite attempting to turn it into a “Westfield Shopping Town”, the residents of Clearwarer still call it Countryside Mall. And it still remains my favorite mall in the Tampa Bay area.

This years Martin Luther King, Jr. parade in St. Petersburg is one of the biggest in the country. Parade officials estimate that spectators from from as far away as South Florida and Georgia, and attendance will be as high as 50,000.

The parade began at 1:15pm today at Third Avenue S. and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street, and will be ending at Vinoy Park. The FAMU marching band will not appear this year due to a scheduling conflict.

It’s amazing to me that a city with so much racial unrest is able to put on such a spectacular event honoring Dr. King. What do you think?

It’s hard to feel Christmas-y with the warm weather we’ve got going on right now - not to mention all of the rain yesterday! Driving around looking at lights always puts me in the right frame of mind, so I wanted to share this video of a home in Largo, FL with lights and music synchronized together. Enjoy!

One thing I miss about my old hometown of Tarpon Springs is the Christmas lights. Every year, the city put lights on all of the telephone poles running the length of Tarpon Avenue. From US 19 to the head of the bayou, every few feet would be a Christmas tree, or a cross, or some other symbol of the holiday. Once you arrived in downtown, the trees lining the antique shops would be strung with white lights. And when you reached the stop sign at the head of the bayou, you could look across the water to see a huge Christmas tree.

On Christmas Eve, luminaries would be placed along the entire bayou, and they would be lit at dusk. We always loved to see them on our drive home from Mass at St. Ignatius of Antioch.

I’m a little homesick for Tarpon Springs right now.