Renewal Leave - Part Eleven - Tour of Tampa Day

I also had a Tampa day last week. I started out on Wallace Circle (off Manhattan and Gandy) visiting our hold house there. It used to have a car port where the window and chairs are but it looks so nice now. 

Then I popped over to the Catholic church off Manhattan where I attended preschool, St. Patrick's Catholic Church. 

From there I drove up Bayshore Boulevard and over to University of Tampa. There's a wonderful bookstore/restaurant/coffee bar across from campus called the Oxford Exchange that I wanted to check out. You could get lost in here for hours. 

Then it was time to visit the Henry B Plant Museum in the old Tampa Bay Hotel, now part of the University of Tampa. The museum is in the part of the first floor. This is the hotel that Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders stayed at before they deployed to Cuba. And then I wandered through the gardens outside a bit. 

I finished up the day at Channelside downtown at the Tampa Bay History Center along the Riverwalk. This is a fabulous history of our area spread over three floors. It included a lot of history about the Seminole Indian tribes and also the cigar industry history in Ybor City. I took the stairs and came across the original sign from the old Maas Brothers store in downtown Tampa. 

On the top floor there was an observation deck where you had views of Harbour Island and the Port. 

 

Baseball Time

The whole family made it to a Rays game on Monday night at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. It was so nice to enjoy the game outside, even though it was pretty warm. We lost 4-3 but it was a good game.

 

Spring Break Vacation Day Eight

On Sunday we checked out of our condo and headed for Tampa. We visited Busch Gardens as a family. Wesley and Davis had fun cards from a previous visit with the church - Daryl, Parker and I all won free one day tickets at the Bucs game on Christmas break. We rode the train through the animal enclosures and hit a couple of the roller coasters: Tigris and Iron Gwazi. 

 We also visited the ice skating show at the Moroccan Palace. 

 

 

I was the only one to the Falcoln's Fury drop. 

Afterwards we found a Bahama Breeze for dinner and then we parted ways - Parker back to Lakeland and the rest of us home to Sarasota (and to pick up the dogs). 

Busch Gardens Trip

The boys got to go back to Busch Gardens this weekend, this time with the youth group from Harvest UMC.  They had a good day. 

Bucs Game!

It's been many many years since Daryl or I attended a Bucs Game in Raymond James stadium. And none of the boys had ever been to a game there. Since we stayed home this year for Christmas break, we invested in good seats for a Sunday afternoon Bucs game - we were just 21 rows off the field in the first bowl of seats - incredible views! And the Bucs did not disappoint with the action or the score - Baker Mayfield was on fire with 5 touchdowns and the Bucs soundly beat the Panthers.

 

 

The Ring of Honor - players and coaches (and the former owner)

 

Getting ready to welcome the players out onto the field. 

 

 

 

 

Duck on the field!