Clearwater, FL, Chalk Walk

This week the blog is a day late in posting because I spent yesterday with Test Chicken #2, exploring kitchen stores and planning out this blog, her blog and our blog. Look forward to next month when we take our blog, America’s Test Chicken, up to twice a month! But you can be a little sad because this blog is going from four times a month down to twice a month. So the schedule is this: first and third Wednesdays of the month, new posts on this blog. Second and fourth Wednesdays, new America’s Test Chicken blogs. Really, stay tuned for these – we have such great plans for the holidays and especially for 2016!

So, this week I want to show you some pictures I took on Clearwater Beach in Florida. My husband and I planned to meet some friends there for Sunday brunch. But on Saturday we decided last-minute to go down that day and get a hotel room overnight.

Rooms were scarce but we managed to find one at a beachside hotel. Clearwater’s is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. This was our morning walk on Sunday:

Hotels were booked because of the usual tourists and beach weddings (there were two in our hotel), but also because that weekend was the Clearwater Beach Chalk Walk, a sidewalk chalk-art competition.

So, on Saturday, after we enjoyed some wine on our hotel balcony, we strolled down the beach to the sidewalk art area. Our first indication of chalky goings-on was this little guy, apparently the mascot of the competition, strewn about the place in nooks and crannies:

Then there were ads:

But the competition artworks themselves were all works in progress at the time. The judging didn’t end until the next day, so the artists were still working on their masterpieces. I got some great artists-at-work shots:


And my favorite:

I also very much like this still life of art supplies in use:

Across from the artworks, other types of artists and vendors of clothes and jewelry were selling their wares:

Here are some shots of the individual chalk artworks:

But my favorites by far were the 3D ones.

Interestingly, they didn’t look so 3D from just any perspective. The artist had to designate where to stand to get the 3D effect.

Like so:

Interestingly, the 3D effect is WAY more pronounced in a photograph than it is when you are actually looking at it. I love photography!

Here are more:

And here’s my favorite of all the 3D ones. This is what it looked like when I first walked up on it:

Whaaaaa??? Then I stood where the artist had indicated and got this great shot!

Can you believe the difference? Wonderful! BTW, do you see the word Frenchy’s in the fish?

But by far the most intriguing work in my opinion was done by a 13-year-old boy, apparently a minimalist:

After our sidewalk stroll, we had Saturday dinner at Frenchy’s South Beach, which I can highly recommend. We enjoyed music and fascinating conversation from Hurricane Johnny. The best dish on the table that night (well, besides the rum drinks) was the garlic crab fries. OMG, I could write a whole blog post about them! I just might try to figure out how to make them at home!

We went back on Sunday morning to review the artworks before our brunch. Most of the pictures had come nearer completion but were not quite finished. If you want to see the winners, click here. My vote didn’t win, but it was fun voting anyway!

Photo for No Apparent Reason: