St Petersburg, Florida

Pelicans at St Petersburg, Florida, near the pier, by the Art Museum.

Sea horse on the ground on the foot of the pier at St Petersburg, Florida.

Boats in Tampa Bay, view from the end of St Petersburg Pier.

We went to St Petersburg, Florida this weekend, staying at the Pier Hotel near downtown. It's an older hotel, and it's big selling point is a lovely veranda on which we sipped wine during afternoon/evening happy hour. The rooms were decent sized, but the bathrooms were tiny. And there was no view except for the backside of another building from our room. And the walls with the connecting doors were a bit thin, we could hear a lot more of our next door neighbors' conversation than we really wanted.

Another great selling point was the fact that there was so much within walking distance -- the art and history museums (which I hope to get to the next time we go to St Pete), the pier, Central Avenue (first Friday of the month is a huge street party), and lots of restaurants and shops.

For dinner on Friday, we ate at the Central Avenue Oyster Bar. I had the crab cakes and enjoyed them. There was clearly recognizable crab meat in them, and they weren't mushy. They had just enough spice for flavor (in other words, they weren't too hot for me!). Carlon had the bourbon salmon. Dinner started with a caesar salad. And was accompanied by bread served with olive oil drizzled over grated parmesan cheese. Sides were fresh vegetables (broccoli, yellow squash, green beans) and mashed potatoes. The vegetables were clearly fresh, although the broccoli was a tad overcooked. The potatoes were bland. Service was good.