Florida Orange Groves Winery

Outside the winery, facing Pasadena Boulevard

TripPix.

We've gone by Florida Orange Groves Winery many times on our way to our from a destination across the Corey Causeway between St. Pete Beach and South Pasadena. We never stopped until today, when Trudy suggested we visit on this very rainy Tuesday.

Gift shop

We arrived just as a tour was beginning. Our guide was the very knowledgeable Vince Schnook, who owns the winery with his parents. The operation was different from wineries we've been to in France and the Napa Valley, which were either ancient (France) or quite automated (California). We started our tour just outside the gift shop. My mind wandered a little in the fermenting room, where one of the group had many questions of little or no general interest.

I did retain the information that the fermenting room is kept at a steady 58F, and I was glad to be wearing my Minnesota Vikings windbreaker. We moved into the bottling room, where two younger men were rinsing bottles, filling them with wine (in this case, St. Pete Sangria), inserting corks and adding labels.

Mitchell and John

The corking process was partly manual, because on this day the corks were imprinted with a special design that had to be inserted right side up. A laser printer produced the labels on stickers that were machine-pasted to the bottles and then visually inspected. One of the men corrected improperly positioned labels and filled a case of 12, sealed it, and stacked it on a cart. The tasks seemed monotonous, just the kind of work I would enjoy doing.

The winery's objective is to make wines that taste like the fruit of origin, and the few wines that I tasted certainly seemed to taste a little like the juice used to produce them. We looked around the little gift shop and bought a few items. Bob got a bottle of CocoLada, his favorite among the wine samples he tasted. Adam's purchase, Key Lime cookies, were a hit with all of us.

We exited the winery into the pouring rain and went off to a late lunch at Leverock's.

Skyway Bridge Revisited

TripPix.

John, Trudy, Adam, Mitchell, Bob

When we're in this part of Florida we cross the Skyway Bridge and visit the fishing pier at the south end, a Florida State Park. I've written about it before, most recently in 2015.

In the past, we've been there on scorching sunny days. This year was different: the usually glittering bridge almost disappeared in the haze and the usual crowds were absent. Instead, we saw only a few committed fishermen along the pier, ones who paid the $4.00 per vehicle, $4.00 per adult to fish for 24-hour fishing access. One group set up food, including a crockpot and various main dishes covered in foil.


Cath and Bob

No luck seeing either dolphins in the choppy water or any significant catch. A lone great egret stalked the pier for castoffs and an older fisherman explained his fishing methodology to willing listeners -- that means everyone but me. My picture taking was unsatisfactory because of the dense air, but the pier was peaceful, except for one fisherman who ranted about a driver who had recently ruined favorite fishing spots by driving his car off the pier.

Before we left for home, I Googled the incident, a tragedy that occurred just before Christmas last year, evoking sobering thoughts that are better left unshared.

We stopped at Sea Critters for John's birthday lunch and crossed over to the other side of Pass-a- Grille to gather seashells. In the evening, dolphins swam in the bay as darkness descended.