Tag Archives: statues

Around town

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My sister from St. Louis came to visit for a week in February. We did a lot of tourist things and one of them was visiting Sunken Gardens in St. Pete. The botanical gardens, located near downtown, is over 100 years old. I think it had been at least 30 years since my sister had been and a few years for me. There’s a lot of old tall trees here including that beautiful rainbow eucalyptus tree in the bottom shot.

Watching the small flock of flamingos.

I only saw a few butterflies since it was still a little chilly.

One of the small moss covered waterfalls (I took this with my phone).

The bougainvillea bush wall was in full bloom and it was a beautiful to see how it had been growing for years.

Some of the miniature ponds.

The next day were in downtown Tampa for lunch and found these cool statues. I think this was once a forgotten industrial area and is now a booming area with new apartments and restaurants.

A little bit of history – repost

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I am reposting this post from early 2018 since today is Martin Luther King Jr, day.

I was born in Birmingham Alabama in 1963. My mother was pregnant with me through some historic events that happened that year in this city. I would not learn what happened during that time until much later. My parents were not from the south. They ended up there because of my dad’s job in the middle 50’s. My mom grew up in New York and my dad grew up in Argentina, moving to American in his late teens. When I was young, my friends thought my parents were from another planet since they didn’t have southern accents. I didn’t know the small park in the pictures below existed. I grew in northern Birmingham going to a Catholic grade school and then a public high school. I don’t remember learning about any of the events that took place the year I was born. It wasn’t until I moved to Atlanta after college and became interested in history that I heard the stories about “Bombingham”. 

My sister and I spent some time at Kelly Ingram Park during my visit over Easter weekend. Neither of us had ever been there before. The park is located across the street from the 16th Street Baptist Church where 4 young girls were killed when a bomb went off in the church on a Sunday Morning in 1963. The park now has many statues and sculptures related to the civil rights movements.

The famous “Foot Soldiers” statue depicts a scene of what happened in  May of 1963.

More sculptures in the park.

The statue of Martin Luther King Jr.

The Four Spirits statue that depicts the 4 young girls that died in the church bombing in September 1963.

Roses next to the Four Spirits statue.

Across from the park, the 16th Street Baptist Church where Martin Luther King Jr. was a frequent speaker. There’s a lot of history in this building that you can read about here. 

Our World Tuesday Graphic

More from the Veterans Memorial Park

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More pictures from the Veteran’s Memorial Park in east Tampa. I took so many pictures and had to post most of them. You can see my first post here. The above were taken in the WW2 section.

You can see the cool helicopters from all over the park.  Once I got into the Vietnam section, I could really see the details. You could see into the bottom of this one and it had a camera in the floor. I tried to imagine someone flying this and taking pictures over enemy territory.

The one with the teeth across the front was also impressive. I wonder if it was painted this way when it was in use?

There was also a memorial to the dogs used in the military.

The park is in a beautiful setting and was a perfect way to spend a morning walking around under the trees learning about the history.

The park sits on the Bypass Canal and of course I spent some time walking along the water looking for birds. The only ones I found were two limpkins. One was a juvenile, still yelling at Mom to feed it.

There were a lot of hibiscus bushes in the park, which are are my Dad’s favorite.

Speaking of my Dad, here he is going into boot camp. He was over in Germany in 44 and 45.

He had a camera permit while he was overseas. He had a photo album full of pictures taken overseas that I didn’t even know existed until we found it after he died. I still have his camera pass. He would have been 97 years old last week.

SkyWatch Friday

A peaceful place

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Back in early November when the weather was too nice to be indoors and I wasn’t ready to go home yet after my walk at Chesnut Park, I stopped by Sylvian Abby cemetery. It’s not just any random cemetery (although I have been know to stop at those too. Sometimes cemeteries have good birds). My grandparents are buried here. It was quiet and peaceful with only a few people there.

They are buried in front of these statues. I decided to walk around a bit and realized there are a lot of statues here.

I’m not sure who these statues are but they were big. I didn’t see a sign or plaque.

There are beautiful stained glass windows in the outdoor chapel and mausoleum.

I found this turtle carved out of an old oak tree.

Plants were growing everywhere.

Plaques at the back entrance.

SkyWatch Friday

Do you believe in fairy tales?

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Why are these fairytale characters sitting on the grounds of a cool contemporary restaurant in Tampa? I had to find out. I vaguely remember hearing stories about going to Fairyland when we were visiting the grandparents in the Tampa bay area back in the 60’s. My dad had taken a few pictures of us when we were there. I was a toddler so I don’t remember being there. The original Fairyland Park was at Lowry Park which sat next to the zoo. It closed in the early 90’s and was torn down but some of the characters were stored in a warehouse in Tampa and forgotten. The owner of the restaurant (who also owns the famous Columbia Restaurant) grew up going to the park and when he found out there were characters that had been saved and stored, he was able to buy them and have them restored. It’s a little piece of Tampa history that was saved from oblivion.  Story of the characters being restored here.

A picture above of the original park taken from the Tampapix website. 

Above are some of the statues from the restaurant. The bust is of Princess Ulele, who the restaurant is named after. She lived in the Tampa Bay area in the 1500’s.

We wanted to get out on Thanksgiving morning for a walk before stuffing ourselves so we headed to downtown Tampa to walk along the water.

My Corner of the World

Baby chicks on the street

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More on my morning walk at the farmer’s market in Ybor City in Tampa.  There were baby chicks running around everywhere at the small park near downtown Tampa. I guess the chickens in the streets brings charm to the old part of town kind of like it does in Key West.

Some of the statues and charm in the Ybor neighborhood.

image-in-ing: weekly photo linkupOur World Tuesday Graphic

Sightseeing in Salt Lake City.

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The main attraction in downtown Salt Lake City is the Temple Square, Three city blocks make up this group of buildings owned by the Mormons and is the most popular tourist destination in the area. Brett and I spent some time there before heading to the airport to fly home. The morning we were there, 3 weddings were taking place so there was a lot of foot traffic around the main temple. Visitors cannot go inside but can see a model of it at the visitor’s center.

Reflections on the pool in front of the temple.

There are a few building you can enter including the Tabernacle. While we were not able to catch the choir practicing, we did hear the organ playing.

SkyWatch Friday

A little bit of history

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I was born in Birmingham Alabama in 1963. My mother was pregnant with me through some historic events that happened that year in this city. I would not learn what happened during that time until much later. My parents were not from the south. They ended up there because of my dad’s job in the middle 50’s. My mom grew up in New York and my dad grew up in Argentina, moving to American in his late teens. When I was young, my friends thought my parents were from another planet since they didn’t have southern accents. I didn’t know the small park in the pictures below existed. I grew in northern Birmingham going to a Catholic grade school and then a public high school. I don’t remember learning about any of the events that took place the year I was born. It wasn’t until I moved to Atlanta after college and became interested in history that I heard the stories about “Bombingham”. 

My sister and I spent some time at Kelly Ingram Park during my visit over Easter weekend. Neither of us had ever been there before. The park is located across the street from the 16th Street Baptist Church where 4 young girls were killed when a bomb went off in the church on a Sunday Morning in 1963. The park now has many statues and sculptures related to the civil rights movements.

The famous “Foot Soldiers” statue depicts a scene of what happened in  May of 1963.

More sculptures in the park.

The statue of Martin Luther King Jr.

The Four Spirits statue that depicts the 4 young girls that died in the church bombing in September 1963.

Roses next to the Four Spirits statue.

Across from the park, the 16th Street Baptist Church where Martin Luther King Jr. was a frequent speaker. There’s a lot of history in this building that you can read about here. 

Linking to Wednesday Around the World.