Holy Cow!  Everybody beat me here!

Thomas, you have outdone yourself in the research category!  What an excellent picture you painted of St Petersburg - thank you!  And the Chamber of Commerce thanks you too  ;-)

St Pete used to be thought of as an old people's city, a place where the elderly went and sat in their lawnchairs and played shuffleboard (although we do have a remarkable court here).  Times have changed, and I have a few little things to add:

In addition to the Saturday Morning market, every Wednesday from 11A to 2P Williams Park has food vendors and arts/crafts booths catering mainly to the downtown workers, giving them an outdoor relaxing place for lunch.  Also, the Grand Central District opens up their stores after hours on Fridays for shopping and gneeral partying LOL.

The Central Ave area has occasional pajama breakfasts/'yard sales' on Saturdays and if you wear your pajamas you get deeper discounts on merchandise  :-)

Then there's "Get Downtown', a party every first Friday of the month in which a block of Cental Ave is blocked off for a street party, with live music and food.  One recent artist was the up-and-coming saxophonist BK Jackson, a 17 year old native who plays really hot jazz!

Williams Park is also starting a monthly party on the last Friday of the month to benefit our homeless population (bring a can of food for a donation).

Last but not least, we have a New Year's Eve party called 'First Night', which is very much a community activity for young and old.

We're really into making stuff happen in downtown St Pete, and we do a lot of things to draw people down to join in the fun!

Thank you so much for showcasing me this week - what a Christmas gift from such a good person!  Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah or Happy Kwanzaa to everyone!

Well, I couldn't get BK Jackson's link to work.  Try this:

http://bkjackson.com/?p=page&id=1

Hi Roger,

Yes, we in the US are just babies yet, with little history compared to other regions of the world.  I can't imagine walking down streets or seeing buildings that are over 300 yrs old, much less towns with histories that go back to the 1200's!

Thanks for dropping in and reading about my town :-)

Bev and everyone,

Yes, Florida is the only place to be for warm weather right now ;-)

We'll have temperatures in the 70's for Christmas Day and for the rest of the week.

However, snow can be fun and it really looks pretty until you have to shovel it or travel in it, so whatever the weather, enjoy the holidays!