Spring Break Was Fun

Hey guys, i only realized recently the site was down for maintenance by the threads i saw. I lost my regular hitspot connection so i did not even have regular internet like i have had for some time. Good to see whatever was broken is fixed i suppose.

My family and I were enjoying the simple things in life. Trip to the zoo, parks, the aquarium, beach and the sunshine skyway bridge. I was actually very susrprised and pleased to see the seagrass beds are doing even better at the mouth of the bay than they are doing along the causeways along the inland. We were finding starfish and strange coral like sponges and lots of florida fighting conch. Nothing like that was around when i was a kid as efforts to restore the bay after decades of human abuse had just began. Its really nice to see efforts to bring the bay back to life have been suceeding. Too often we only hear and read about the destructive of human activity on ecosystems, but when there are successes they are not as readily celebrated. Witnessing it with my own eyes is just that much more satisfying though.


The lights they have added to the bridge at night are quite stunning and also caught me off guard. Its been some time since i crossed it at night. Made for an exquisite sunset view from the south rest area park.



So how did yall enjoy the spring break with your familiy??

a reply to: worldstarcountry

Our spring break is a little later where I live, we still have 3 feet of snow.

Yours sounds pretty cool though Love that bridge! I live at an International Border crossing a river and our bridge looks like Escape From New York...

Better than an autobot clicking refresh which you've configured to email you when you get a hit...*what?

a reply to: MykeNukem

Lol, when you say autobot, were you refering to transformers, or some computer algorythm?? I saw that bridge during the freedom ralleys, where was snake blisken when you needed him??

originally posted by: worldstarcountry
a reply to: MykeNukem

Lol, when you say autobot, were you refering to transformers, or some computer algorythm?? I saw that bridge during the freedom ralleys, where was snake blisken when you needed him??

Yea an Al Gore Rythym

Snaaaaaaake!!!!!

a reply to: worldstarcountry

That's great Tampa Bay is coming back ecologically! We were over that way a few months ago, found more sand dollars than we'd ever seen before in our lives. Literally thousands of them off the beach in Venice. I know that's a bit south of the bay, but it was still pretty cool.

I really like driving over that bridge too. Whenever we go to Clearwater I take 70 over instead of 60, just so we can come up that way. Plus, it gives me an excuse to stop at one of my favorite restaurants over there (Conch Republic Grill in Redington Shores).

a reply to: cmdrkeenkid
I need to hit those beaches up a redington more often. The last time I was at redington we rented a unit just across the street from the beach. I had a Marine fish tank at the time and would bring caulerpa and other clumps of sea vegetation home to my tangs as a tasty treat. It also seeded the tank with all kinds of pods for the other omnivores in the tank to feed off of, especially the more picky ones.

One of the clumps I brought home that day had a small box fish hiding in it. He became a member of the small reef until I had to disband it because of life and such.

But yea the bay itself is really making a great comeback. I am seeing things I never saw as a kid. I think they killed off honeymoon island though. I used to be able to find purple sea urchins on every visit during lower tides. Then someone had the bright idea of dumping hundreds of tons of sand to increase the shoreline into a more traditional sandy type beach. Of course the gulf had other ideas and they have up after it washed back out to sea twice.

Never seen an urchin on those shores again ever since. The shelling is still nice though.

originally posted by: MyKenukem
Our spring break is a little later where I live, we still have 3 feet of snow.

Don't effing lie, Canada never gets a Spring.