Thursday, March 3, 2011

Tampa, FL

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Before leaving for Tampa, we stopped at Anna Maria Point to walk on the beach.

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Pirate was a bit reluctant to leave, but we assured her that she would have cats to play with in Tampa.

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Our first stop was the University of Tampa where I went to college. These minarets (and 8-10 more) are found on top of Plant Hall, the oldest building on campus.

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After dropping Pirate off at Brian and Brad's house, we went out to eat at Grass Roots. Unfortunately, they decided to chop a months worth of onions while we were eating. All of our eyes were watering throughout the entire meal.

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All vegan food with lots of raw options.

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The next day we went to some outdoor markets to get fresh veggies for our dinner. This lady was opening coconuts to drink.

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Rebecca and Brian enjoying a refreshing beverage.

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The Taco Bus was awesome. All sorts of goodies and vegan steak for your tacos! This place will be featured on "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" on the Food Network in March.

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Brian and I got manly and built two benches for their back deck.

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Veggies for grilling.

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Got to see some kids that I haven't seen in years.

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On Sunday morning after I got my butt kicked in basketball by Andy and Chris, I met Brian, Brad and Rebecca at a Thai Temple (Wat Mongkolratanaram) that serves brunch on Sundays.

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I can't remember what these were, but Brian loves them.

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Later that day we went to the Lowry Park Zoo. While not the biggest zoo, it has everything you want to see and can be done in less than 2 hours.

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First we feed the lorikeets.

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Then the giraffes.

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Then the.....oh boy, get a room kids.

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This wallaby had a little one in her pouch, but I was never fast enough to get it on film.

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Game night while watching the Oscars. Matt gets excited when we play Ticket To Ride.

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When my grandparents lived in Florida, they would take me here every time I visited them. It is a power plant that takes in the cool ocean water and pumps out warm water. The manatees love to come there and hang out.

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I've seen well over 50 manatees in this lagoon at one time, but today we only saw a few.

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These guys were just leaving when we got there.

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The visitors center has a Hurricane Simulator. Rebecca was a brave volunteer.

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Manatees move really fast and bounce off of boats in this game.

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We wrapped up our stay with a walk along Bayshore Blvd., the longest continuous sidewalk in the world. It is over 4.5 miles long.

2 comments:

Michael said...

Hot damn! Tampa looks surprisingly fun. You guys are having a great trip, me so jealous. Love to Rebecca and Pirate!

Ariel said...

Come back!!