Tampa Vacation: Busch Gardens

Ok, ok, so you may be thinking...how many more pictures can one person post??! But, I have to admit...I'm sort of having fun with this digital camera thing! I'm trying to make up for lost time...for the last year of NO pictures....so, forgive me for squeezing an entire year's worth of pictures into a few posts!!



Our next stop...Busch Gardens!


We saw animals....



Note the very large hippo behind Kathy...he was really a friendly Hippo!!

We saw the elephants...




We briefly traded in our convertible for a more practical, adventure-some mode of transportation!




..and visited the gorillas! It doesn't seem as though our life in vacation mode is much different than the life of your typical gorilla! Hmmmm....

We also rode some rollercoasters...the scariest was THE SHEIKRA!!

The Sheikra was advertised all over Tampa....it's a 200 foot drop, 90 degrees down! And, the worst part? It stops at the top for 5 seconds so you can take your time looking stright down and pondering the terror of the inevitable drop!

We survived the Sheikra!!

Tampa Vacation: The MOSI

The MOSI--The Museum of Science and Industry

Disasterville

We survived a hurricane while we were in Florida! Thankfully, it wasn't a real hurricane...

...it was just the weather report while "working" for Bay News 9! This just happened to be the News channel that we watched frequently during our stay.

But, our work wasn't done! Then we were off to do the real work...fighting fires! (That isn't much different than what I do daily in my "real job"!)

Then, we were off to learn about tornadoes! It's always
good to know the exact, precise location of "Tornado Alley"!!

Kathy nearly got swept away by the tornado but...

...thankfully it wasn't the right time!

Then, we learned some helpful hints about floods...pay close attention!

Always good to remember...

Also, a helpful hint...

And, just in case you really thought you could stop a flood...remember...YOU CAN'T!

Tampa Vacation: Mile Marker ZERO!

Kathy and I spent a lot of time driving along Gulf Blvd. We finally reached St. Pete's Beach at Mile Marker Zero! It was beautiful so we spent some time taking pictures.

The birds were always squawking and waking us up in the morning or waking us up on the beach! So, this picture is in memory of the birds!

Kathy and I enjoyed using the timer on our cameras! Needless to say, the couple on the bench was laughing at us as we ran back and forth and then tried to look "natural"!

This beautiful house sits at Mile Marker Zero, facing St. Pete's beach. It's so picturesque and looks like a lovely place to retire one day. Ok, maybe that's just wishful thinking talking but one can hope, right?!

I even had some fun making footprints in the sand. Now I finally know why they make fun designs on the soles of
shoes. Its for those occassional times we leave our footprints in the sand!


Makes me wonder what other kinds of
"impressions" I'm leaving wherever I
walk without even realizing it!

"Uphold my steps in Your paths,
That my footsteps may not slip."

Psalm 17:5

Tampa Vacation: The Beach

Here are some of my favorite pictures of the beach:

The gulf didn't have many waves so Kathy and I bought some floaties so we could relax in the water. It was really hot so we enjoyed being able to float in the water where it was a little cooler than laying on the beach. We were laying there talking when I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I thought, "That was nothing." Then, Kathy saw something. We looked down and were floating over a whole school of fish! They were trying to jump onto our rafts!! We quickly high-tailed it out of there and then laughed when we realized we were scared of a bunch of minnows! I think we were a little jumpy since we had been watching the pelicans swooping down and devouring their lunch!

This wasn't our spot but I thought it looked so inviting!
It's the perfect perch to read a book and enjoy listening
to the waves crashing against the shore!

So many evenings the sky and clouds were breathtaking.
This particular evening was no different!

Tampa Vacation: My new love...

..our convertible! Kathy and I spent

a lot of time just enjoying the wind

in our hair, driving our PT Cruiser

convertible! It was fabulous! I'm

not a particular fan of a PT

Cruiser...but, I am a fan of any car

that is a convertible!! Here are some

pictures of our fun with our PT cruiser!

Please meet Mr. Gnome. This little character Kathy brings on every trip with her. He has been to the Bahamas, Aspen, Italy, Finland, and so many more places! Sadly, we didn't find Mr. Gnome until the day we left so we have only a few precious pictures of him!

STOPLIGHT!!

No time for a Chinese Fire Drill,

but QUICK! Snap a picture!

Tampa Vacation: Our Arrival

Here is stage one of my vacation pictures...don't worry, many more stages to come!! I haven't quite figured out how to best get my cropped/edited pictures into blogger so bear with me!

When we arrived to get our car, all the convertibles were MIA.

Never fear, we got our convertible PT Cruiser!
I highly recommend convertibles! It was so fun
to drive around Tampa with the top down! It
always made for interesting hair-dos but fun
none the less!!

Our condo was located on the second floor, the balconies
closest to the beach. We couldn't have had a better view!

This was the view off our condo balcony!

Here are Kathy and I, enjoying the fact that we are
finally on our vacation and don't have to think about
work for an entire week!!

Vacation & Cameras

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Kathy and I went to Indian Rocks Beach, Florida for a week vacation! (That's located in the Tampa area, on the gulf between St. Petersburg and Clearwater.) We had a condo that overlooked the gulf. It was beautiful and relaxing. I am so blessed to have the opportunity to take a vacation like this...to have the means to be able to go to the beach for a week of relaxation is such a blessing from the Lord!

Over the next several posts, I'll be sharing pictures and stories of our adventures in Florida. Until then, I will be working to understand this new digital camera I own. Yes, yes, I have finally joined the ranks of those with digital cameras (I understand I'm a bit behind the times!) and will finally be able to share with you pictures from what's going on in my life. This will certainly aid in sprucing up my blog in the weeks to come! But, for now, I'm just trying to learn how to edit and crop my pictures on my computer so if anyone has any great ideas on how to accomplish this somewhat easily, feel free to enlighten this ignorant digital camera user!!