I went off to Tampa and St. Petersburg in November 2017 for a getaway and a visit with Bob Johnston. I visited a few museums and galleries on an overcast Friday afternoon, then a fantastic day of cycling in St. Petersburg on Saturday. Sunday was cloudy with intermittent rain, so my photos of Tampa proper are a little dreary, though I made the best of patches of light when they appeared. Bob was an excellent host who seemed to know exactly what I would want to see, and the afternoon of cycling was a highlight of 2017.
Photo List (Total 375 Photos)
Click bolded headers below to view, or click "just the best" for quick tour
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Central Tampa (93 photos) - This gallery starts with a skyline view from a parking garage at the Tampa General Hospital. After that, it continues at the former Tampa Bay Hotel, a highly decorative building that now houses the University of Tampa and the Henry B. Plant Museum which I visited. It moves across the river to the Tampa Museum of Art and includes a visit there as well, and then captures some of the taller buildings and downtown streetscapes. At street level, much of downtown Tampa had an abandoned feel, save for a small area near the river.
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Ybor City and other Tampa (82 photos) - This includes everything that is not found in the "Central Tampa" gallery. There are a few photos of the area around the Amalie Arena and Garrison Channel, but it was raining so not many. Includes a visit to the fairly decrepit Oaklawn Cemetery, and then a few shots from South Tampa as I was driving up from St. Petersburg on Sunday morning. I went to the Florida Aquarium. The gallery ends at Ybor City, which is a former company town for cigar manufacturing, just to the north and east of central Tampa. This area has a lively historical streetscape and is full of bars and tattoo parlours, and I spent a festive if wet afternoon there.
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Central St. Petersburg (87 photos) - This gallery starts with a small cluster of historical buildings close to Williams Park downtown, and then expands to include other buildings in the downtown area. Along the waterfront, there are a series of parks, and a bunch of condos along Beach Drive. The gallery ends at the Salvador Dali Museum.
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Central Avenue in St. Petersburg (32 photos) - Central Avenue bisects the city, running east/west from Tampa Bay to the Gulf of Mexico at Treasure Island. It's a pleasant street with restaurants and bars, and we ate here a few times. Also includes the Chihuly Collection.
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Other St. Petersburg (81 photos) - This gallery is mostly from my Saturday bike ride with Bob, but includes our night out on Saturday and a bunch of other odds and sods. It includes Crescent Lake, the Sunken Garden, the Coffeepot Bayou, a Palm Aboretum, the Old Southeast, Driftwood, and the Warehouse Arts District. Outside of the bike ride, there's a few photos of Treasure Island Beach, and dining in Gulfport.
