A Wherigo Tour Of Downtown Tampa

We took a walking tour of downtown Tampa by following a newer geocaching technique called Wherigo which involves being taken on a tour of an area before locating the geocache container. For this one, we walked around the City of Tampa and discovered a few things about Tampa we didn't know about.

To begin with, we were armed with our cameras, so we paused for every photographic opportunity we could. Of course we took a 'shine' to this hybiscus, because it reminded us of our upcoming vacation to Hawaii.

So, we started at a spot near the the University of Tampa. While we were here, we got a shot of this field gun there.

As we wandered along, we came across this strange looking flower. No idea what it is, but 'we knows what we likes'...

At one point, a rowboat when by on the canal next to UT.

Stroke! Stroke! Stroke! Get a move on!

Now, I don't know why, but this image and the dragonfly image below loaded onto the blog sideways and no matter what I did to make them come out with the right rotation, they still came out looking like this. as such, here is a sideways picture of a water lilly, that I thought was kinda neat.

As for this (sideways) dragonfly, he kept buzzing away, then he would land right back at this exact spot moments later.

Ah, another hybiscus falls prey to our cameras...

Remember the rowboat a few pictures back? Well apparently, there is some still college competition and the teams tend to paint their school collors on the walls (and bridges) along the canal. Many of them are very nicely done.

Our travels took us across the Platt Street bascule bridge, so I took a shot of the commissioning plaque posted on it. Wow, I didn't realize this bridge was made back in 1926!

We're still making our way along the river and a it looks like we piqued the interest of this seagull. Whenever we moved, he was completely focused on our activities. I guess he thought we might have something to eat...

By the way, if you were wondering what a bascule bridge is, this is what they look like. As you can see, the bridge tilts up on one side to let boats go through.

Still walking around Tampa and were came across this anchor mounted on a rock.

Can you imagine dredging up an old anchor like this, and realize that it was sitting there since who knows how long? And besides, I didn't realize that the waterway at Harbor Island was once named Garrison Channel.

Well, whaddaya know? There's the Jose Garpar, an all-metal ship used during the Gasparilla celebrations here.

So, we made it out to where the Wherigo geocache container was located, signed the logsheet and when we looked for the code on our Pocket PC to register our find with Wherigo, the Pocket PC said we needed to go back to Harbor Island to try again.

So, the school was a hotel first? Interesting...

There is a statue of JFK here, and it is ringed by plaques of some of his quotes. I didn't realize that this church was located here in downtown. I bet parking is tough.

Did you know that there is a monument dedicated to the first paved sidewalk in Tampa? I didn't know that either.

Next, we stopped by Macdill park and looked around. Just as we were about half-way across, it started raining, so we had to high-tail it back to the car.

By the way, why would somebody pay to put the equivalent of a couple of red french-fries on this park lawn? If this makes sense to you, then it must only be me that thinks this just isn't right.

Well, that's it for our tour. We hope you had as much fun reading this as we had walking it. Cheers!