{Song clip - a hilarious love song...}
Yesterday, we discovered a treasure trove in the nearby city of St. Petersburg - a massive new and used bookstore! Set in a funky district with vintage clothing shops, tattoo parlors and artsy cafes selling craft beers and vinyl records, Haslam's Bookstore takes up almost an entire city block. The store has been around for 80 years and boasts over 300,000 books - including some special copies behind glass, like a first edition Winnie the Pooh and a Don Quixote illustrated by Salvador Dali. We had a look through the various sections but spent most of our time looking at children's books. We found some old favorites of ours to read to Maren and picked up the next few books in a series she is absolutely crazy about right now. More about those books in the next post...
More than an hour later, books picked and paid for, it was time for lunch. Jake vetoed lunch at the cool cafe with fun beers across the street and opted for this seafood shack next to the bookstore instead. He was overwhelmed by the choices and went totally overboard - ordering a catfish Po' Boy, fried shrimp, crawfish, corn on the cob, french fries and even fried alligator tail. It was quite the spread.
I should have a photo of him digging in to that fried feast from the sea but - well - that's a scene that moves too fast and is too messy to be captured on film. Suffice to say, Maren and I managed to grab a few quick bites of shrimp and french fries before the rest was devoured. He tore into that food like a man possessed! By the end, he was so covered in miscellaneous juices that we had to go back to the bookstore for him to wash his hands...and arms and face! So, rather than a photo of him eating, here's a nice photo of him reading to Maren while waiting for lunch.
