Tampa.St.Petersburg.

The nice thing about living in the Sunny Place of Sunshine is that there is PLENTY to do, the bad thing – Lack o’ Funds - which is why I was elated when I heard about the Sunset Festival in Clearwater. There are crafts, live music, booths from local vendors, etc., etc. Since the festival doesn’t start until 6:30pm I decided to check out other places to visit on the West Coast and settled on Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo.

Who doesn't love a baby rhino?

I was extremely surprised that the zoo was not packed as it was a holiday and not many kiddies were in school, but this made for some much needed quiet time with some amazing animals. I wanted to soak up everything the zoo had to offer, so I rode a camel (which was pretty awesome because it's a CAMEL). Actually, it wasn't that awesome, pretty much like riding a horse with a hump on it, but I like the exotic factor that it brought to the table. I would have loved to feed a giraffe and rhino, but those exhibits were closed for the day :(.  

There’s about a 10-15 minute span of time during the drive to St. Petersburg when you are driving over an inlet. I’m sure that it is beautiful to drive over on a sunny day, but on that particular day as a storm was beginning to blow in and the sky was greying over, the breaks in the clouds created beautiful streams of light that played on the water.

St. Petersburg, while I was there, was a sleepy little town, one that gave you the feeling of what small towns right on the coast are and should be like.

Sadly, a massive storm blew in making the sunset festival nonexistent (for that night anyways) but the lovely staff at Cooter's (don't be a perv it's a type of turtle) were more than happy to take my friend and I in and provide us with some delicious food.

That would be the sand flying at us.

Night walking on the beach is something I haven't done in a really, really long time. The waves were crashing like crazy, the moon was making its waxing debut from behind the parting clouds, the sand was smooth beneath my feet. Then the wind picked up and yet another storm blew in. Flecks of sand and rain began beating vigorously against my skin. Getting off the beach was a must at that point. We finally got back to my car - soaked to the bone but nonetheless loving every second of it.

As sad as I was that I didn’t get to go to the sunset festival it was still a great time. I will be going back there sometime within the next few months so I will be posting pictures of it. Until next time..

The next morning.

 May your daydreams be full of adventures and happy thoughts.