Scenic Gulf Blvd and Clearwater Beach

On the way back from Madeira Beach, we took the scenic route back along the coast to my sister's house. I took a screenshot of Google Maps to help give you an idea of the route.

We started south at Madeira Beach and drove all along the shoreline, crossing a few bridges and coming back past Clearwater Beach before heading inland.

Some of the many condos and hotels along Gulf Blvd. To the left is the Gulf side. To the right is the intercoastal side.

Crossing Sand Key bridge approaching Clearwater Beach.

Hard to read the sign but it says, VOTED USA TODAY 2013 BEST BEACH and CLEARWATER BEACH.

In the last few years they really did a lot of improvements and freshened the place up. It was kinda old and dingy and outdated before and now it looks really nice.

That's Pier 60 stretching out into the water. There are some little booths and stuff along it in addition to fishing.

Crossing over the intercoastal bridge back to the mainland part of Clearwater.

As we were on the drive, my sister pointed out that Philadelphia Phillies player, Ryan Howard (apparently a first basemen and MVP) is building a home right on Gulf Blvd on the Gulf of beach side of the road. It's on two lots and is costing something like $23 million dollars (give or take depending on what article you read) she pointed it out. It's MASSIVE and it's not even done yet.

I found this article detailing specifics on the 34,000 square foot home. I don't follow baseball so I didn't know the guy but holy cow the place is insane just from the outside driving past.

The arrow is pointing to PART of it. It takes up two lots.

Another shot as we drove past but still this is only PART of how massive it is!

John's Pass & Madeira Beach

My Mom's birthday was Thursday 8/8 (we went to the movies) but my sister had to work that day so we planned to get together on Sunday, 8/11 to spend the afternoon together. It was Mom's pick and she said she wanted to hit the beach.

So we went to John's Pass which is a boardwalk and area with lots of shops (mainly targeted towards tourists) and Madeira Beach which is the section of the beach right across the street.

John's Pass Boardwalk

Pirate ship you can ride on that goes for a cruise.

Drawbridge to give access between the inter-coastal waterways and the Gulf.

Shark Week: It's a bad week to be an anthropomorphic pineapple!

A very large foam pelican on display in front of one of the shops.

Pedestrians can walk under the drawbridge to gain access to the beach on the other side of the road.

One of the boardwalks to the beach!

Madeira Beach!

Anana's sand castle fortress.

Sailboat is coming in from the Gulf.

You can see the drawbridge is opening so the sailboat can come through.

The Gulf is calm and warm as always!

Summer Nights at Busch Gardens Tampa

Friday, August 9th was my fiance's brother's birthday. He wanted to go to Busch Gardens Tampa for the day so that's what we did! Now, Anana has been before (pics here) and we had a few hours of thunderstorms in which my camera and Anana were hiding in my waterproof bag, so there's not really a lot of shots I got during the day.

I did however get to stay for their Summer Nights event which runs nightly for a few months June-August. They have this show called "Kinetix" which is kinda like Cirque du Soliel but with modern music with acrobats, contortionist, etc. They finish it off with fireworks. It was actually really good and we enjoyed it.

We grabbed seats like 20 minutes early so we needed to entertain ourselves.

Trying a different glow bracelet configuration.

Show's about to begin!

Hard to see Anana once the stage lights came on.

So here he's sporting the glow stick headband again. LOL

She was AMAZING. So strong and so flexible it was crazy.

She actually shot a bow with her feet and hit the target!

 

They ended the show and basically said "turn around!" and BAM fireworks!

Going to the Movies

Thursday, August 8th was my Mom's birthday so she and I went out to see a movie just so she wasn't going to be stuck sitting around her house all day. We saw The Heat which was silly but funny. I didn't want to bring my VERY conspicuous DSLR with me so I just brought my little point-and-shoot.

But I was quickly reminded how HARD it is to take a good shot in very low light without all the awesome manual controls and such of a more advanced camera! LOL

As a result, the pics aren't great but darn it, I tried!

I had to brighten this up SO much just so you could see what it was supposed to be. Man I am spoiled by my DSLR!

The lighted stairs of the stadium seating.

This was a "medium" drink. Cost $5.50 and was larger then he was! LOL

Seat was a little bit big but he made it work.

Banyan Trees

After we were done touring the Museum of Fine Arts, we hit the park which is right next door to check out the banyan trees. I could have sworn we got pics with them before, but I couldn't find any posted, so I'm giving them their own post now.

The building in the background is the Museum of Fine Arts to give you an idea just how close they are located!

There are two separate "trees" in the park and this helps show how large each "colony" is!

You can see both "trees" in this shot, the second behind the first.

Banyan trees grow down not up, so there are always dangling roots growing down from the branches, ready to form a new trunk. They make for interesting "colonies" of trunks all clustered together in strange patterns. Though not native to Florida, they grow here very well due to our subtropical climate.

New roots growing down that will eventually form new "trunks"

You can see these large root bundles are bigger and close to the ground and someday will form new trunks in the ever-expanding banyan colony.

 

Just another shot for scale. That's a full-grown man  in the white tee in front of the tree.

Anana found a little nook to hang out in.

This is on the other side of the museum (if you're looking at the front of the building, this is to the right.)
This is a Kapok tree, also a tropical non-native tree but another which flourishes here in Florida.
Can you spot Anana? :)

And for a little bit of scale, here's me and Anana in the tree together.

Museum of Fine Arts

Sunday, we went to the Museum of Fine Arts in Downtown St. Petersburg. They are renovating the galleries so most of it turned out to be closed (boo) BUT they had cheap admission as a result, AND gave us free tix to come back once it's re-opened. Anana didn't get to see everything they normally have but we did view what was open.

They had two open exhibits: one was about perception of color and the other was a look at 100 years of the National Parks as told through mostly vintage photos. Plus, they had some of their permanent collection pieces on display as well.

Front of the Museum of Fine Arts

Looking to the right of the shot above. Lovely classical style with rows of Greek columns.

Some of the pieces in the Color exhibit

Colorful cubes

From the permanent collection. Julie as Flora, Roman Goddess of Flowers.
This was one of my favorite pieces. It was stunning.

Monet, Houses of Parliament: Effect of Fog, London
Another amazing piece. You can't appreciate it from this photograph though because in person, it has so much depth and there's so much to it that you don't see at first glance.

Georgia O'Keeffe, Poppy

Statue of Mercury (Sorry, can't find it on their website to link to.)

View from the 2nd floor.

Second floor had the photos of 100 years of National Parks

This one is hard to see but it made me laugh because it's flamingos at Yosemite.
You'd expect them here in Florida but not out there!

One of several STUNNING Ansel Adams images. They're amazing in their clarity and beauty.

Down in the gift shop, they had this cool old cigarette vending machine converted to give miniature works of art in various mediums like small paintings, photos, ceramics and more. (More info @ ArtoMat.com)

And just to be silly, they have these niches along the walkway outside the building. You can't see it but they are about 3 feet or so above the ground. Love said to jump up in there and he'd get a shot. :)