Flow Rida or Florida, Whichever You Prefer

Original photo by Clayton

This past week my girlfriend and I took a trip to Tampa, FL.  We went for a writing convention for her.  The convention was held on Thursday through Sunday.

It was a lot of fun and we had pretty good weather.

We rented a mother-in-law suite from a young couple off of the Air BnB website.   We've used Air BnB often with a lot of success and this was no exception.

The place was a stand-alone apartment with a small kitchenette, shower, Murphy bed, and living room.  It worked really well for us.

We bought groceries the first night so that we would have food instead of eating out.  We did pretty good with our food, but we did eat out occasionally for dinner.  One of my favorite places was the Brick House Tavern and Tap.  I had a beer called Mamas Little Yella Pils and a burger called The Gun Show.  It was an excellent meal, even if it was WAY too many calories at one time.  My gut was stuffed for a while that night.

Original photo by

psyberartis

That night after the food we saw Captain America: Winter Soldier.  It is an excellent flick, lots of action, a must see for any Marvel fan.

On Sunday we went for a walk on Bayshore Blvd and saw Manatees!!  It was SO cool.  There were four of them together.  I'm guessing it was a family with a mom, a dad, a baby, and a juvenile all together.  It was neat to see them eating the seaweeds along the sea wall.

On Monday, we took the time and money to go to Disney World.   It really is magical.  Disney World is so much larger than Disney Land, surprisingly so.  We spent the better part of nine hours and barely scratched the surface of walking around the park and riding rides.  We did the Tiki House (Land's is better), The Swiss Family Robinson Tree House (World has the better one by far), The Jungle Cruise (same, but World has a longer boat ride), Pirates of the Caribbean (the two rides are completely different), Space Mountain (again the two rides are not the same), Thunder Canyon (the ride is the same, but World has a bunch of fun interactive things to do while you wait in line), the Haunted Mansion (also the same with interactive things in line), and a parade (identical).  That was it for our nine hours in the park.

Original photo by Clayton

We did stay for the fireworks and light show.  We got really good seats on one of the bridges looking at Cinderella's Castle.  The show was in two parts and went from 9:30 through 10:30pm.  The way they used the castle and fire works to go along with the music and tell the stories was neat.  After that it was a mass exodus from the park and "Home, James."

Tuesday morning we barely slept three hours, then it was time to go to the airport.  The trip was uneventful, which is always good, and we were home safe and sound by early afternoon.

It was a good trip and it looks like we'll be going back again next year, but in the summer time this next time.

Clayton