Tampa - Gasparilla Style!

Day 91 - Tampa, FL - Overcast Low 60's:

Today was a laid back day! We both slept in pretty late...Heather much later than I but we both got a good nights rest! After breakfast Heather took me over to Busch Gardens...it was only about 5 miles from our hotel. She dropped me off and returned to the hotel to get caught up on some work and home stuff. She doesn't like roller coasters so there would be no point in her going with me. When I came with Kris and Shana I got the pass to return as many times as I want for the year...it was only an additional $5 so today was a free day at the park! I had a great time...no lines no waiting. I even managed to take some video on the roller coasters! Heather picked me up around 5:30 and we came back to the hotel. She had managed to get all her work done, get our information caught up, and hit the gym while I was gone. Our room has a kitchen in it so we made some dinner, played a game of Cribbage, and have been watching the Grammy's, doing our taxes, and catching up the blog all evening. Tomorrow we are going to check out the Yuengling Brewery and downtown Tampa! Should be fun!!

Day 90 - Tampa, FL - Cloudy and Rainy and Mid 70's:

We got up early, packed the car and said our goodbye's to Kris and Shana. We had a great stay in Sarasota and are glad we got to have some fun and soak up the sun. We headed north to Tampa for the annual Gasparilla Pirate Fest. We had heard many stories about how crazy the parade/party is, so even though there was a 70% chance of rain we decided to make an adventure out of if. We parked outside of Tampa in Ybor City and took the old fashion trolley car into downtown. Not our best idea because the trolley cars are a unique touch to the city but they ride like crap and are very slow. We finally arrived in-town and made our way to the parade route. We were only there for about a minute before it started to pour, so we ran along with a couple thousand other people to the Publix's across the street. We fought our way in and grabbed sandwich's and beer (well I had beer...Heather had Diet Coke) for lunch.

After our journey through Publix's the rain had turned to a drizzle and we lined up along the street and waited for the parade. If nothing else this was a great place to "people watch" we saw lots of pirates, wenches and drunk people. The craziness started once the floats came around the bend. The floats were all decked out and there were pirates galore but the real draw was the beads. I've never seen people so crazy over plastic beads. We saw a couple fights over the beads but the sheriffs were right there to keep everyone calm. We caught our fair share of beads even though we were in the middle of two trees...I actually think the trees caught just as many as we did. The parade was undoubtedly the longest parade I have ever been too but it was a great time! After the parade ended we wandered the streets and followed the crowd to a local restaurant/bar. We did quite a bit of people watching here too! It was interesting to say the least. After heading back to the center of town we made our way over to the new Waterfront Park. We grabbed some dinner at our new favorite burger joint FIVE GUYS! They need one of these in Maine...it is so good! From there we walked around the park until the Gasparilla evening concert featuring Collective Soul. We stayed at the show for about an hour (check out the videos) before Heather started to get too cold to be there any longer. Her pants were still wet from the rain earlier in the day...

We walked back to the Trolley Car stop and hopped back on to Ybor City. This part of town seems to have quite a night life. There were lots of lights and plenty of music but we were beat and headed to the car. We made our way back to the hotel and hit the sack. It was a day unlike any other we have experienced...I can only imagine what it must be like in New Orleans for Mardi Gras! or the Super Bowl? (hopefully we'll make it in time to watch them win)