April 14: Our flight to Tampa was 5 hours. But flying with cakep is so much fun that I didn't find it boring at all. We played a couple rounds of cribbage and I continued reading In the Footsteps of the Prophet when cakep needed to work on his stuff.
We took a taxi to our hotel only to find that our room was not ready. Feeling unhappy, we dropped off our luggage at the concierge and left the hotel, passed the Tampa Harbour to Channelside to get some dinner. We found nothing special about this place, other than a small shopping complex and restaurants.
To our surprise though our dinner at Grille 29 in the complex was superb. We sat outside on the restaurant's patio facing the canal with the cool breeze from the water. The breeze especially felt really nice in the uncomfortable, muggy and sticky 77 degree Tampa. I slowly enjoyed my 10 oz New York Strip Steak with Lobster Mashed Potatoes and brocollini on the side. Cakep ordered the Salmon Brulle which according to him was really good.April 15: After having breakfast at the hotel's Avanzare Cafe, I bought a $4.00 one-day pass to ride the city trolley and streetcar to explore the city. Whenever I am in a new place, I try to ride public transportation and taking the city routes as much as possible. That way I get the feel for the city I visit and can go places where tourists don't mostly go. So I took a lane to Old Hyde Park, an outdoor shopping complex which could be interesting if you like to shop. Since shopping is not my favorite activity, it was just an okay visit. I was more interested in checking out the neighborhood at the Old Hyde Park. I found something interesting; an avenue that seems "out of place" in Tampa. If you see the picture below, you would know what I meant :-)
Early evening riding the bright yellow streetcar, we went to Ybor City, a Latin Quarter that was once famous for cigar making. The city was dead when we got there around 4. Most restaurants and shops were closed. Only a couple of cigar stores opened with very few customers inside smoking cigars. Of course it is quiet in the afternoon. With more than 60 restaurants, bars and nightclubs, Ybor city draws party goers on weekend nights. Well, since we are not in to the "night life", we chose to see the city during its sleep. We ended the day by having dinner at the famous "Columbia Restaurant" that received rave reviews by a lot of people online. Well, we were not impressed with the food. We found the food we ordered to be very oily and overpriced.
April 16: I explored Tampa by riding the city bus again. It might not be something most people like to do in a new place. But, I like to know what's going on in the place I visit beyond the tourists spots. I would like to see the place as locals see. Of course it is impossible to get the real feel for the city in a few days, but at least I got something. To me, that's always interesting.
In the evening cakep and I went to watch Stanley Cup Playoffs that was played on Tampa Stadium located just a few blocks away from the hotel. I saw a college-level game in Los Angeles few years ago but I had never been to any professional hockey game before. Since we've been talking about going to a professional hockey game many times - but our desire to watch the game was put off when we think about having to drive to Staple Center to watch the game-, we might as well do it now when we don't need to fight the traffic in LA highway and we don't need to find parking! So off we went after dinner to the stadium to get the tickets. We were not sure if we could ever get one given we didn't book them in advance. Guess what? Not only we got one of the best seats that were close to the ring, but the two tickets were given to us for free. Not bad experience for my first ever professional hockey game. It was so much fun watching the game life. Much better than watching the game on TV. Of course
April 17: After breakfast, we visited the Florida Aquarium to have a nice relaxing time before flying back home. I took so much pictures of Mumlbe's family from the happy feet. By the time we got to my favorite creature - jelly fish- my camera already run out of battery. Darn. Took a shuttle to the airport shortly after lunch.
