#37 Badass Merry Anniversary: Scooters, Manatees, and Vampire Penguin

One year ago today, Emily and Oliver helped me move into my new place in St. Petersburg.

One year ago, I had no idea how wonderful life would be here and how good a fit it would be for me -- the lifestyle, the ocean and beauty of this area, being close to Mom and Dad (and Marshmallow), my job and amazing co-workers, and of course all of the adventures.

One year ago, I didn't know how many cherished friends I would make here.

One year ago, I didn't know how I would reconnect wth friends from my past.

One year ago, I didn't realize that I needed to rediscover the things that make me who I am.

One year ago, I never would have called myself a "Bad Ass".

So today Emily and I celebrated this year with a "Merry Anniversary Bad Ass Adventure" day with each thing we did having special meaning.

We started out with going to our favorite place to get coffee -- Wawa. All my Penn friends remember Wawa as the place to go to buy Bartle & James wine coolers and Piels's beer with hoagies at 2am. But here, Wawa is our favorfite place for take-out caffeinated goodness. Last December, we discovered the wonders of Wawa's online ordering and curbside delivery and became addicated. True, there are nicer coffee places downtown St. Pete (and I think by this point I've been to all of them), but none of them have the same je ne sais quoi of Wawa. My St. Pete's peeps know what I'm talking about.

Then we headed downtown to do the thing I've wanted to do since arriving one year ago -- take a city scooter for a ride.

Honestly, I was a bit concerned about my clutziness and being on a tippy scooter in a busy city street and I confessed this to Em. Emily confidently said, "Well, you might have trouble but I can guarantee I'll be able to drive it absolutely fine right off the bat". Ha!

Well, joke's on her because after we both found our scooters, I started zipping around on mine while she was having a slow start. She couldn't seem to get it to go, even with trying to push-start it. All of a sudden, she starts to crack up and realized that she never actually snapped the QR code to turn it on. After she did, she was right -- she took off and it was smooth sailing for her and for me.

These are surprisingly easy to ride -- wide foot board so both feet could be side by side along with a little seat in case you wanted to be a little more stable. And you couldn't help but smile as you rode. It was just THAT much fun!

The rules were very clear -- no riding on sidewalks, no riding in parks, no riding by the water front. But in my mind, I thought, "Well, who's going to stop us?" and fully anticipated being a rule breaker by riding along the seawall of Vinoy Park. Until I realized that if you went into a restricted area, the scooter would shut itself off. And if you started to get close to the area, it started booming loudly in a very repremandish voice to "TURN AROUND. YOU ARE ALMOST OUT OF BOUNDS. TURN AROUND". Whoever built this system was a freaking genius!

We had a grand time jetting all over the city. It was reminiscent of Badass Adventure #4 where Emily and I took the Scoot Coupe around town. People were just as friendly and loved calling out to us as we were driving. One guy put out his thumb to hitchhike. A woman came running out of her store to tell me she liked my badass t-shirt and stayed to take pictures for us.

We even made friends with this guy who had his truck fully decorated for Christmas with a full-sized Santa mannequin in the front seat and another in the pickup bed. Ok...not friends exactly, but we kept bumping into him around town and finally I asked him if it was ok to take a picture of his truck. He kind of garbled something that sounded like, "Yeah, sure, knock yourself out, have a good day". Or maybe he said, "Melekelikimaka is the thing to say". Couldn't tell, but he seemed happy that I liked his truck so much.

And one big life lesson was learned. I was zipping along the bike path when I realized that Emily hadn't caught up. I circled back where she was crouched on the curb by the scooter. Turns out her skirt got caught in the gears and she was totally stuck. We managed to free her, and the thought of the gears totally ripping off her skirt sent me in fits of giggles for the rest of the day.

St. Pete is full of beautiful murals, and as part of our scooter adventure, we tried to find as many murals as we could to take selfies in front of them. My favorite is the one with the smiley-faced underpants.

After we returned the scooters to the corral, we decided to head to Vinoy Park, where Emily and I learned how to fish together with Bo. I love this park -- remember on my badass 50th birthday, I went there to see the sunrise. And it's where the Badass Gang and I went for the annual Shopalooza festival a few weeks ago.

Today, when we got to the park, there was a line of people standing on the seawall pointing into the water. We struck gold, because there was not only a pod of dolphins swimming close to the wall but there was also a family of manatees. The dolphins dove in and out of the water and swam right below us along the edge of the seawall. The manatees were snoozing (remember Bad Ass Adventure #2 where we learned how manatees sleep vertically and surface every few minutes for air? That's what they were doing). Their noses would break the surface, they would blow out some air, and then slowly sink back down. I couldn't believe how lucky we were to see all of these wonderful creatures today of all days. It's like they were celebrating with us!

After that, we headed to Walgreens to get Emily a COVID test (which was negative -- another reason to celebrate) and we got into a seriously amazing talk about really deep and important things. Truly one of the best parts of the day!

Heading next to the pool, we bounced back and forth between being in the sun (man...it's hot out here) and being in the shade (wow...it's a little chilly here). But sitting in the warmth and the cool were both soothing and relaxing and reminded me of a year ago when we tried to do the same thing. However, at that time the weather wasn't so warm since it was in the low 40s and we didn't last very long sitting by the pool.

We decided to get takeout from the first place we got takeout from when we moved here: The Floribbean. The Floribbean is on Central Ave in the Arts district and is kind of a carribean flavored Chiptotle. The food is amazing but the best thing they have is their Coconut Lime Ginger drink. Yum!

AND THEN WE BOTH FELL INTO A DEEP NAP which was heavenly! I do love a good nap. Do I sound elderly when I say that?

Next, we headed to our favorite ice cream place called Vampire Penguin. Actually, it's not ice cream but rather shaved ice that is a pillow of light sweetness that instantly melts in your mouth. Mine was chocolate with mango boba and Emily got Strawberry Cheesecake.

To end this amazing day, we put on Spotify's playlist titled "Christmas Coffee Shop" for a mellow holiday music backdrop as we drove around downtown St. Pete's to look at the beatiful Christmas lights.

Emily, you gave me such a gift today. I had an incredible time celebrating with you!!! (And please, never ever forget the unicycle rider that was so jaw dropping that we stopped our conversation mid-sentence and just stared at him crossing the street). I love you dearly!

And I would be remiss to not include an event that happened yesterday where Oliver joined us virtually do do our annual Christmas Game Day. These kids...how much fun I have with them, and what great sports they are!

Every year, I try to create a new game theme for giving out gifts and celebrating the day. This is the first time we were trying to do it virtually. The kids competed against each other to win gift cards and scratch-off lottery tickets. They had to have toilet paper races, virtual rock-paper-scissors contests, How I Met Your Mother trivia challenges, and a Zoom background decorating competition.

My heart is full with love for these two, who have been a sourse of everlasting love, support, and laughter. I love you so much, Emmy and Ollie. You are the best people ever invented and I am blessed to be your mom.

So this truly and for real is the last bad ass adventure before Christmas, so I will once again wish all of you a joyous, adventurous and peaceful holiday with love from me.