Tampa Aquarium

Ok, so this is the Tampa Aquarium, a rather large and very nice aquarium. While it is much larger than the one in St Pete, I decided not to go as photo crazy this time. After all, this is not a fish blog. But what the heck, here ya go.

SS American Victory

Ok, so this is the SS American Victory, a WW2 liberty Ship located right behind the Tampa Aquarium. It was laid down on Mar 30, 1945 at the Wilmington Yard by the CalShip Corp, and was launched on June 20, 1945. It was named for the American University in Wash DC.

Looking across the harbor at some ship repair facilities
One of the life boats
One of the main cargo holds-the purpose behind the ship!

Sickbay
Crew dining area
One of the all purpose self defense guns
lifeboats in their at sea position

Radio room
The flying bridge, where the ship can be commanded from atop the structure
Looking forward from the flying bridge towards the Carnival Cruise ship Inspiration
The main bridge, where the ship is normally controlled
Looking into the engine room

Tampa/St Petersburg

Ok, so here I decided to put up a collection of pictures I took around the Tampa/St Petersburg area. Above is Tampa, seen from the freeway, below is the Sunshine Skyway viewed from Fort Desoto Park. The Skyway spanning the mouth of Tampa Bay was opened on April 20, 1987 and is the world's longest bridge with a cable stayed main span.

Downtown St Pete from near the Holocaust Museum. Yes, I saw it, but did not make a post about it because they do not allow pictures. I don't normally promote places that do not allow pictures because that is one of my biggest pet peeves.
Driving across the Sunshine Skyway.
Sunset on my first day

Park near St Pete Pier

Downtown Tampa from the University of tampa
Downtown Tampa....somewhere

St Pete History Museum

Ok, so this is the St. Petersburg History Museum, located right by the pier. I thought it was rather small, but had some things worth seeing. The central display of the museum focuses on the aircraft above, which is a replica of the Benoist XIV. The Benoist XIV was used in what is commonly recognized as the world's first commercial air service, flown by Tony Janus on Jan 1, 1914, carrying Abram C. Pheil. The plane flew passengers across Tampa bay from Tampa to St. Petersburg, in much less time than it took for a boat to cross or to go around the bay. This service continued for three months before it was no longer cosidered to be profitable. Below are some objects from the flight including a Benoist penant, a wing spar, and goggles that Janus broke on the first flight.

This is an Egyptian sarcofagus and below is an actual mummy. Story goes that a ship captain transporting goods to a museum stopped in St Pete, but could not pay the harbor fee, so offered these to the city instead.

This is what the museum calls its "unusual collection" including a large dinosaur bone, two headed cow, large replica Swiss army knife, and other oddities. The museums other displays all fit quite nicley into a set system depicting the history of the city. These... well.... don't.