3/26/2022 – 4/7/2022
I stopped on my way back the up to Tampa area in Riverview, FL just South of the city. I’m waiting for my friend Ashley to fly out on the 30th. I wanted to take a couple of relaxing days before I start showing her around. I found a park and boat ramp that had a nice view. I pretty much just hung out there for two days. I even saw a dolphin in the river!
On the 28th I drove up to Orlando to screen for a medical study. For all of my people in Fargo it’s like Pracs. I spent the whole afternoon in the office going through different tests to see if I qualify. Everything passed and I was pumped to get in and make some money,
The next day I wanted to tour downtown Orlando since I didn’t the first time I was there. Besides the amusement parks, Orlando is a boring city. There was only one interesting street and it only lasted a couple blocks. Do not recommend.
On the 30th, Ashley was flying in so I blasted back to Tampa to pick her up. I waited for her flight at Cigar City Brewing. They are a really cool brewery with a bunch of great beers. I didn’t get to try everything that I wanted.
Cigar City was only a couple of miles from the Tampa airport so I would be close when she got in. Unfortunately, I mess up and she was flying into Clearwater, like 15 miles away. I take off to go pick her up and we stop at the closest place to get something to eat. We ended up at this little dive bar attached to a 7-Eleven. The food was really good though and the drinks were cheap. After we ate, we decided to go to the beach. We drove up to my spot at Clearwater Beach and laid out in the sun. At sunset we went back to the van, got changed, and headed back out to walk the Pier 60 area. We walked out on the pier, stopped at 3 Daughters taproom, and went to Hooters for supper before heading back.
The next morning we went back to the beach for a couple hours. It was kinda windy, but we had most of the beach to ourselves. I played in the water for a while before heading back to take a shower.
Next on the list was downtown Tampa. We walked pretty much everywhere that I had been the last time I was downtown and Ybor City. It was fun showing Ashley around. We went to Pint and Brew for supper. They had an amazing sandwich there.
On the 1st we went to Al’s Finger Licking Good Bar-B-Que. This is a hole in the wall BBQ joint in Ybor. It’s supposed to be the best in the city. It was really good. After that we went to tour St Pete. We stopped at the University of Tampa to see the Tampa Bay Hotel. We walked through the main halls and the grounds. The building is used for admissions now so we were able to walk around easily. After the hotel we walked to see the pirate ship.
We started at the West end of downtown St Pete and walked to the water. We stopped at some of the breweries along the way and stumbled upon a first Friday celebration on the main road. We stopped there to people watch for a while. We made our way to the Pier and then started heading back to the van. We hopped on the trolley and it got us back to the van. We drove up to Oldsmar so we could go the horse races on Saturday.
We got up and immediately headed to Tampa Bay Downs to watch some horses race. I found a Groupon to get us admission, $5 for food or drink, a betting book, $2 for betting, and stadium seating all for $7 each. Just after the halfway point of the races it started to rain, then it got really stormy, and then they cancelled the races because of lightning and the downpour. It was still really fun. I would totally go again.
It stormed for the rest of the day so we drove around visiting all of the breweries on our Pub Pass.
In the morning we went to a Riverhills Park in the Temple Terrace area. We hung out here for a couple hours and looked for a place to go to supper in Orlando. We decided on Pannullo’s Italian Restaurant up in the Winter Park area of Orlando. The food was really good and the area was very nice. We walked the downtown Winter Haven area after supper before ending the night.
Ashley flew out early in the morning of the 4th. I dropped her off and went back to bed for a few hours. I spent the rest of the day doing laundry before heading back to Lakeland.
I wanted to go to a couple of the museums in Tampa before heading North. I started today by going to Wat Mongkolratanaram. This is a Buddhist temple that has a market every Sunday morning. The food they serve looks really good.
After that I went to Coppertail Brewing Company for a beer before parking in Ybor and taking the trolley to the American Victory Ship.
Next I walked to the Tampa Bay History Center. I spent two hours there and I could’ve spent another 30-45 minutes. The map section was my favorite part. I had to skim the pirate exhibit, but that seemed fun. The only pic that I took was of the restaurant/bar in the same building.
