Where I Live Wednesday - St. Petersburg, FL

I will start off by saying that Stephany is pretty much awesome. I adore reading her blog and she is always so real, it's very refreshing. I'll admit, when you emailed me about doing WILW I had ulterior motives because Dustin and I want to move down to her neck of the woods. So this is doubly fun for me this week! Enjoy!

Name: Stephany
Blog: Stephany Writes
Location: St. Petersburg, Florida

How long have you lived there? All my life, but not just in this city. I've lived all over this county, which is really a bunch of little cities connected to each other. It's just a big metropolitan area, where you can drive five minutes and hit a different city. We're a big city with a small-town feel!

If you moved from somewhere else, where did you move from? Why? N/A
What's the climate like? Hot and cold. We don't have seasons here. Around April, it starts heating up again and it'll just get hotter and hotter. It gets unbearable around July and August to most people, but I love it. The temperature usually stays around the upper 80's/lower 90's but the humidity is what makes everything feel like it's 110 degrees. The humidity makes your hair frizzy and your skin sticky. You're constantly guzzling down water (even if you don't like water). And it stays like this until mid-November, when we start cooling down a bit. By cooling down, I mean the temperature drops below 70. And this causes everyone to pull out their winter coats and blast their heater. For the past 3 years, we've had 80-degree Christmases which is something I do not like. After Christmas, the cold starts. This "winter" was pretty awful for us Floridians. For about a month, we had to endure THIRTY DEGREE WEATHER! And a couple days, it dropped to under 30. Brr! This winter lasts until late March and by then, we are so ready for the heat to come back.

What are some of your favorite things to do during a typical weekend where you live? There really is so much to do where I live. I'm about 15 minutes from the beach and we have miles and miles and miles of beaches. Travel in the opposite direction and you hit Tampa. Tampa has IKEA (Seriously! I could spend an entire Saturday in there and not get bored!), Busch Gardens (theme park), Adventure Island (water park), and tons and tons of other hotspots. We're also about 2 hours from Orlando so taking a day or weekend trip up there is something I like to do.

Busch Gardens

And since St. Petersburg is a pretty big family-community place, they always have something going on. There's either a festival in town, a concert going on, a play happening, and other fun stuff.

What are some of your favorite restaurants in your town/city? Favorite shops? My favorite restaurants aren’t anything local-based. I could eat Carrabba’s Italian Grille and Outback Steakhouse every month and not get sick of it. I’m also in love with Panera Bread. And we have a million here.
My favorite shops are also nothing exciting: Target, Old Navy, and Kohl’s. I’m sure we have some local shops that are more Florida-based, but they’re all super cheesy.

Suggest some must see places for an out of town visitor. Oh, there is so much to do and see! I’ll try to focus on St. Petersburg-specific places, although Tampa is a hop, skip, and a jump away and there is so much to do there as well!
First of all, there are the beaches. St. Petersburg is famous for our long, long, long stretches of beaches.

If you want a more artsy feel to your visit, downtown St. Pete is the place to be. We have lots of little shops, restaurants, and theaters.



Tell us why you love your town/city. There is so much I love about my city! It’s very cool to hate this place but I love it so much, I would live here forever if I could. I love the weather. I love how there is so much to do. I love how there are so many memories tied to my childhood here. I’m very proud to live here!

Anything else we should know about where you live? It’s a big tourist-friendly place and it’s HOT 90% of the time. Oh, and Big Mike from American Idol? He’s totally a St. Petersburg native, even went to the high school where my SIL’s sister attends now. So, I’m kinda famous in that way.

Thanks so much Stephany for sharing your favorite things about St. Petersburg with us!

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