Category Archives: Tampa
[sticky] Next Mobile Adventure: Busch Gardens Africa/Tampa, November 10-11
UPDATED ON 11-01-2008
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If you have ideas for recreation activities in Tampa, please do leave a comment and tell me about it! .
Chez Bro, SIL and Nieceling are making their annual fall trip to Florida, and I’ll be joining them in Tampa for a long weekend. I’m excited about Busch Gardens because they have opened a new section called “Jungala”, which looks really fun on the commercials. I’m also going to look for something new to do in the area. I don’t think Busch Gardens is a 4 day park, and we love the Aquarium but we’ve done it already. Nieceling is 12, the rest of us are in our 40s.
UPDATE: We are now arriving on November 9th, so one less day. They are coming from Disney and turns out the 9th is the day their annual passes are no longer good, so the 9th it is.
UPDATE TO THE UPDATE ON 11-01-2008: They are now not arriving until the evening of Sunday November 9th. NOW what am I going to do with my weekend, hmmm?
Wordless, Sunday April 20th 2008
Wordless, Sunday April 20th 2008
In response to A Backyard Visitor…
Mmmm, Mexican food!
Kind of a hole in the wall, but it has become somewhat of a tradition that when I go up to the Tampa office, I to go to lunch with colleagues at Guadalajara, a really EXCELLENT Mexican restaurant.
Here’s the address off the menu, just for Chris.
There are two seating areas, both of which have a stained glass ceiling.
Authentically groovy decor… although, it does look as though someone hasn’t de-decorated since Valentine’s Day!
The Sunshine Skyway
Scenes from monthly visit to Tampa office
So, after we left the Strawberry Festival, I stayed over night in a Sheraton and worked in one of our Tampa facilities on Monday. There’s a pond out back of the building where some wildlife tends to gather. The fishes are rather funny; they get skittish and try to run away if you approach the banks of the pond, making quite a ruckus.
Here’s the Peace River in Charlotte County
And here’s the Caloosahatchee River in Lee County; as I go over this river, I know I’ll be home within the next 10 minutes or so.
Hard Rock Hotel
Pretty much right across the highway from the State Fairgrounds is the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa
Florida State Fairgrounds
Downtown Tampa
Gonna check in
At the International Mall: The Bamboo Club
More Tampa Bay
More Sunshine Skyway
Approaching the Sunshine Skyway
Nemo!
Another one for Dale
From the hotel balcony
Now it’s time to say goodbye…
Pirates!
Trolley!
It’s bigger than it looks
Water canons
Outdoor balcony
Explore A Shore
Gift shop find
This is done in bronze. There were some turtle sculptures that seemed to be done in polished copper – they were just stunning, but I could not get a clear pic of them because they were TOO well lit, and they just came out as this big gleam. Wish they had the sea horse in the polished copper; I would have bought that in a heartbeat.
Shark in the big tank
This was done on ceramic
Dunno!
Jelly fish
Eel
Yes Chris, this is YOUR junonia
Lookit how cute he is!
It turned out to be…
Dragons?????
Rainbow fish
More
Here’s what you would see
Enjoy the view
Every now and then, you find a spot in front of a tank that has some rockers and/or benches set up. Can you imagine if you could have a huge tank as one of the walls in your living room? You would not need TV for entertainment; just plop down and listen to the tank and watch the coral waving and the fishes doing their fishly things… ahhhh!
American Victory
A battle ship is parked outside the aquarium. The name on the side is American Victory, and there was a sign advertising tours. I will post a bigger pic of it later, on my website.
Horse conch
Starfish
Some sort of lobster???
Out of order from Saturday’s dinner
Whelk
Tulip shell
I c shells
Roseate spoonbill
Catfish
Otter !
He was SO fast! Between his speed, and the damned plexi-glass, it was really impossible to get a good shot of this guy. Y’all know how much I LOVE the otters! We went back after lunch to see a demonstration of his training. He’s really quite clever. He cannot be returned to the wild; he’d been raised by someone who thought it would be cool to own a river otter, and then decided it wasn’t so cool. So he’s probably got to live at the Aquarium for the rest of his life. The reason he is trained is because he is so quick, the veterinarians cannot examine him properly. So they train him to do tricks like run and jump and swim/dive and hold still for as long as they want him to. In this manner, they can observe if he is functioning normally, and maybe treat a wound here and there. They reward him with little fishes (dead).
Dinner!
I plead plexi-glass
As it was yesterday at Busch Gardens, most of the animals in the Aquarium are behind plexi-glass, and therefore the photos have all these weird ghostly images superimposed upon them. These are the reflections off the glass of people standing around, including me. Anyhow, this little smiley-faced guy was only about two feet long; they didn’t have any super-sized gators at this exhibit.
We started in the Wetlands
Well, FINALLY
Yes, we’re getting here at noon-ish. It’s funny. My brother used to be the one getting up at some gawd-awful, commando time of the morning on vacation, waking my ass up by either phoning me or sending the Nieceling to pound down my hotel door. Now it’s the other way around. I’m the one waking up spontaneously at 6:00 or 7:00 am, and he’s the one taking his sweet-ass time getting a move on in the mornings. Go figure! So anyway, here we are, finally arriving at the Florida Aquarium.
Our day at Busch Gardens Tampa
I’ve filled in some explanations for the photos I’ve been blogging all day. Additionally, if you surf over to My Adventures *~*~* , you’ll be able to see more pictures that I’ve uploaded from the Canon.
I think we’re going to the aquarium tomorrow… stay tuned!
Hi, mush!
Uh, no!
A dragon
It’s getting dark
Dedicated to The Waders
Peacock in the dusk
Gwazi, wooden roller coaster
MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSE!
More topiaries
New Master Story Tellers
What a voice!
The final story
Frogs In Love
The Caterpillar Story
Banana
Pretty sign
Katonga – Musical Tales from the Jungle
Wall mural in Egypt
Tortoises doing the nasty!
Bee on a blossom
Look, it’s Timon!
A couple of 22 year old hyenas
We were told that today is their 22nd birthday, and that they usually only live in the wild about 12 years. The handlers cleared the lions out of the pen, and placed wrapped birthday “gifts” around, containing food. Then they let the hyenas in. They are a lot bigger than I pictured hyenas, and it was fun to watch them play-fight over the treats.