Morning came early today because it was our final day on the American Glory and we had to be out of the room by 7:30am so the crew could get ready for the next batch of passengers.

We took ACL’s bus to Tampa Airport and picked up a Hertz car to drive to Singer Island and visit my brother. Our route took us through parts of Florida I’d never seen, so it was something of a relief to reach Yeehaw Junction and get onto Florida’s Turnpike until we switched to I-95 at Jupiter.

We’re staying in an AirBnB (well, not actually…the listing on AirBnB said that we could get a lower price by booking directly with FPB, the property manager). It’s an older building, with very few power outlets; I thought I had one next to my side of the bed, but I was wrong.

I’m pretty sure that’s an ancient four-pin telephone jack, something I haven’t seen for a very long time. It probably doesn’t even work!

Our excursion today took us to the Dali Museum for a docent-led tour though a small part of their collection. I’d always thought of Dali as that surrealistic painter with a mustache, but our docent Judith showed us that he was far more. We saw some of his very early works – photorealistic and cubist, among other styles.

We spent a good part of the tour looking at his surrealistic paintings (he was only a true Surrealist from 1929 to 1939, when he and the group parted ways), like The Average Bureaucrat and Eggs on the Plate Without the Plate. Judith took us on a guided tour of each of the paintings, using a flashlight to point out significant items like Dali and his father, the people from The Angelus by Millet, and more.

The Dali has a number of interactive exhibits, including one inspired by Aphrodisiac Telephone (also called Lobster Telephone), where you could ask an LLM trained on Dali’s writings to answer questions – I didn’t get a chance to try it, unfortunately.

Judith also took us through some of Dali’s later (and larger) post-WWII works which were influenced by his interest in science.

My favorite work was Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea which at Twenty Meters Becomes the Portrait of Abraham Lincoln – Homage to Rothko (Second Version), which is exactly described by the title.

Here’s what it looks like from twenty meters away.

I could have spent hours exploring the museum, but Diane’s cousin, Barb, had driven to St. Petersburg to see us. We all had lunch at The Hangar at Albert Whitted Airport (a general aviation airport between the Dali and our ship) and then took the Looper to the St. Pete Pier for walking, conversation, and a little more art.

St. Petersburg is an interesting place, well worth a return visit!