St Pete/Petersburg Florida ( long weekend )

It has been over a year or so since the last time I was on a plane. We were invited to a wedding in Treasure Island/St Pete Florida and so we decided to add few days to check out the place before the main event. I wanted to share this trip since this is the first time since the pandemic that we were close to having a normal vacay.

Day 1: We landed in Tampa and rented a car for the weekend. We took the earliest flight out from BWI. Our first stop was for brunch at Cassis St Pete and from the airport it was about 25 mins.

This restaurant is 2 blocks away from the new St Pete Pier. They have restaurants, local markets and discovery center for kids. Also a really nice playground and waterpark for free but we didn’t bring our daughter so I was sad cuz she would have loved it here.

Price: CASSIS ST PETE: $$

I ordered: Pancakes with blueberries, poppy seed and lemon ricotta.

B ordered: Avocado Toast with egg and bacon.

Then after brunch we took a stroll towards St Pete Pier and Downtown.

Lunch: We wanted to eat and have few drinks right by the water. We went to Fresco Waterfront Grill and its located right before you enter the pier. We were seated after a quick 10 min wait and we ordered Ceviche, Mussels and some Moscow Mules/sangria.

Tip: During busy season you can’t make any reservations online.

Price: FRESCO WATERFRONT GRILL: $$

Dinner: Pia’s Tratoria located at Gulfport Beach Florida and it felt like we were in Italy. The setting and the food reminded me of when we spent few days in Capri. The specials change every two weeks and for dinner they had swordfish lightly breaded on top of pasta. Delicious! Then we also ordered pasture raised breaded chicken on salad. For dessert we had Panna Cotta with cappuccino.

Price: PIA’S TRATORIA: $$

Gulfport Florida is like one of those little towns that you would read in a romcom book. They had restaurants, bars and shops along the beach. It was a really cute place. But like any other beach town everything closes early ( shops I mean).

Day 2: Early day for kayaking. We did a 9am kayak tour with GetUpandGo Clear Kayak to Shell Key Preserve. What a treat for us. Not only was it fun but we did our workout paddling 3 miles. We saw a dolphin and if you love birds.. then you’d be in heaven. They had so much in this preservation. The tour company we used gets pretty booked up in advanced so I suggest to book early and if you can, ask for Jenna to be your guide. She was really knowledgeable about the island ( a pure local).

Shell Key Preserve:

The only way you can access this island is by boat/kayak/ferry. The ferry cannot take you to the shell trees. Only the kayak tour can do that or you can also just rent a boat.

Lunch: The loading dock for our tour was conveniently located in a restaurant so of course right after paddling we ate there. They had really good food and fresh seafood. The view wasn’t bad also.

Billys StoneCrab Grill: $$

Day 3: The wedding day. We didn’t have much time to do anything since the wedding was today. We did have lunch at this famous smoked fish house. Delish!

Ted Peter’s Famous Smoked Fish house: cash only. $$ *They have been open for over 50 years. They got famous with the mullet smoked fish and they recently added mahi mahi/mackerel/salmon.

Wedding: Beach at sunset.

This is the first beach wedding I’ve attended. Ceremony was held on the beach so I made sure my shoes were appropriate. I wore espadrilles in nude to match my hat and bag. It was such a lovely day to end our mini get away and I can’t wait to go home and see our baby girl.