Thursday, September 5, 2013

Sunken Gardens... its like Busch Gardens but without the rides and everything else.

Ah, random Real Florida at its finest
Sunken Gardens, or......
"what to do with a sink hole in the middle of St. Petersburg, Florida!"
 Sunken Gardens, a 110 year old botanical garden....
is not ADA compliant.
But sure is pretty.
They have over 500 species of tropical and subtropical plants.
There's also a network of waterfalls and Koi  ponds
(Sadly, none with ducks)
But lots of Koi.....
All built in and around a sinkhole downtown.
They had some badass flowering lily pads
And some bigass lily pads too!
Like, big enough to sit in.....
And.... lots of flowers. (Who knew!)
And this thing too! Some of the plants were labeled but not all, sadly.
(They also lacked air plants :( )
But its still really pretty looking.
annddd
Currently they have a pair of Chilean flamingos in the gardens...
But....
They wanna get a few more with donations.
Yaayyy, flamingos need friends.

So yeah, Sunken Gardens is pretty neat although much smaller than say, Bok Tower. Its still worth a short visit to stroll the garden and its semi-historically relevant in a state where it seems most things are from the 1970's or newer.... Oh, and while on the subject of 1970, there's this neat little fact about the gardens......... Sunken Gardens were popular from the 1950s through 1970 and were also ranked in Florida’s top 10 commercial attractions.... 
Hmmmmmm I WONDER what happened in 1971!
Oh, right.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Florida Aquarium, but mostly Cliff the penguin!

Yaayyyyyyy! It may have taken nearly five years, but I visited the Florida Aquarium... Annddd I got to play with a little African Penguin named Cliff!
Ok, photos and stuff.

Woo, the Florida Aquarium
Damn, were a bit too early for their new LEMUR LAND! 
Guess we'll be back in 2014 :D

also, both of these signs amused me.....
Tellin' it like it is, I guess.
Turtles, yup
Shh, its ducky nap-time....
This lobster thing was out of control.
SO IS THIS LADY WHO IS HOLDING A GATOR..s...FACE
She was screaming about not petting gators in the wild, or something. 
Once I saw the photo I had to leave (couldn't stop laughing)
Black-necked Stilt!
Florida natives and super cool. I want one for a pet.
Oh yeah, and it's an aquarium.. so they have fish (and legos)
They've got sharks too.
Yup, sharks.
and little Sea-Horses too!
(They had leafy seadragons too, but they weren't fully on display yet)
Shout out to the New England Aquarium! NEAQ woo!
And because its hot here, they even have a little waterpark out back!
but.... more importantly.....
they have this....
Oh man!
Ooooh mannnn
Yeesss!!!!
CLIFF! the awesome little African Penguin I got to play with!!!!!
(video below)
yaayyy!!!!

So yeah, the Florida Aquarium
Its pretty neat and I'll be having to go back once their non-Floridian RINGTAILED LEMURS are on display!! And the aquarium is AZA so that's good too.

Also, I should have a second post coming in the next day or two and I've still got stuff from June and July that will go up at some point, woo.