As we arrived into Saint Petersberg we decided to head down to the pier and harbour.It was fairly quiet down there and almost immediately we saw 2 dolphins in the harbour.It was really pretty down there so we took a walk along the waterside and saw the pier, which wasn't so pretty.It looked a bit like a PowerStation - I guess we were expecting something more Victorian, like Brighton or Cleethorpes Pier!We then took the short drive to the condominiums where we would be staying for the next 3 nights.We met our next couchsurfing host - Alyson, her flat mate Jaimie, and their 3 cats, and immediately felt very welcome.

We had chosen Saint Petersberg as we wanted to do a snorkelling boat trip to Egmont Key National Reserve, so in the morning we drove to St Pete's beach to get this booked.The address we had was for a hotel, and when we arrived we found it was a huge hotel complex called Tradewinds.The security let us in and gave us a free parking pass, as the water sports office we wanted was on the beach in front of the hotel.There was a trip going out the next day so we booked on to this, then decided to stay at the beach, as we now had free secure parking all day (usually it is $15.00).St Pete's beach was lovely - much quieter than the beaches on the east coast.There were many large hotels with sun beds in front, but the beach was so wide that there was plenty of space in front of the sun beds before the sea.We sat close to the shore and spent most of the time swimming to cool down - our first swim in the Gulf of Mexico.The water was not as clear as it had been on the east coast, but it was still nice and a lot clearer and warmer than the North Sea!In the afternoon we went to the Dali Museum in Saint Petersberg, and lucky we did as it started to rain.The museum was set up by an American couple who were private collectors of Dali's work, and when their collection got so big they looked for somewhere to house the pieces and display them to the public.

The next morning we got up very early, after a late night of drinking and chatting with our hosts, only to get a phone call just as we were leaving the house to say that the boat trip was cancelled due to rough seas.We were gutted, as we knew we had to move on the next day, so could not re-schedule.It did mean that we could have a couple of extra hours of sleep though!Luckily we had a plan B, so to Graham's delight we headed to Sarasota, to the Car Museum.There were over 100 cars, including 3 that had been owned by members of the Beatles, and the staff were so friendly.We spent a couple of hours there and they had information boards about some of the main founders of US automobile companies.This was really interesting, and we found that most were pretty tragic!Many were not good business men, and therefore lost all of their money, and others died quite young due to illness.Mr Chevrolet ended up working as a mechanic for Chevrolet, when he lost control of the company, and lived his final years in poverty!

On the way home we decided to stop off at Anna Maria Island and we are so pleased that we did.It was beautiful and so much less developed than anywhere else we had been so far.There were no high rise buildings and there were lots of free parking places where you could just pull up to take a look at the coast or stop for a picnic.We drove all the way to the end to where there is an old wooden pier.We took a walk along it and there were thousands of tiny fish jumping out of the water, and many bigger fish underneath, coming up every so often for a feed.There was also a school of stingrays and several pelicans feeding on the fish too.It was fantastic to see all this wildlife so close and in their natural habitat.It was also great to see this less commercial side of Florida - Anna Maria Island is a place we would definitely like to go back to.

That evening our hosts prepared a Mexican/ Cuban/ Puerto Rican buffet style meal for us, and we met Jaimie's Puerto Rican boyfriend: Ray.We had a great final evening, with lots of eating, drinking and chatting, and were once again sad to be saying our goodbyes.Couchsurfing is such an amazing experience, but the downside is that we are constantly having to say goodbye to people we have gotten to know so well, so there is always a sense of sadness.

So, it's on to our next couchsurfing experience - better prepare myself for more goodbyes!

Maggie x