For twenty-five years, one of the best Tampa Bay area getaways has been the Teco Manatee Viewing center.
You could spend as little as fifteen minutes or a whole day checking out the manatees for free.
The manatees show up every winter to lounge in the warm water coming out of the power plant.
The center has a deck above the discharge canal so the manatees have a good buffer away from all the people.
Did I mention that its FREE!
When the weather gets chilly there can be dozens of sea cows hanging out.
The center is open from November till April but the best time to visit is when its cold. Every year the manatees all over Florida head to warm springs and power plants as soon as the bay and gulf water gets to cold to survive.
Coming up for a breath.
Not only is this one of the best places to see manatees, its one of the only places I know of to see a coal fired power plant up close.
Teco has done a great thing making the viewing center available, I'm sure they did not have to do it. I'm also sure they would rather me not mention "coal" but the fact is everyone in this country gets power from coal and it's good for people to see it up close.
So enjoy the manatee show, and sneak a peek at a massive power plant, both very cool and a must see.
As usual, I shot a gopro time lapse movie with my egg timer time lapse panning unit.
Here is the result.
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