52 Weeks of Gratitude Challenge - The City You Live In

Happy Sunday Everyone!

This weeks challenge is about the city I live in. I live in the Sunshine City in the Sunshine State,   

St. Petersburg, FL. I love living here. 

Most people know my hometown as a vacation place, with great beaches. And that's so true, the beaches here are AMAZING and I love the fact that I am 20 minutes from the beach. I honestly feel sorry for people who have never been to the beach. There is something so therapeutic about the ocean (But that's a whole other topic.)

Sunset, no filter added. Yes, this is what I get to see almost every night!

But what you may not know about St. Petersburg, commonly referred to as the 'burg by us locals, is that there is so much culture here and it's continuing to grow all the time. We are becoming home to many great restaurants and local craft beer breweries. St. Petersburg is also home to the Salvador Dali Museum, which has the largest collection of Salvador Dali's works in the world AND the building is also an amazing piece of artwork as well! The Chihuly Collection is also here, displaying Dale Chihuly's works of art and they are INCREDIBLE! There are so many other museums here, it would take forever to talk about them all. There are just my favorite two.

The Salvador Dali Museum

The Chihuly Collection

But, despite the amazing sunsets and beach and versatile culture, my favorite part about the city I live in is the fact that it is MY home. I love the fact that I know so much about the history of this area, I love the fact that I know where everything is and I love that I know so many people here. We moved here when I was 4 years old, so we've lived here a long time. Even though I'm not a native, I consider myself a Floridian. I would never want to live anywhere else. Anyway, so growing up, my parents were not privy to all the 'local secrets' like all the great restaurants or different events. Most of the stuff we knew about were touristy. As time went on, and they met more people, they started to learn about all the neat places that people who grew up here have known about forever. As a parent now myself, I'm glad that I know so much about the place my son is growing up, I feel we are rooted here. And I love it!

Tell me about the place you live! What do you like about it?