Friday Clearwater & Downtown Dunedin

 

Our first walk this morning was for Dee Dee, so we headed to the Dunedin Community Center. We walked around the pond and mostly stayed in the shade.

 

Then we got on our bikes and headed to Clearwater Beach, about 9.5 miles away. We got there about 9:45 a.m. so it wasn't too crowded. We felt safe walking along the beach.

 

The beach is well-named. The water was crystal clear.

The sand was perfect.

The concrete boardwalk is beautiful.The trip over the bridge is always fun.

Our route on Cycle Meter.

After lunch, we took a 30-minute nap, not that we had any choice in the matter. We just fell into the bed and were asleep within a minute. Then we headed back to Dunedin to get some walking in. We chose downtown because it's shaded. I can only walk the causeway when it's below 81 degrees, or the wind is blowing, or it's before 10:00 a.m. Ha!

 

So, we noticed purple ribbons on the street lamps and began to investigate. We learned that August 7 is National Purple Heart Day where people honor and remember veterans who were killed or wounded in action in our country's wars.

But then we discovered this sign above the Pinellas Trail crossing saying "Paint Dunedin Purple" on August 15. A quick Google search revealed that the paint Dunedin purple campaign is to raise awareness and money to combat Alzheimer's disease. Originally, the event was scheduled for June 20, the summer solstice and the longest day of the year. The idea was to fight the darkness of Alzheimer's on the longest day of the year when there is the most light. Apparently, it has been rescheduled because of the pandemic to August 15, when there will still be plenty of light. This is the 2nd annual event to raise awareness of Alzheimer's. According to the Pinellas Health Notebook, someone is diagnosed with the disease every 65 seconds. Florida makes up 10% of the nation's Alheimer's patients because of its large population of retired folks.

All merchants and shoppers are encouraged to wear purple on August 15th.

I finally found the city of Dunedin flag. It is not the blue flag with the white D that I saw at the marina. (That must be their marina flag.) Once we saw the first one, we saw two more. Still not much information on the web about the city flag.

We walked by the future site of the new city hall on Wood Street and Louden. It's a cool design.

We had tuna steaks with roasted almonds, squash, pearl couscous, and a salad for dinner.

 

Dee Dee had her special homemade dinner.

Miles biked: 25.2

Miles walked: 5.8