and Cape Canaveral
Tropical city with swaying palm trees on the west coast of Florida
The city of Tampa is part of the Tampa Bay area conurbation on Florida’s Gulf Coast. As far as tourism regards, Tampa lives in the shadow of Orlando, but it does have some very nice beaches, Busch Gardens amusement park, and across the bay in St Petersburg is the Salvador Dali museum. It’s a tropical climate almost all year round, making it popular with retirees.
I was in Tampa in summer 2000, and aside from the odd tropical storm, I sure did enjoy the relentless heat, beautiful beaches, body boarding and jet skiing. I stayed at Chase Suite Hotel which was self-catered accommodation on Pelican Island in the bay.
Downtown Tampa was spotlessly clean, and the only people I saw were either business types or homeless. During public holidays and weekends, downtown areas in the US tend to shut down completely, and be strangely devoid of human life.
A shot of some very American vehicles: an 18-wheeler and a Lincoln with the Stars and Stripes instead of a license plate. Florida state law doesn’t require a front license plate to be displayed, so there are some interesting custom choices on show.
Tampa was my first experience of digital photography, and I was especially pleased with this arty shot. On the left is the SunTrust Building, and on the right is the GTE building, since renamed several times and now known as One Tampa City Center.
Plaza at One Tampa City Center, between the GTE building and the Hyatt hotel, popular hang-out around lunchtime.
Downtown Tampa’s Bank of America Plaza is one of the tallest in the city. In 2002 a small plane was deliberately flown into the building in an apparent 9/11 copy-cat attack, but fortunately the pilot was the only casualty.
Down at street level, looking along East Jackson Street towards the Bank of America building.
In the middle of this shot is the SunTrust building, on the right is the GTE building and on the left is the Municipal Building.
Office-types head to lunch up North Franklin. Tampa was the first place I encountered Subway Sandwiches, and was very happy when they started showing up in the UK several years later.
View through Lykes Gaslight Park to the SunTrust Center, one of Tampa’s postmodern towers.
Another arty shot, taken against the Hyatt Hotel in Tampa City Centre.
More stars and stripes at Chase Suite Hotel out on Pelican Island, where I stayed – it’s on one of three causeway/bridges that stretch a good five miles across Tampa Bay.
View across the lake just outside Chase Suite Hotel, the lake was part of Tampa Bay itself, and had jet skis for hire – best fun I’ve ever had on the water!
We went to see the Tampa Bay Buccaneers ply their American football craft against the Washington Redskins at Raymond James stadium, still the only NFL game I’ve been to see, and very entertaining. Whenever Tampa Bay made ground, the pirate ship would fire off a volley with its cannons.
We took a day trip across the state to Cape Canaveral, touring past NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building which was prepping for another shuttle launch. It’s still one of the largest buildings by volume in the world, with a special air conditioning system installed to prevent cloud formation and rain falling inside.
Ever since I was a lad in Houston, I’ve liked a good rocket engine to pose beside – this is another example of a Saturn V F1 rocket engine, of the type that sent the astronauts to the moon.
Created 2001 | Updated 2023
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