In early December Brett and I were back at Davis Islands for another afternoon walk. We were soaking up the cooler sunny weather.
It was a busy sailboat day and we sat for a while watching the boats go in and out of the yacht basin.
We found the perfect bench to sit and look for birds and dolphins.
This male grackle was showing off his pretty colors in the sun.
We also had a nice view of downtown Tampa from our bench.
In mid-November Brett and I were having lunch near Davis Islands and decided to take a quick ride through the small island that sits off downtown Tampa. We had heard the entire island had flooded during Hurricane Helene but some of the stores and restaurants had recently reopened. We drove past the small private airport and went out to the little beach in the yacht basin. There were so many boats up on land that had gotten stranded when the water receded. It’s going to take many months to years to get them all off land.
The little docks at the boat ramp were missing.
Other than the brown grass and overturned boats, on the surface everything else looked back to normal at the yacht basin.
You can see the downtown skyline leaving the beach here.
We drove down the inside channel side to get back to Tampa and a lot of the houses still had house and yard debris piled up more than a month later.
As August starts to roll around, the summer rains come in. Usually in the late afternoons (although some days the rain can start in the morning and continue all day).Most nights the sun would peek out right before it set which makes for amazing colors through the clouds. I am constantly running outside to check the skies and take pictures. I’m sure my neighbors think I’m crazy. All of the above were taken from my yard with my phone.
I was running errands and caught this tiny lightning bolt walking back to my car. It’s better to run errands on a day like this in August. It’s cooler and less people are out. Although you have to be okay with getting wet if a super soaker happens that even an umbrella won’t help.
Catching a storm coming in at Davis Islands.
While out running errands, I stopped at a fishing pier in the northern part of Tampa bay. This lesser known pier is a great spot to catch the storms rolling in. There wasn’t any lightning from the clouds or else I would not have been out here on the pier. I headed back to my car long before the rain hit.
I hadn’t been over to Davis Islands in a while so I headed over for a walk around the yacht basin at the end of the island. There’s a small dog beach there that has a great view of downtown Tampa. The dogs looked like they were having fun jumping in the water. I wanted to join them but that water was not too pretty right there near the shipping channel.
Two panos of downtown in front of the small private airport on the island.
There are usually a few planes taking off on a Saturday morning but none were leaving this morning in mid-August.
Shots above of the quiet lagoon.
Looking closer, one of the docks at the boat ramp has gone missing. The other one is still there but looks like it’s about to crumble.
More shots from my stop over to Davis Islands to get some sunset shots. These were taken earlier in then night near the Marjorie Park Marina.
Tampa late in the day.
Across from the yacht basin.
Downtown Tampa far off to the right of the yacht basin.
A beautiful night to be out. This was in mid-March when the weather was still cool.
Almost dark.
Royal terns and willets on the sea wall across from the boat ramp at Davis Islands.
Pelicans and a great egret hanging around the island.
The view of Tampa across from the Davis Islands yacht basin right before sunset.
Watching the sun go down early in the quarantine in late March.
It was a quiet night. Most people were sitting in their cars watching the sun go down instead of getting out and walking around the small beach there. I kept saying I was going to get back over there but I just never did.
We headed out for lunch on a warm Sunday in January with the top down. Driving down Bayshore Boulevard, you could see the Tampa skyline.
We hadn’t been over to Davis Islands in a long time so we stopped for a quick walk after lunch at the beach area near the yacht basin.
Driving through downtown Tampa on the way home. The above were taken while sitting at red lights. All pictures were taken with my phone.
My sisters and I took the Cross Bay ferry from St. Pete to Tampa over Thanksgiving weekend one afternoon. When we got to the Tampa side we had a few minutes to walk around before heading back to St. Pete. You can take a later ferry but we took the next ferry back since we had plans later that day and well, we’ve spent a lot of time here before. I snapped the above before getting back on.
Passing back by the big boats as we were leaving.
The view from the upper deck including the selfie with my phone.
Lots of boats were following us out of the channel since it was a beautiful day. It looks like there was a sailboat class in the bottom picture. Lots of tiny white sailboats to the left of the yacht basin.
Bye bye Tampa (at least for a couple of hours).
It’s funny that we took 3 ferry rides while we were in Boston but have never taken the ferry across Tampa bay. It’s hard to do fun tourist things when you are working and on a schedule. When my sisters came to visit we booked the ferry from St. Pete to Tampa. It’s a little less than an hour each way. It was fun hanging out and being a tourist. As we headed to Tampa we got close to the TECO electric plant. It was so nice out that there were a lot of boats on the water.
In the middle of the bay you could see Tampa.
Passing by the ports and Davis Islands yacht basin.
We were close to the big boats at the port.
Heading into the channel. I took a ton of pictures on the trip so more to come.
These are some older pictures I took years ago on a sunset walk around the yacht basin at Davis Islands in south Tampa. I have not been over there in a long time and was recently thinking I needed to go over there to walk. I’m sure the view is the same.
Sunsets with boats never get old.