Hope everyone enjoyed the holiday weekend. Glenn and I had an overall great time, though some of our adventures were not as good as others.
Saturday, we wanted to go to the beach, but fearing holiday tourists, we went to Picnic Island which is a park with a beach on the bay. We quickly renamed this Poopy Island, because the whole place smelled like sewage. We beat a hasty retreat, and went instead to Pass-a Grille Beach on the Gulf.
1000 times better. And not overly crowded at all. A beautiful day at the beach.
Saturday night, we opted to go to the ridiculous "Hogan's Beach" which is a restaurant / bar owned by none other than Hulk Hogan.(Oh yeah, Brother!)
Of course there was a bikini contest (along with a nearly naked spectator), a mechanical shark to ride (no, we did not ride it), and lots of other silliness.
Still, it was amusing and a nice spot to see the sunset.
On Sunday, we went to the USF Botanical Gardens, which were surprisingly lame. Worst. Botanical. Gardens. Ever. Glenn was angry the whole time, and was tempted to pick up sticks everywhere.
Here's a couple pics, but really, the place was not as nice as many of the parks we've been to and we had to pay $10 to a bunch of hippies to get in.
That night, we went to our first community event - Tampa's Labor Day celebration, featuring bands, fireworks and a "Light Up the Night" boat parade.
Glenn and I got great seats at the Sail Pavilion on the water.
We had a fun and relaxing time people watching as the place filled up, and the band was really good. It was a pretty night, as you can see.
However, we could not see the fireworks from where we were at all, which is probably just as well, because they only lasted for about 5 minutes. Any true Pittsburgher would be shocked at such a poor display.
And then, there was the boat parade. Such a fabulous idea, but really poorly executed. We only saw three boats with lights, and I've seen more impressive lighting inside my refrigerator. But here...I think we got all three boats in this shot.
woo.
Ah well. Still had fun.
Monday was perhaps the best day, in that we discovered that the Marriott Tampa Waterside has a rooftop pool that is open to the public. You just need to pay to park there. I am thinking if they have Wi-Fi, I may make this my new office. (I couldn't find any pics Glenn had taken from here, so here's a pic of it I found online.)
It was awesome, although we discovered that spray-on sunscreen provides rather spotty coverage, and Glenn is burned in patches making him look like a leper.
Monday night we went to the waterfront in St. Petersburg. We decided to make it a day of rooftops, so we ate at a rooftop place called the Canopy, which was very nice.
You can see the St. Pete Pier in the distance, which is slated to be torn down soon, and there is much controversy as to what is going to replace it.
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