Sunken Gardens, Sucky Steelers and More!

Hi All -

Another lovely week has passed here in Tampa, and we've found some new favorite spots and things to do.

On Friday, we returned for the third time now to the Sail Pavilion, an outdoor bar downtown that sits right on Tampa Bay. It has become one of our favorite places to just sit in the warm air and watch the world go by. You can take your dogs there, too, but we just like watching other people's dogs instead.

On Saturday, despite our earlier failure with the USF Botantical Gardens, we decided to go visit the Sunken Gardens in St. Petersburg. They were beautiful, just like the sign says.

Glenn again took about a thousand pictures here, so I will just give you a sampling.

They also had some birds there, including some Kookaburra. You'll be pleased to know that I sang them the Kookaburra song.

Saturday night, we returned to Pass-a-Grille Beach to enjoy another glorious sunset.

Because we rarely are able to get the Steelers games on TV here, on Sunday, we went to an Irish Pub called O'Brien's that advertised itself as a Steelers bar. They were not kidding.

The whole place was reserved for the Tampa Bay Black and Gold Club, which Glenn and I joined for $10. It was fun. We met a guy from Murrysville (Franklin Regional Class of 1977) and another nice guy from Squirrel Hill. It would have been great, except that the Steelers were again terrible, and it was a gorgeous day outside, so I was mad about being inside and watching another crappy game.

Sunday night, we went to Ybor City (pronounced EEE-bore) for dinner. Ybor City was founded by cigar manufacturers in the 1800s and was populated largely by immigrants from Spain and Cuba.

It's a cool and historic neighborhood, and Glenn and I both found it charming. We had been warned however, not to go there after about 10 at night. Unfortunately, that warning should probably apply earlier, as a large African American gentleman followed us back to our car. Glenn and I both jumped in and locked the doors, and he banged on the window and roof  as we drove away. Not sure if he was going to beg for money or outright rob us, but it's unlikely that we'll be spending a lot of time in Ybor City in the future. At least not after dark.

So that's about it for this week. Hope all is well with all you northerners!

Fall in Florida

Greetings from a rainy Monday morning here in Tampa!

Rain off the back porch

We apparently have turned the corner into Fall here. For the first time since we moved down in June, the forecast is calling for highs in the 80s instead of the 90s.

We'll freeze! :-)

We can actually feel the humidity easing off a bit, which is nice.

This will likely be a much shorter blog post than usual today, because Glenn had to work all weekend at a Relay Volunteer training event, so we didn't partake in any photo-worthy activities. He had a great time though and heard some touching stories from patients at their Hope Lodge, which recharged his batteries a good bit.

I did a lot of cleaning, but I doubt you'll appreciate shots of our sparkling shower stall.

Glenn did take a nice photo of a church near our house on one of our nightly walks.

And, a nice view of the sunset at the end of our street.

But that's really about it.

We did have another first this weekend, as we stayed out past midnight for the first time since moving here. We met up with Chad and Lisha at a place called Ciro's Speakeasy, which as its name indicates, is set up like a Prohibition-era speakeasy. You even need a password to get in (in this case it was "strawberry gentleman").

I stole this from the web:

In addition to the staff, a surprising number of patrons dressed as flappers and gangsters. I had a drink called a Ramon Gin Fizz, which was supposedly the favorite of corrupt New Orleans Governor Huey Long. Who better to know a good drink than a corrupt politician?

When we finally got our table, around 11 pm (!!), we were literally seated in a hole in the wall - where they had a single booth with a curtain that set you off from the rest of the place. We also had an assortment of weird but delicious food including chocolate chipotle popcorn, stuffed figs, and duckfat fries.

We had a great time with Chad and Lisha. Lisha was finally back from a three week trial in Sarasota, where she won $11 million in damages for her client. Woo-hoo!

So that's all the news from here. Hope you are all doing well and enjoying Fall.

Hillsborough River, Indian Rocks Beach, and the Callihan Pool

Hi All -

We had another action-packed week and weekend here in Tampa.

On Friday, I got my hair cut, taking off about 4 inches. I feel much lighter!

Saturday, we took the dogs to Hillsborough River Park. It was a huge, gorgeous area, with nice trails all along the Hillsborough River.

Deuce is raring to go!

Shortly after entering the park however, we were attacked by a million angry mosquitoes. Despite being coated in bug spray, it was terrible. Poor Deucie had a cloud of mosquitoes on him, like Pig Pen. We quickly figured out the key was to keep moving, so we practically ran through the whole park.

Glenn and Mo agreed to sit still for a brief moment, but otherwise it was the fastest 2 miles I think we've ever covered.  Still, it was so pretty, we'd probably go back, maybe soaked in kerosene...

I'm telling you, the bugs down here are not messing around. Check out this grasshopper! He was probably 3 or 4 inches long!

Anyway, Glenn took so many nice pics, it's hard to choose. So here are a few more...

On Sunday, we took a walk around the neighborhood and then took the dogs for a dip in our glamorous new pool.

We eventually were able to lure Mojo in with some ice cream, but she's not a big fan.

Glenn and I later celebrated "Sun" day by going to Indian Rocks Beach, which was quite lovely.

I had no idea why it's called Indian Rocks, because we didn't see any rocks or Indians. We did however find some really cool shells which we snagged. (Not a great pic, but you get the idea.)

So anyway, that's the news from the South. It remains in the 90s every day here, so we aren't really experiencing any fall, except the Halloween stores are opening up everywhere, and I did get some Pumpkin Spice coffee. Hope you all are doing well!

An Assortment of Random News

Hi All -

We didn't really have any big adventures this week or weekend, but I will report on an assortment of random news for your reading pleasure nonetheless.

The Outside is Coming In!

Earlier in the week, when I went to let the dogs outside, a small frog hopped into the kitchen and immediately disappeared into a closet. Shortly later, while Glenn was sitting on the couch, he was stung by a hornet.

The hornet died, Glenn is okay, and the frog is still unaccounted for.

Additionally, we have a guy that has taken up residence in our mailbox. It makes sticking your hand in the mailbox a bit more exciting.

Also, we have three palm trees at the end of our driveway that Glenn likes to take photos of on his way to work in the morning. They are pretty, especially at sunrise.

The Dogs Are Being Spoiled

On Saturday, we once again took the dogs to Al Lopez Park for a walk, although Deuce was kinda being a jerk and I was losing my calm and assertive demeanor.

Still, it's a great park.

And Glenn captured us in a more peaceful moment.

You should know that we also purchased a baby pool for the pups, and after our hot walks on the weekend, we put them in the pool to cool off and eat doggie ice cream (Glenn purchased the ice cream, because he is a sucker.) My allergist told us to rinse off the dogs at least once a week to keep the dander down, so this lets us do that.

Deuce likes the pool, although he just kinda stands there; Mojo is not convinced it is a good idea. Sadly, I have no doggie pool pictures yet, but we'll work on getting some.

A Million Small Children

So Saturday afternoon, we went to our friend Erin's house for her son's 1st birthday party. Chad and Lisha did not attend because they were out of town (jerks) so Glenn and I were on our own. There were about 30 little kids there and while it was nice meeting some new (albeit very distracted) people, it wasn't really our scene.

Still, we had about as good of a time as we could have at a child's birthday party.  Here's Erin and baby John Patrick (JP) and an assortment of other people...

Oh, and here is a picture of Erin's pool. You can pretend the dogs are in it.

Stupid Steeler Sunday

So Sunday, Glenn and I went to an outdoor sports bar called the Patio to watch what my friend called "that steaming turd of a Steelers game", since we couldn't get the game on our TV.  It was a nice location even if the game was spectacularly bad.

That night, we had a unsatisfying dinner at a Thai place on Davis Island. It claimed to be "gluten free friendly" but the waitress had no idea what gluten was and clearly did not care. But we stopped at the harbor on the way home to see the sun start to go down, and took a few decent pictures of ourselves, even though I was cranky.

So that's it for this week in Tampa. Hope all is well back in the 'burgh. It is still in the 90s here every day but we don't mind one bit. :-)