"Ya wan 'nutha bawket?" asked the British bartender from Liverpool as I scanned the walls of The Shipwreck in Clearwater Beach. I duly noted the kitschy pirate flags, life rings, and skulls proudly albeit precariously hanging. This was the kind of place straight out of the Eighties comedy Summer Rental with John Candy. "Sure" I said, and popped the top off a cold Yuengling beer as I reveled in the atmosphere of the Shipwreck, a bar that, like Clearwater Beach, has a few miles on it and might be a wee bit past it's prime, but is still a fantastic time. [View Full Entry]

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Cannon has two days of school left. He is out on Friday at noon. We are prepping for our trip and packing our backpacks, gear, and clothes. [View Full Entry]

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The time had finally come for a West Coast Swing Dance cruise that had been planned 6 months prior. I was in agony I was so excited about the trip! Myself, Jason, Chris, and Jeramy were about to join around 150 other west coast swing dancers for a week long exotic western Caribbean cruise to Cozumel, Belize, Roatan (Honduras), and Grand Cayman. There was an all star staff of 9 of the top WCS pros: Jordan Frisbee and Tatiana Mollman, Kyle Redd and Sarah Vann Drake, Ronnie Debenedetta (Brandi Tobias stayed home with her baby), Parker Dearborn and Jessica Cox, and [View Full Entry]

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We are getting numerous e-mails wondering if we are okay since there has been no entry in the travel blog of late. We are a-okay. If we are just playing tennis, it doesn't seem necessary to update but we did do something a little extra lately. Day before yesterday, we went to the "Body Works" exhibit which happens to be here right now. I put up a few pictures. It is hard to believe these are actual bodies but they are. Instead of a bunch of body parts in jars of formaldahyde like I expected, they are preserved by a [View Full Entry]

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Wes and I have a tradition when we fly out of the Tampa Airport. We stay at a hotel close to the airport, enjoy an amazing sunset dinner at the elegant Rusty Pelican, and leave for the airport before the sun comes up next morning. This time, we programmed Old Hyde Park Village, Tampa into the Magellan and Jeeped on down from Ocala. Old Hyde Park Village is a "lifestyle center" (residential/ retail/ restaurants) near downtown Tampa. Zita had given us a post card promoting a benefit showing of Princess Diana's Dresses in a former furniture store in the village. After [View Full Entry]

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Tampa is a great location - we had so much fun ALL in one day! Here's the itinerary: Meet George and Zita in Ybor City near the Columbia Restaurant. George takes us to Plant City where we eat strawberry shortcakes and drool over the flowering plants. Back to Ybor City - Tampa's Latin Quarter - where we make late lunch reservations at the famed Columbia and take a stroll during which our "men" are lured into a Cigar Maker's Den and emerge with stoogies - lighted stogies! We hopped on the Ybor City trolley and took a round trip - $2.50 [View Full Entry]

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I've decided that I'll break up the next few blogs catching me up to now... Here's the first installment: So after my latest entry was accidentally erased when I had almost finished it, it's taken me a while to get back into it and sit down to rewrite the whole thing. At this point, I'm on the verge of being finished with flying. I'm sitting in the student ready room up at Whiting Field killing time until my last flight, a tactical flight, in the TH-57C helicopter. A lot has happened since my last blog. Almost an entire phase of training, [View Full Entry]

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The "Greater Tampa Bay" area has just over 4 million residents and generally includes the Tampa and Sarasota metro areas. According to the 2007 estimates, the city has a population of 382,060. [View Full Entry]

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Introduction - First Entry We learned this week that Semester at Sea has decided to change our route because of the piracy threats in the Gulf of Aden. Instead of passing through the Suez Canal on the way to India, we will go south of Africa. We will miss our scheduled visits to Italy, Turkey, and Egypt. Instead we will stop in Morocco, Namibia, and South Africa. Holly is still preparing for home schooling and I am finishing my semester at the Univ of Tampa. [View Full Entry]

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My buddy, JR, and I board a JetBlue plane bound for NYC-JFK from Tampa. This was my first flight on JetBlue. The leather seats and personal TV were a nice added touch. The flight was probably the bumpiest that I have been on, but we made it. NYC here we come! [View Full Entry]

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