Blogs from Tampa, Florida, United States, North America

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North America » United States » Florida » Tampa March 27th 2023

Dear All Greetings on this my first proper entry on my travels through Florida, my US trip for 2023! As mentioned in my introductory blog, the plan was to fly into Tampa and out of Miami, visiting a few places in between. I was correct in my thinking that the flight for Tampa wouldn’t be such a “family” one as the one to Orlando would probably have been, and it was filled with really quite sedate people – mostly English pensioners who probably have a property in Florida escaping the dreary UK winter. Unfortunately the start at Gatwick Airport was pretty rubbish though, but it turned out to be the only rubbish thing about the whole trip, so that’s good! On that day, the self-service check-in and bag drop off were both offline, and so everyone ... read more
Rescued Sea Turtle
St Pete Beach
Me, St Pete Beach

North America » United States » Florida » Tampa March 14th 2023

Today we are at sea. Not set plans today except sunscreen! I will say this again if I haven’t already, traveling with this group is so chill. Everyone kind of does their own thing. If we meet up, we meet up and if we don’t we will see you at dinner. Jeff and I started our day around 8:30am. We decided to go to the restaurant for breakfast. When you eat in the restaurant for breakfast they sit you in a manner that I think is called family style. Meaning you get a chair at a table and you might be sitting with another guest. We got to the restaurant and we did not know we needed to check in on our Carnival Hub app so we did that. We only waiting a couple of minutes ... read more
New table #1
Dinner shots - tonight was a Scooby snack
Dinner and dessert espresso martini

North America » United States » Florida » Tampa March 13th 2023

Oh man, I’m a brat because all I can think about is an ice cold Diet Coke! I remember years ago when Carnival announced that they were changing to Pepsi. Jeff and I both agreed we would have to find a different cruise line for that one reason alone. Well, here we sit on Carnival and here I am wanting a Diet Coke. I should probably address this addiction but I just really like Diet Coke. Ok, we move on… Getting to the port and the parking lot wasn’t that hard. We did miss the entrance to the parking garage and had to circle the block but we eventually got there and walked right to the terminal. For some reason the boys were leading the pack and walking ahead of us like they knew what they ... read more
The fellas
The Starling’s
Twinning

North America » United States » Florida » Tampa » Ybor City March 12th 2023

Welcome to Spring Break 2023! Last year we took the kids down to the kids down to 30A. It is a very beautiful area in the Florida Panhandle and this was not our first time vacationing there. For the last 3 years we have taken the boys and their friends to the 30A area. Well, our experience in 2022 was very different than past years. Timmy and his friends wanted to venture to the Seaside area. In the past years we had eaten in the area during the day and shopped around. Didn’t think this Spring Break would be any different. Ha, we were so wrong! We have never felt so unwelcome in an area. It was just a bad experience and we vowed we will never go back to 30A for Spring Break. It was ... read more
Timmy selfie
Activate vacay mode
Vacay Jeff

North America » United States » Florida » Tampa February 6th 2021

Since my team, the San Francisco Forty Niners are not in the Super Bowl, I decided I might as well enjoy some good food. And maybe some special wine. One simple item I always enjoy is guacamole. Another are soft cheeses, like Brie and camembert. My wine is usually a sparkling wine, usually brut rose' from either Domaine Carneros or Aimery in Loire. And something to hold me until the heavy duty food (barbecued steak) is ready, like a plate of Bobby Chinn noodles (pictured). But for the rest of America, since we cannot have parties, the volume of Super Bowls past might be a little different this year. Foods particular to Tampa and KC might be fish and barbecue, respectively. I have been to both cities, and though I enjoyed both, I give the nod ... read more
My fav brie
Love the Domaine Carneros

North America » United States » Florida » Tampa April 30th 2020

In February 2020, before Coronavirus caused chaos and shut everything down, I was able to spend the month in Florida. Most of the month was spent in Amelia Island (I'll be writing about that more extensively soon), but I had always wanted to see Tampa. The family & I went to Tampa for a couple of days and checked it out. We visited Tampa, downtown, the Riverwalk, the Bay and Clearwater. Clearwater chaos I didn't spend enough time in Clearwater to be an expert on the city. My daughter was fighting a cold and after a couple of hours on the beach she wanted to get back to the hotel in Tampa Bay. We did spend a few hours on the beach. The water was indeed clear. It was the clearest oceanwater I had ever seen. ... read more

North America » United States » Florida » Tampa » Ybor City October 21st 2018

Ybor City is the old cigar making neighborhood of Tampa. In recent years Ybor City has undergone a revitalization and is a destination to enjoy the cuisines of the immigrants who worked here and roam the old buildings that made it a community. People from Cuba, Italy and Spain came here to find work in the cigar factories. Our exploration of Ybor City began with dinner on Sunday evening at the Columbia Restaurant. The restaurant, a fixture in Ybor City, was founded it in 1905 as a corner bar and coffee shop and expanded by the 1930s into the present-day establishment. The distinctive exterior of Columbia Restaurant is covered in colorful tiles. It features Cuban cuisine, and so our introduction to Cuba began. I enjoyed the Boliche Criollo (roasted beef stuffed with chorizo). Monday morning we ... read more
Ybor Factory Complex
Entrance to the Ybor Factory Complex
Ybor Factory Complex

North America » United States » Florida » Tampa April 25th 2018

Morning seemed to come extra early today.....hey, can you tell me what day it is? They seem to be blending in all together now. It was like the sun shone all night. Why, you ask. Because all the bay lights are left on throughout the night....??Sunshine On My Shoulder??. We could have closed our blinds but it didn’t appear anyone else was around.....wrong! After settling in for the night and finally getting to watch TV, Cory jumped up as he saw a big guy at our windshield level looking inside our RV! Of course, he ran to the door/window to find out who and what was going on. The guy obviously didn’t think anyone was in our RV, even though we had our lights on. He just wanted to see what it looked like inside. The ... read more
This is the unique coffee machine
Front of the Exit-10 restaurant
Back of the Exit 10 Restaurant

North America » United States » Florida » Tampa April 24th 2018

Day 3 at Lazydays. Everything is looking so familiar in this short time. We feel like we work here. Hello, Welcome to Lazydays! Lulu knows the routine and route by heart now. We aren’t too bored YET! We are waiting on our two fogged-up windows to be fixed. Finally, they have moved our RV into the glass shop. They took out the 2 windows and covered the holes with plastic. The costs to fix them went up from their original quoted price. They said besides our windows being very fogged over, the discoloration had actually become “baked”into the glass. I believe it. Would take more work and time to get them cleared up, thus more $$$. We aren’t happy about it but Cory told them to go ahead and just get the job down.....there goes our ... read more
Ybor City
Need this sign in Kissimmee
The dining room where we ate




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