Hey look, another photo update!
Mmm, static.
I know, the massive photo updates have been coming fast and furious in these parts lately. But I'm done traveling for a while, so this should be the last of its sort for a while, aside from the usual weekend travels around central Florida. We're planning a summer trip at the end of July, though, so all bets are off then!
So let's see, where was I? I posted about the weekend before last, and then I worked Monday as usual. That evening I needed to head over to a hotel in Tampa, where I was doing a training for work for the next 3 days. But before I headed out, to have some fun and to give Heather a little break before I left, I took the girls out to a little park we hadn't been to for a few years.
I love swing shots, but especially with the hair floating in the air!
I left for Tampa around 8pm, so I got to the hotel, checked in, and that was pretty much it. Tuesday after class, though, I planned to get out and explore a bit. See, Tampa isn't all that far away, really, and I go there pretty regularly for work. But somehow we never make it over there to explore fun stuff. And we really should, because there's lots the kids would like! The Tampa zoo is really good, the Florida Aquarium is good, there are a few science and other museums we'd enjoy, lots of nice parks.. actually I'm not sure why we never think to go that way, especially now that Stef lives over there. Anyway, one of the spots I've always wanted to check out is Fort DeSoto Park, which is an island at the entrance to Tampa Bay. It always sounded like a good blend of nature and history, which is right up my alley. So as soon as class wrapped up, I changed into shorts, grabbed my camera, and hit the road.
There were two ways to get to the park from the hotel, essentially--I could head west to St. Petersburg and drop south, or I could go south on the mainland and then come back up towards St. Pete over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which I'd never seen or traversed. The bridge looked interesting, so I headed that way.
Along I-275 there was a rest stop that offered a decent view of the bridge across Tampa Bay, so I stopped off there for a few photos. But daylight was wasting!
Going over the bridge. Please ignore the smears on the windshield--it's love bug season already. If you have no idea what love bugs are, be thankful.
The Fort DeSoto from which the park takes its name was a fortification built at the time of the Spanish-American War, 1898-1900 or so. The location was identified as a strategic one by Robert E. Lee--yes, THAT Robert E. Lee--in 1849. In 1923 it was mothballed, and Pinellas County purchased the land in 1938. When WWII started in 1941, the military bought it back and reopened the fort as a training center, then sold it back to Pinellas county in 1948.
All that's really left intact of the fort is Battery Laidley, a reinforced concrete artillery emplacement originally cosntructed in 1900. It's the only remaining installation of 12" M1890M1 Mortars on M1896M1 Carriages in the U.S., both of which you see here. In case you care about that sort of thing. :)
The interior spaces are open, and all look basically like this. Vaguely creepy. The girls would enjoy exploring it, I bet!
I was really here for sunset--I wanted to go somewhere with a western view over the Gulf of Mexico, since it's rare that I find myself anywhere near a western coast at sunset. But I had some time before sunset, so I headed toward the beach.
I love beaches for the various shorebirds, always fun to watch. This is a laughing gull, there were a great many of them.
Not so sure about these. Sandpiper of some sort, I suppose.
An osprey delivering some more nest-building material to his mate.
Ironically, I noted in the news today that a 73-year-old tourist from Colombia died in the water at this spot over the weekend. Not sure if he simply drowned in the surf, or had a heart attack or something first.
These are the remains of the fort's other battery, Battery Bigelow, a 3" coastal-defense emplacement. It was disarmed after WWI and essentially left to crumble into the Gulf.
There's a pretty long fishing pier out into the Gulf, seemed like a good place to see some more birds and maybe some aquatic critters too.
Snowy egret. It was breezy!
Getting closer to sunset!
I think pelicans are cool.
I heard a few fishermen talking about dolphins stealing bait and/or hooked fish, but I didn't see any. Until I started walking back, that is!
I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to do when sunset finally arrived. The sun sinking into the water is a bit cliche, of course, though beautiful. There must be some angle I could find to get a really interesting shot, though..
I thought this post might have been the remains of a flagpole, but apparently it actually supported an observation tower, with wooden stairs going up to it. Everything wood is long-gone, of course. There were some other foundational remnants of the other buildings that comprised the fort--barracks, headquarters, mess hall, etc.--but I didn't have enough time to really explore that area much.
I knew I wanted to use the 200mm zoom to make the sun large in the frame, and then I happened to spot some fishermen standing out at the end of the pier. A little positioning, a little waiting.. boom! Fairly happy with the results.
Obligatory but cool.
Nearby is Egmont Key, which also used to be a military base (Fort Dade) and is now split up as both a U.S. National Wildlife Refuge and Florida State Park. It's only accessible by boat, but there's an occasional ferry service--would be interesting to check out and explore sometime! The lighthouse is the Egmont Key Lighthouse, naturally--the first one went into service in 1848, and was already in need of replacement by 1856 thanks to a hurricane and lightning strike. This is that second tower, which was completed in 1857. It originally had a more traditional glassed-in beacon on top, but in 1944 that was removed, the tower was capped and a simple rotating 2-sided light was installed. I think there's a conservation group working to get the original style of top restored, which would indeed be more attractive.
Wednesday after class I had dinner with some colleagues, and then booked it over to the Tampa International Airport (TPA). I'd read that the top of their parking garage was a great place for planespotting and photographs, situated as it is right in between the airport's two main commercial runways.
I thought this made for an interesting shot.
Touchdown! I love to fly, but if there's one moment that gives me pause when I'm on board an aircraft, this is it. I dunno, there's the anticipation of the wheels making contact, and then it always feels like we're going to slam down too hard, or veer off to the side, or who knows what. Landing an airplane, after all, is nothing but a controlled crash. But I talk myself into feeling fine since airplanes land thousands of times every day.
Trying to get a little bit of a tilt-shift miniature effect here. Needs more blur, I think.
And that was it for Tampa--after class on Thursday we all headed home, and after 3 nights away the girls were happy to see me! This past weekend was a hot one, but that didn't keep us from heading to a park on Saturday. We decided on Gemini Springs, which gets its name from its two little springheads.
One of the twin springs. Neat light.
A young alligator was lounging in the waters.
Meanwhile, Heather's been busy sewing! This is a Frozen-style dress she made for a friend. Pretty simple, but still pretty cool. So to speak.
She got a batch of vintage-style fabric off of eBay recently, so she's been using it to make vintage-inspired dresses for Amy, who is remarkably happy to model them.
Sunday being Mother's Day, what Heather really wanted was a break from the kids so she could do more sewing and have some quiet time! I figured I should see my own Mom, of course, so I packed up the girls and we headed over towards the east coast. But on the way I thought I'd make a little detour and check out something I've long wanted to go see.
This brick structure is all that remains of the town of Osceola, which thrived in Seminole County between 1916 and 1939. It was a company town built by a logging company, and was remarkably cosmopolitan for its time and place--indoor plumbing, electricity (even though they shut it down at 10pm every night), you name it. People generally call this remnant the Osceola Bank Vault, but that's a bit of a misnomer--it was indeed a vault, but it was part of the company headquarters or store rather than a bank, and was where they kept their payroll and important documents. In 1939 the company pulled up stakes to move south, and dismantled most of the town to sell as scrap lumber. They left the brick vault standing, though, and there it remains. It's kinda neat, you're driving down a twisty country road in the middle of nowhere, and suddenly there's a little clearing by the side of the road with this sitting back a ways. Kinda cool.
Not much inside except some broken bricks and mortar, but the girls enjoyed checking it out. Looks like the roof had been recently reinforced with some wood beams--clearly someone is interested in preserving this little remaining bit of Osceola.
Over at Mom's, the girls played for a bit, and then we took Mom out to lunch. Good thing we went a little early, the place was already busy and probably got a lot worse. I understand Mother's Day is the busiest day of the year for restaurants. After lunch I thought we'd go to a park along the Indian River that was a favorite place of mine back when I lived in Titusville.
I'd discovered at Mom's house that my camera's battery was dead! I don't know if I left it in Live View mode or if a button got held down and drained it or what, but it was surely dead and I'd brought no spare. So it seemed like a good chance (and indeed I had no choice but) to try out the iPhone camera instead! This one and the rest are iPhone pics, though I did pull them into Lightroom for my usual editing workflow. I was pleased first and foremost with the clarity and dynamic range--I think most cell phone cameras would have blown out the sky and lost that cloud detail (though I did enhance it a bit in post).
Some odd perspective going on here, her forehead looks too big. I must have been too close!
You're probably not actually supposed to climb on the Mercury 7 memorial. But oh well, they had a blast climbing up and sliding down (with my help, of course). Besides, there are no signs that say not to climb, so...
And that was the past week or so. Thanks for looking!