Thursday, May 2, 2013

St. Petersburg: A city in the Sunshine State


 As I was getting ready to fly to the US, everyone said I was lucky to be going to Florida since it is well known for its tourist attractions such as Miami, Key West and Orlando. My first place of residence was St Petersburg, a small peninsular city located in Pinellas County, Florida. I lived there for 13 months.

With the sea within four miles towards the east and west, and freshwater lakes and creeks, I had a fine time exploring the city and its beaches on foot, enjoying the cool breeze. St Petersburg is a beautiful city and enjoys a reputation for being a vacation spot for both domestic and international travelers. It is also the seventh most sought after destination for retired community in the US.

The city was a bit warm during the summers, and surprisingly, the grass remained wet all the time. I explored walking on the wet grass along the Jorgenson Lake, which was quite refreshing. During the weekends, I visited some other places on foot — Leslee Lake, Booker Creek Park, Joe’s Creek Park, Sheffield Lake, Crescent Lake, Mirror Lake, etc.

I thought I will include a painting of mine here:



St Petersburg is abundant with several tourist attractions. Tourists can enjoy fishing at the Pier, rent a boat and visit the aquarium. There are also weekly festivals that attract a good number of people. The Boyd Hill Nature Preserve is a 245-acre preserve with many endangered plants and rare wildlife of Tampa Bay, which is a large, natural harbour and estuary along the Gulf of Mexico. A bird exhibit houses bald eagles, owls, pelicans and hawks. Over 500 species of tropical and subtropical plants abound among pools and cascading waterfalls at the Sunken Gardens, part of a collection of more than 50,000 tropical plants and flowers.

Being a peninsula, St Petersburg is home to a number of beautiful beaches such as St Pete, Indian Rocks, Clearwater, Maximo and Fort De Soto Park. Tourists can use the Suncoast Beach Trolley to explore the other beaches. I would like to specially mention the Fort De Soto Park Beach, which I visited on my last day at St. Petersburg. The drive to this park was very beautiful.

Besides the natural beauty of St Petersburg, what made my visit eventful were the friends that I made during my stay there.

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