Wine from 'lemons' and Tampa History..pics added

thought I'd better post this before conking out after tasting my way through a plethora of different "wines", well not from lemons, but from guava, cranberry, blueberry, key lime, kiwi, mango, orange/ chocolate, orange/coffee, passion fruit and even Cranberry Champagne!
Well, of course NOT a full glass, but ..with some re-tasting...you guessed it, it was lovely. Thankfully, Better Half (whose 2. visit it was) was the designated driver. The winery/shop is in Old St. Petes over the bay bridge-a designated driver is a MUST or one goes swimming!
It's a family business since 1991 with heavy research to find just the perfect way of making wines from all kinds of fruits, and ONE vegetable -carrot -with none of your typical wine grapes , except for a muscadine grape, sort of native to Florida, in sight. All 'wines' are made from freshly pressed quality juices. we're told and the company is recipient of many silver and gold medals from International wine competitions.
Now that I have the background out of the way: let me tell you which is my favorite! As coffee lover, the orange/coffee called "Midnight Sun" is unique, and I drool over the idea pouring it over coffee ice cream for a stunning summer refresher on a hot afternoon.
My next favorite is a double bill: 'Florida Fever '(Passion fruit) and running nose to nose (smell and flavor) is 'King Kiwi', both tart, semi dry, and crisp, followed closely by Mamma Guava, from, natch guavas...that one tastes the most like lemons, and will do very nicely as a Spritzer Drink on hot summer nights and days, too, LOL. The Cranberry wine (Festiberry) might make a very pleasant 'mulled' drink on a cool evening around the holidays, perhaps. And the Cranberry Champagne (the newest venture by the Shook Family, rounded out the rainbow of flavors.

Not neglecting culture,

we headed to the Tampa Bay History Center

in the Channelside district and cheek to jowl

with the Tampa Bay Lightening "Bolt's" Home,

St. Petes Times Forum.

Right on the river, the Hillsborough River,

where cruise ships dock and we saw that HUGE
Carnival Legend

(BTW it did not look exciting to me, huge like a skyscraper..

where IS the adventure of seafaring in that monster?).
Anyway, it is a fairly new museum and well appointed with interactive maps, relics,

Gasparilla lands in Tampa bay,still celebrated in Gasparilla Day.

and artifacts,hands on displays,

photographs, videos, etc.

From the Seminoles (Dolls in Indian costume)

over the voyages by Narvaez,

to Cuban born cigar rolling business,

where (in Cuba today this is somewhat still done) a lector would sit above the rollers

and read the newspaper or poems or novels-a much better idea than canned rock music?

to railroads and their magnates like Plant, who built THE luxury Tampa hotel,

now used by the University of Florida, to Florida ranching,

and since advent of the auto, rapid developement of citrus fruit growing.

it is all there well laid out, easily absorbed, not TOO much data.

And there even was a small display, among football and baseball,

referring to HOCKEY in Florida,

A real shocker to see many brown trees

and shrubs along the roads, sadly, totally destroyed by the cold.

Ice burns!