What To Do in St. Petersburg, Florida

I recently spent a week in St. Petersburg and found a lot of fun things to do beyond the usual “hanging out at the beach” fare.

First of all, did you know the city has numerous great museums? I didn’t know until I started planning my visit. During my stay, I checked out five of them. First up on my list was the Imagine Museum of glass art. This was my favorite of all of them.

I was floored by this exquisite collection and the ingenuity of the artists who are pushing the limits of working with glass. Besides large abstracts and sculptures that were either blown, sculpted, or cast, there were flatter pieces in frames made from fused and sand carved glass.

Currently showing is an exhibit of work by Loius Markoya that are 3D holographic lenticular pieces. The images are dimensional and move as you walk from one side to the other, providing different perspectives. No still photograph can do them justice. Incidentally, Markoya was a protege of Salvador Dali in the 1970s.

Speaking of Dali, St. Petersburg has an entire museum devoted to his work. While the building houses several of the surrealist pieces we usually associate with Dali, it also contains early paintings that show him trying to find his own style, as well as large paintings with religious themes that he created later in life. This museum is conveniently located near the St. Petersburg Pier.

The Dali Museum also uses artificial intelligence in fun ways. As a writer, I generally detest AI, but I can get on board with the usage at this museum. There is a replica of Dali’s lobster phone (an original of which is on display in the museum) with a sign that asks you to lift the receiver, press a button, and ask a question of Dali. An AI rendering of his voice then answers your question.

I asked why he was afraid of lobsters, and the answer was quite inventive with the voice of Dali telling me that he used his art to defuse the impact of monsters in his psyche.

Another innovation was a life-size screen with a video of an AI rendering of Dali speaking to us as we watched him. Then in the video, he grabbed a cellphone and turned it toward himself with us behind him, taking a selfie of us with him. We were then given a code that we could text to a phone number in order to receive the image.

The museum also has a separate “Dali Alive 360-degrees” exhibit that’s an immersive experience in his art, housed in a dome outside the main building. This is an extra $15 charge.

After the museum, my friend and I went to the St. Pete Pier and sat up in a tower with a view of the ocean and the city. We drank pina coladas and enjoyed a burger at the Teak restaurant/bar.

Another day, I partook of some more glass art. On Central Avenue downtown is a small museum dedicated to the works of famous glass artist, Chihuly. It includes a huge room-sized piece containing all sorts of glass figures that look like an underwater sea garden. Across the street, they have a facility where you can watch live glass-blowing at different times throughout the day.

I also visited the Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement. This beautiful facility with a spiral staircase contains lots of American furniture, lamps (including some from Tiffany), Frank Lloyd Wright glass panels and a set of cabinet doors, musical instruments, and paintings.

The James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art contains some spectacular sculptures and paintings. I was struck by how much depth and dimension these contemporary artists were able to create on canvas, depicting wildlife or Indian scenes. They were also capable of creating light in ways that made me think of Rembrandt. One intricate sculptural piece was made of paper, and I wish I could find out how the artist created it.

There are even more museums in St. Pete that I didn’t manage to see: the Museum of Fine Arts, the St. Petersburg Museum of History, and the Florida Holocaust Museum, which was temporarily closed while I was in town, set to reopen toward the end of September this year.

Of course, I didn’t spend all of my time in sunny St. Petersburg indoors (although museums certainly come in handy on rainy days). I also visited the Boyd Hill Nature Preserve, which is only a 15-minute drive from downtown. This lovely area includes Lake Maggiore with a view of the city’s skyline on the other side.

The preserve includes 400 acres, where you can see bird life, alligators, and lizards. I visited on a weekday when it was quiet and peaceful with few other people around.

My last day in town, I went back to the pier, where I boarded a Pier Dolphin Cruise for 1-1/2 hours at sea. Bottlenose dolphins are so prolific in the area that you’re almost guaranteed to see them. We saw two – both were chasing fish against the sea wall near to shore to trap and catch them. We also saw a “bird island” out a bit farther, where pelicans, cormorants, and egrets nest.

I stayed in a friend’s apartment on Central Avenue in downtown St. Pete, so I can’t report on the hotels. But Central Avenue is a “happening” area with many restaurants, bars, coffee houses, and boutiques.

It seems that there’s plenty to do for most every interest in St. Petersburg. While the city has a small airport, most flights arrive in the Tampa airport, which is only 20-30 minutes away from downtown St. Pete by car. Enjoy!