John F. Germany Public Library Downtown Tampa

I've driven past, but never stopped at the John F. Germany Public Library in downtown Tampa before, so yesterday, we headed over there on a whim. I only used my cell phone because it's downtown and I didn't want to be flashing a $1,000 in DSLR equipment around in a parking garage. Not that it's unsafe in downtown Tampa, but you know...you need to be aware of the kind of situations you put yourself in.

I found this link which tells a bit about the man for whom the library is named. (Because though I've lived in this area for 25+ years, I really didn't know who he was! LOL)

Found this shot on the web. Since I drove I couldn't stop to get a shot of the front of the building. LOL Also, the water features have been turned off lately because of drought issues.

You have to park in one of the paid parking garages since it's downtown but they have a covered skywalk to get from the garage to the library itself.

Picture found on Google to help show the walk from external view.

This is the same skywalk but from INSIDE as the picture above.

From the skywalk, looking back at the parking garage and some of the skyline.

The skywalk crossed over a street and you can see some of downtown Tampa's skyline.

After you reach the end of the skywalk, you get to the first building which houses the kids section and the genealogy on another floor. (I wanted to get a photo of a cute near-life sized toy train they had in this area, but some kids ran over to climb on it just as I went to take the shot so I couldn't.)

There's a second sky bridge to connect from the 1st building over to the second.

A shot of the Straz Center (formerly the Performing Arts Center) where they have all kinds of Broadway shows and such.

It's two floors with a "floating" staircase in the middle.

 
 I didn't really get any images inside because there were a lot of people there and I couldn't get a lot of shots without getting them in the frame. Also, sadly, as it's a downtown library, there were a lot of homeless people hanging out there since it has a/c and it felt wrong to take silly pics with a pineapple with them in the background. I didn't want to insult anyone or put them in an undignified photo without permission, you know?

Still, it's a very large building and Anana and I had fun exploring both levels!

The Florida Aquarium

We finally made it over to The Florida Aquarium on Sunday, September 8th. Located in Downtown Tampa's "Channelside" district, it's down by the ports. (Both commercial and cruise ship.)

Normally, you can always see a cruise ship docked but there wasn't any there today. I went all up and down the port but no such luck. (Boo) So here's a screenshot of Google Street View to show you what it normally looks like! LOL

Now, onto the Aquarium!

I laughed so hard at this sign.

The penguins were being anti-social and way up on the rocks so I wasn't able to get any better shots of them. Darnit!

The largest, creepiest lobsters ever.

Holy crap this fish was MASSIVE. I seriously don't think you can get the scale of how big it was.
It had to have been like 250lbs it was so gigantic!!

This was the largest ray I've ever seen. Little kids were posing in front of it and it was bigger than they were!

Anana on the PeopleMover

I took a minute or so of footage of Anana riding the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover on some of it's journey through Tomorrowland at Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World.

It's a relaxing, elevated 10-minute ride around Tomorrowland and it goes through several attractions such as Space Mountain as well. We've ridden it before but when we got a front car, I thought it was a good chance to take a little video.

I outlined the route in red and the part in yellow is the section I took the video.

You can also check out Disney's official page about it here.

At the Library

I had some books to pick up from the library (I LOVE being able to put in holds online then get a text when they're ready for pickup!) so I figured it only made sense to bring Anana with me to explore it.

The whole branch has been under construction for awhile now and they're doing a HUGE expansion making it like twice as large as it was. (It was kinda little before.)

Fancy entrance!

The building used to end where the arrow is pointing. Everything to the left of that is new.

There's a gazebo across from the entrance. (No clue why but they really are very proud of it!)

When you first walk in, there's this girl throwing a bone Frisbee to a bronze dog.

And here's the bronze dog. LOL

Big sections are blocked off and taped closed. Including the little honor system used book store (where you can drop off unwanted books and buy others for cheap to benefit the library.)

Went for a trip through some of the stacks.

...and we looked up the Florida travel section!

Anana wanted to look at the beach guide book.

Looking back towards the entrance and lobby.

You can see where the old part ended. They also added another big room onto the back so it expanded both left-to-right and front-to-back. It's obviously still a work in progress!

Anana took a ride on a return cart.

And we played with the digital catalog a little too before heading out with our books.

At the Mall

Yesterday I spent the day with my Mom. We had a few errands to run and that included hitting the mall. I brought Anana with me so he could get some photos. I only brought my little point-and-shoot so excuse the lackluster quality of the shots. Thought my DSLR would be a bit too conspicuous!

I love taking LV's to the mall because the fact there is an indoor ice skating rink in a mall in Clearwater, Florida amuses me highly. :)

They do both ice skating lessons and public skates at the rink.

We were amused by the pineapple pitcher and platter in Macy's!

We stopped for our traditional mall snack of an Auntie Anne's pretzel and lemonade!

They have this train that just drives through the mall from one end to another with kids on it. No track, just a train driving through the middle of the mall. Cracks me up! It makes train noises and everything.

On the 2nd floor we spotted a painted dolphin looking down on the rink. (The sign said it was celebrating the new "restaurant row" they added when they also installed a movie theater.)

And just because it was too absurd not to get a photo of, I found this purse by "Patricia Nash" (?) that actually had one whole side covered in fake astroturf grass. Who does that?? Guess that's why it was on clearance! LOL

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!