We recently took a quick road trip down to Florida to escape the weather. What we got was a thick, foggy mist, but at least it was upwards of 70 degrees! Without any agenda, we were driving through the quaint beach town of St. Petersburg, when we stumbled upon this totally unassuming sign for a botanical garden in a shopping center..

..& next thing we knew, we were in the parking lot. Open since the 1920’s, we weren’t expecting much, but were pleasantly surprised by the reservoir of exotic tropical blooms & lush landscape. Also present were spirit animals, George & Lucy, a beautiful pair of Chilean Flamingos. Here’s a look behind the gates of Sunken Gardens.