Living it up at the IEEE conference... the weather is fabulous and am right on the Marina near the conference center. Have taken a quick trip to Ybor city with work collegues for lunch. Now back to business! Until later... [View Full Entry]

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Dear Family and Friends, Between visiting the Tampa Aquarium's Land and Shore Exhibit and it's Coral Reef Exhibit, I had signed onto the boat for the Dolphin Encounter. There are a number of these tours, and I enjoyed it very much. One very clever thing the boat did was have a tube of sun block for anyone who had forgotten it. I made copious use of it for I had not used it in the morning, expecting to be indoors all day. They gave an informative lecture about boating safety, rules and regulations, the history of the Tampa port, and we [View Full Entry]

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Dear Family and Friends, Another day to kill so I decided to spend it visiting the Tampa Aquarium. I'm not overly fond of fish, but they come in pretty colors and the swimming motions are soothing, plus aquariums are usually in air-conditioned buildings, so it seemed like a pleasant way to pass the time. The bus drive told me where to get off to catch the trolley. I didn't understand his directions, exactly, but I got off doubtfully and headed in the direction he indicated, and found a group of obvious tourists slowly burning in the sun. They were also headed [View Full Entry]

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Dear Family and Friends, Last month I flew to Tampa/St. Petersburg to help Raj (my husband) move into his new home. He usually has a new place within about three days of moving to a new town, but though he had been here a month he held off getting one, as he couldn't decide between renting an apartment or buying a condo. Thus, instead of plunging into the expected orgy of unpacking and arranging furniture, I arrived to find us still camped in a motel and our new home very much in doubt. I can't sit and stare at TV all [View Full Entry]

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Saying goodbye was so hard. After only about 1 1/2 hours of sleep, immigration, showering and final packing, I went from cabin to cabin, knocking on the doors to say goodbye to friends who insisted we couldn't say it last night. After the thank yous and I love yous and best wishes, there's only goodbye left. And it is so hard to say when you treasure somebody so much and you don't know when or if you'll see them again. And once the goodbye was said, I'd have to turn and walk away from their cabin. And then the tears would [View Full Entry]

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Untitled Untitled michaelgHi Everyone-I just wanted to let you all know that I'm going to be keeping an online travel journal/blog for my upcoming trip. You are on my list of special people that I would like to be part of my journal. You will recieve an email notice each time I make a journal entry. The journal is interactive so I encourage you to make comments, ask questions, etc. All entries will be a permanent part of my travel keepsake so I would love you to be part of it! I may send a few [View Full Entry]

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My first day on this ship, I met Brooks. He was friends with Tara, the Club O2 director I took over from who was also kind enough to just drag me around behind her while I tried to find my way around. Within my first few weeks, Brooks and I were inseparable. I didn’t have any other friends on the ship. A lot of people assumed we were dating. Random vendors in ports have called us a married couple - we told them our spouses were at home and we were having an affair. Of course, that is not what our [View Full Entry]

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This weekend was relocation when our ship changed home ports from Fort Lauderdale to Tampa. We had 2 days at sea with no passengers - the ship all of the crew! Those couple days were packed with parties, drama and emotions. Thursday night (the 12th), I was DJing the last dance party of the cruise for my teens and I logged onto the internet to send/receive email. There was one from mom that said Grandpa Steinhoff had gone to the hospital with pain. They ran tests, then operated and now he was on life support. The doctors had told Grandma to [View Full Entry]

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Mar 25, 2007 City official name :Tampa Founded date : Location :Florida State Elavation :? ft (? m) Area :Approximately ? square miles (? km²). Facts :Tampa is a United States city in Hillsborough County, on the west coast of Florida. It serves as the county seat of Hillsborough County.GR6. The population within the city limits in 2005, according to the Census was 333,040; it is the third-largest city in Florida, behind Jacksonville and Miami. Tampa is a part of the Tampa-St. Petersbur [View Full Entry]

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So after our adventures in Brasil we flew overnight from Recife to Sao Paolo and then back north up to Miami. Thankfully although we were in cattle class the 767 from Sao Paolo to Miami - a near 9 hour flight - was virtually empty so we both got a reasonably decent few hours sleep across the 4 seats forming the middle rows of the aircraft. Landing in Miami just before breakfast we had the usual praying session held at the baggage carousel - American Airlines are notorious for losing luggage - followed by a similarly arduous session at the [View Full Entry]

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