Spring into Saturday: The City Edition

I am sandwiched between family in central Florida. They are at opposite ends of I-4. I reside in the middle, Orlando.  In the northeast corner where I grew up, my mom has a place in Cresecent Beach.  My sister and aunt reside near the southwest end of I-4 in St. Petersburg ala The Burg. If I am not spring hopping, you can find me at the beach at one of the ends of I-4. This last weekend of spring break finds me in St. Pete where the day will end with a convergence of the wicked sisters, my mom and my aunt, and my sister and I, for a family dinner celebrating my mom’s birthday. Rather than battle the spring break traffic on I-4, we headed southwest late at night. Therefore I was up early for some city adventures before heading to Ft. DeSoto this afternoon.

A great place to start your morning is at Mazzaro’s Italian Market, especially if you like Italian anything, but especially coffee and pastries. You can pretty much stock up for your entire day if needed and avoid making a thing. Get there early, even arriving at 9 when it opened, we found the coffee bar full and the bakery patrons up to number 42. I shared a pistachio cannoli with my husband knowing we had other morning plans.

After that stop, we headed to the the Saturday morning market to pick up some of my favorite products as well as eat breakfast. St. Pete Ferments is the first place I look for in the aisle. My friend wants some of their kimchi and I want some sauerkraut. It gets sold out so I head there first and am not disappointed today.  We make a pit stop at the Urban Canning booth to pick up a jar of the smoked tomato jam that my other friend has been craving. Breakfast consists of empanadas, knishes, and crepes.  Though any food you crave can be found here. Enjoy a little music.

We ended our day at one of my favorite beaches, Ft. DeSoto.