First Night St Petersburg: Dec 31st, 2009

Beth had mentioned that St Petersburg often had things going on for New Year's Eve so googling brought up good information. They have a 'First Night' celebration around the pier area, this is their 17th year. The festivities ran from 5pm until midnight. On each hour, a shell firework goes off, at 9pm there is a 5 minute show, which we enjoyed. Evidently at midnight there is a 10 minute display but we did not make it that long.

We arrived in time to see the 8pm firework, wander around the various stalls, walk around the energy-saving labyrinth, watch a local African drum and dance group perform, see the 9pm fireworks, eat funnel cake, admire the bubble makers, get temporary tattoos and finally be mesmerized by the West Florida ballet troop performing some dances from the Nutcracker suite. It was an enjoyable evening.





Poor Nate was so exhausted, he fell asleep (in the super-cheap stroller - best buy ever!) during the ballet and never woke up. By the time we got home, it was after 11pm so there was no question that other kids were going to stay up until midnight. They were so excited to watch the ball drop in Times Square on the TV. As we sat watching, in shorts and T's, we did feel sorry for the well bundled up faces in New York, hard to believe we're in the same country when snow is falling a few hundred miles north!