From Spirit, October 2008
Your Adventure In: Tampa Bay
Call it Techno Bay. From the Museum of Science and Industry to the world’s longest cable-stayed concrete bridge, this Florida hot spot looks to the future. But you can get a lot more here than bells and whistles. By Melinda Mahaffey
IF YOU ANSWERED MOSTLY A, YOU ARE A: River Rider
Canoe Tampa! The 54-mile Hillsborough River offers a preserved old Florida habitat just 12 miles northeast of downtown. It’s a good thing you’ve come in October, too: This month, birds like egrets, ibis, and herons start flocking back to the area, and you might see up to 2,000 over a couple of hours. A leisurely half-day canoe trip will help you discover the many inhabitants of these wetlands.
Start your trip at Canoe Escape (canoeescape.com), a family-run shop in Thonotosassa. While most visitors rent a canoe for a self-guided paddle, newcomers should opt for the three-hour interpretive guided trip on Wednesday mornings.
As you slowly paddle through the tannin-filled waters, you’ll learn about the 16,000-acre Lower Hillsborough Wilderness Park. Keep an eye out for anhinga, big black-and-gray birds that sunbathe on exposed tree branches to dry their feathers. Watch the grassy banks for deer and wild hogs that come to the river’s edge for a drink. Observe the red-bellied turtles and peninsula cooters huddled together on the logs that jut into the river. As you paddle past cypress trees hung with Spanish moss, you’ll find alligators resting on logs and banks or swimming across the river right in front of you, with just their black eyes showing above the brown water.
And just like the local celebrities they are, the gators probably won’t give you the time of day. Our advice? Be like the paparazzi and snap away.
Go Fish
Chart the path of the Hillsborough River from your private balcony at the posh Sheraton Tampa Riverwalk Hotel. sheratontampariverwalk.com
Dock your boat at the marina (or park in the lot) for a tasty lunch of fresh oysters at Rick’s on the River. ricksontheriver.com
Find more Florida critters—like alligators, red-bellied turtles, otters, and goliath groupers—at the Florida Aquarium’s wetlands exhibit in downtown Tampa. flaquarium.org
IF YOU ANSWERED MOSTLY B, YOU ARE A: Cuban Companero
Cigars saved Tampa. By the late 19th century, the town was in danger of vanishing. But in 1886, Spaniard Don Vicente Martinez Ybor brought his cigar factory to the area, and within five years Tampa had grown 200 percent, to more than 15,000 people. Although the industry has since moved on, you can still stroll the up-and-coming neighborhood to glimpse Ybor City’s hard-working heritage.
Start your trip back in time at the Ybor City Museum (ybormuseum.org). There, you’ll learn how Martinez Ybor’s planned community lured Sicilian, German, and Cuban immigrants away from the industrial slums of the Northeast.
Midday, stroll the quiet redbrick streets, past historic buildings framed by New Orleans-esque balconies—fitting considering that Ybor’s weekend scene bears a striking resemblance to Mardi Gras. Lunch takes you to the Columbia restaurant (columbiarestaurant.com). Opened in 1905, today the Spanish and Cuban restaurant takes up the entire block. Opt for the sangria; the tuxedoed waiters make it right at the table.
As night falls, head to the Centro Asturiano for swing dancing on Thursdays and get a peek into one of Ybor’s remaining social clubs (centroasturianotampa.org). Although you can no longer deposit wages or bowl here, you can still dance in the third-floor grand ballroom, as newcomers to Ybor and residents alike have done for more than a century.
Las Tapas
Rest up in one of 16 rooms at the elegant Don Vicente de Ybor Historic Inn, a former land development office built by Vicente Martinez Ybor that later served as a community health clinic. donvicenteinn.com
Let your nose lead you early morning to the smells of ground coffee and a café con leche at El Molino. elmolinocoffee.com
Pick up handmade Hemingway cigars at the Tampa Sweethearts Cigar Company. Arturo Fuente opened this four-story factory on 22nd Street in the 1960s and converted it into a family-run store in 1994. tampasweetheart.com
IF YOU ANSWERED MOSTLY C, YOU ARE A: Chief Tech Officer
Silicon Valley, Seattle…Tampa? Yes indeed, Mr. Jobs. At the Museum of Science and Industry—the largest science center in the South—you can experience the basic building blocks of modern technology. Like touching a little lightning.
The fun starts on the second floor at Disasterville, where you’ll explore Mother Nature’s version of technology: phenomena like hurricanes, lightning, and hail. Build a block house using braces and see if it can withstand an earthquake’s shaking as a tornado forms in water in a glass case nearby. Then slip your hand into a chain-mail glove to touch the lightning created in a Tesla coil.
Next, head upstairs to the new, couldn’t-get-more-hands-on exhibit, Amazing You. Try an Operation-like game where you carefully remove the patient’s vital organs and put on vision-impairing goggles that mimic the effects of alcohol and try to walk down a yellow line. After you right yourself, take a look through the glass into the IMAX projector room and watch as the supersized film winds its way through the two-ton machine.
End your visit, if you dare, at the high-wire bicycle. Strap yourself in and pedal down and back along a 98-foot-long wire suspended across the museum. Don’t worry: Bravery (and physics) will keep you going. mosi.org
Tech Sites
Print out your boarding pass in the “e-room” after checking out at the self-service kiosk at Hyatt’s new high-tech chain, Hyatt Place, less than two miles from the airport. tampaairport.place.hyatt.com
Build your own animated robot in the Tech Zone at kids’ science center G.WIZ in Sarasota. gwiz.org
Snack on “the ice cream of the future” at one of Tampa Bay’s Dippin’ Dots locations. dippindots.com
IF YOU ANSWERED MOSTLY D, YOU ARE A: Beach Comber
While the crowds flock to St. Petersburg’s 35 miles of beaches, savvy locals head for the solitary spot that doesn’t sound like a beach, but is: Fort de Soto Park. At the tip of the city’s peninsula, you’ll find a three-mile haven of white sand spread across five barrier islands. Not only has it earned our vote, but TripAdvisor’s community picked its North Beach this year as the nation’s best beach.
Sunseekers spend the day lounging under umbrellas on the wide expanse of sand on North Beach. When the tide comes in, stroll along the shore, about ankle-deep. Keep your eyes peeled and you’ll likely find souvenir seashells like conch and sand dollars.
But Fort de Soto offers more than a day lounging in the sand. Check out the park’s namesake fort that the Army began building in 1898. Although the military decommissioned it within 25 years, today you can walk around the hulking Battery Laidley, on the National Register of Historic Places. Admire the only remaining 12-inch M1890-M1 mortars in America. Learn how the soldiers lived by taking a free look inside the Quartermaster Storehouse Museum, reconstructed in 2000.
Finally, explore the various nature trails, starting with the half-mile Barrier Free Trail behind the park’s headquarters. About halfway down the self-guided flat path, you’ll come upon the gently lapping waves of the water where you might spot wildlife like white ibis and osprey, but likely nothing—or rather, no one—else. pinellascounty.org
Unburied Treasures
Watch the sun set over the Gulf of Mexico while cooling off in the pool at the ’50s-style Plaza Beach Hotel along the St. Petersburg coast. plazabeach.com
Cool off with a sno cone from the concession stand at the park’s North Beach.
Rent a kayak to look for manatees and dolphins around the mangroves at the Topwater Kayak Outpost in the park. unitedparkservices.com
Lay of the Land
GET THERE
Fly In
Tampa International Airport (tampaairport.com) lies about five miles northwest of downtown Tampa.
Get Around
You can easily explore downtown Tampa and Ybor City on foot. To go between them, hop on one of the bright yellow streetcars (tecolinestreetcar.org) for $2. In St. Petersburg, opt for the light blue Looper trolleys (loopertrolley.com) for 25 cents to reach major sites like the Florida Holocaust Museum and the Pier.
Get Away
Rent a car at the airport to explore the Museum of Science and Industry, the Hillsborough River, and Fort de Soto Park.
DO THERE
Oct.16–19
Listen to jazz accompanied by the sound of crashing waves as the Clearwater Jazz Holiday in Coachman Park takes to the stage with artists like saxophonist David Sanborn and organist Joey DeFrancesco. clearwaterjazz.com
Nov. 14–16 Prep for Thanksgiving’s marathon eating with three days of finger-licking barbecue from around the country (and Australia, too) at St. Petersburg’s annual Ribfest, benefiting local charities. ribfest.org
Nov. 15 Smoke stogies with thousands of fellow aficionados or learn roll your own at the 10th annual Cigar Heritage Festival in Ybor City’s Centennial Park. cigarheritagefestival.com
TAMPA TRIVIA
Surreal Life
The Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg owns the world’s largest collection of the Spanish artist’s work.
Shallow End
Although the Bay is Florida’s largest open-water estuary, it averages only 12 feet deep.
Not-So-Hot Spot The mercury has never topped 100 degrees in Tampa.
Name Game
In 1888, railroad builder Peter Demens named St. Petersburg after his hometown in Russia.