Florida Museum of Photographic Arts

There is a small (in terms of its physical displays) museum devoted to photography located on Ashley Drive In Tampa.   They do not permit photography of the works on display, which is usually the case, but the two floors of the museum are located in a very large bank building with an interesting coffee shop in the lobby and lots of architectural elements that had me snapping away...

the coffee shop-love the red and white

 the view from the second floor

 the view from the screen that divides the shop from the lobby...it was so interesting how the circles appeared, even though the windows behind had no circles or round shapes to create these images...

 I like the Red and white Coca cola machine logo popping up behind the booth...

 the reflection of the outside in one of the flat screen TV's in the coffee shop

 the enormous round windows in the lobby

 the bank reception area from the 3rd floor

 one of the posters on the front entrance window, this is a huge image...

 Mid century modern furniture graces the upper lobby area

 an old bank vault is the lobby for a real estate company located in the basement of the building

 how cool is that?

Ok, that's all I got for photos at the Photo museum...Enjoy!

Some enlightenment

 So today was a special day, well every day is special, but this had a few special elements..

I drove up to Tampa to meet Jules, and knowing that I had some spare time before we were scheduled to meet, I looked up some fun (free) things to do....and I discovered that there is a fabulous Thai Buddhist Temple whose name is:    Wat Mongkolratanaram and is

located at Palm River Road - an seemingly unlikely spot, but as you will see, marvelous place

Offerings (donations) are taped to what I would call a money tree and they are not all one dollar bills...

The amazing gilded altar (well, at least the main part) there is waaaaay more...

The right side of the altar

The left side of the main altar

One of the many crystal chandeliers

 

This lovely young lady was so happy to have her picture taken, so was so delightful 

and her sister, Amanda also was charming...

;

The enchanting monk who led us in our chant and meditation-he was so warm and so open to allowing me to take his photo-there was a special essence that emanated from him...

 I was lucky enough to join in the chanting and the meditation led by the monk, a real privilege I must say, makes me want to go Tibet and be around the monks and enlightened ones there..Oh, no, I forgot, I am not travelling for a while, so Tampa will have to be a stand in for Tibet for now...

close up of one of the altar pieces

The main Buddha statue which is gilded with gold leaf

this crystal encrusted Buddha was so amazing, I don't think the photo begins to capture how dazzling it was

One of many floral offerings decorating the altar

a whole bunch of gold Buddhas-what do you call a group of Buddhas? and bunch?

The lake on the temple grounds

A small offering shrine in the gardens
In addition, there are all kinds of Thai foods for sale in the outside covered area, I didn't get any photos because there were a lot of people there, but it looked and smelled divine, next time, I will be sure and partake of the food.

Benches line the path of the lake and each one bears a name plate, some in

 Thai

If you are lucky enough to be in the area, and want to know more about this fab place, their website is http://wattampainenglish.com/