Sunken Gardens

Spring at Sunken Gardens

We spent a couple of hours at St. Petersburg's Sunken Gardens on Thursday. Beautiful, tropical and just a little shabby. The map isn't very useful, and plants could all use better identification. The kookaburras and parrots need better enclosures, and koi ponds seemed a little slimey.

This oasis in the middle of the city that deserves a good board of directors, thoughtful fundraising, attention to infrastructure and beautiful outdoor spaces. Naming at least some of the animals (birds, turtle, tortoise) would create a sense of community ownership.

Loved watching an egret hunt in the jungly underbrush, but my favorite resident was the alligator snapping turtle. Didn't get a good picture, but he was fun to see in the minnow filled pond.

Sunken Gardens

Extraordinary: the feeling that we were in 1920s Cuba -- all those palms, banana and banyan trees, the feeling that snakes could fall out of the air or slither up from the, well, sunken gardens.