What’s New In Tampa Bay

Between Super Bowl Sunday, February 1, the FREE Gasparilla Parade and Festival on the 7th, and the Florida State Fair Feb. 5 to-16, Tampa will be where it’s at. And like a touch of honey in your coffee, guests and residents alike will find something new on both sides of the Bay to add to their interest.

Cross the bridge to Largo for the impressive, 35,000 square-foot Armed Forces Military Museum, opened August 10, 2008. Whatever branch or theater they served in, veterans of WWII in particular, will relive its sights and sounds. Gunfire, diving planes and exploding bombs fill the ears, for beyond the displays of uniforms and a variety of armament near the entrance, a door leads to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Burning, sinking ships and running men shown in black and white on a huge screen, pull you into the action. From wall exhibits, Japanese military overlook model ships from the movie, Tora! Tora! Tora! including the aircraft carrier, Akagi, that launched this Day of Infamy.

From a D-Day landing on Utah beach, it’s but a step into France where facades of a shot-up building fills a corner, and the St. Mere Eglise Church still has a paratrooper stuck on its spire. Other displays show a Rosie’s Bar from the South Pacific, an outpost where the soldier speaks German, and a vast roomful of vehicles– tanks, half-tracks, troop carriers, scout car, ¼ ton trucks, even a mine sweeper, overwhelm the eye. Realistic mannequins portray all military branches (I must have missed the Coast Guard) and WWI, Korea, and Vietnam have not been overlooked. Altogether it’s a 3-D experience that brings a very large part of our country’s history to life. 727-539-8371; www.armedforcesmuseum.com

The Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Palm Harbor finally opened its doors to the public in September, 2008. What began as Noell’s Ark Chimp Farm in 1971 had been closed for public exhibitions in 1999, for not keeping up with changing government regulations. Under the Noell’s granddaughter, Denise Cobb, and what has grown to about 150 volunteers, the old chimp farm became a sanctuary for injured or abandoned wildlife and exotics. Elderly animals that were once in entertainment, e.g Cheetah was one of the chimps in early 1930s Tarzan movies, can live out what’s left of their lifespan in peace. Following major renovations, including construction of a 19,000 square-foot Great Ape Habitat, the non-profit organization regained its license for public exhibitions. Today the 12 and a half-acre park houses about 75 animals. Along with the many chimps, orangutan, and a variety of other monkeys, visitors view birds, goats, reptiles, and lemurs. There may even be a former circus bear. However, this past year they lost Otto, a 550 lb. lowland silverback gorilla. Readers may remember him as the star who tried to break down the bags in the Samson luggage commercials. 727-943-5897; www.suncoastprimate.org

— Adele