Water and Palms

It's a new week and I would like to participate in 2 events, Blue and Mosaic Monday. Blue Monday is hosted by Sally at http://smilingsally.blogspot.com and Mosaic Monday is hosted by Mary at http://dearlittleredhouse.blogspot.com. Make sure you visit them to see lots of blue beauties and creative mosaics.
Well, I am still in Florida but I took a weekend break from babysitting my 2 precious grand babies to join hubby in Tampa for the weekend. He had a medical seminar to attend. I drove and picked up my granddaughter so she can spend sometime with us too at Ybor City. We also watched the broadway, Wicked. AJ and I have seen it for the 4th time. Do you think we really like it? LOL! I will show you more pictures for Sightseeing Sat.

For now, I just want to share with you the blue waters of Florida, although the first mosaic looks more like gray water, the sky is definitely blue. These pics were taken on the Cape Coral bridge which connects Fort Myers to Cape Coral.

The presence of palm trees and water is so typical of Florida.

Although this is the new Sunshine Skyway bridge, it still freaks me out but I drove pass it just to take pictures to share with you. It is a beautiful bridge but the original bridge has been a site for many tragic accidents.

In Jan, 1980, USCGC Blackthorn and a tanker, Capricorn collided resulting in the drowning deaths of 23 crew trapped on board and belowdecks. And then again in May, 1980, the southbound span of the original bridge was destoyed when the freighter MV Summit Venture collided with a pier support column during a storm. 1200 feet of the bridge plummeted into the Tampa Bay. Six automobiles and a Greyhound bus happened to be driving by, not knowing the bridge has been split and they fell 150 ft. below killing 35 people. This bridge is very tall and it is really hard to see what you are approaching. There was 1 survivor, Wesley McIntire. His pickup truck landed on the Venture but he died in 1989. He was haunted by the fact that he was the only one who survived.

The Courtney Campbell Causeway on SR 60 is a different story. I love driving by there, very picturesque with water on both sides. It has 2 beaches along the way. It stretches 9.9 miles connecting eastern Clearwater to Tampa's Rocky Point Island and subsequently to the western portion of mainland Tampa.

I hope you enjoyed a little tour of some FL waterways and bridges. These are just a few of the many bridges in Florida. Thank you very much for your visit and many thanks to our hosts!