Planes, Trains, Boats, and Automobiles!

March 13, 2017 No baseball today, so we decided to take the Trolley System to Ybor City.  We drove to the Tampa Convention Center and parked the car.  We made our way to the second to the last stop on the TECO Streetcar System.  We purchased our "all-day" tickets and hopped aboard. This shot from the TECO website shows the trolleys in front of the Ybor City sign. These are not the original streetcars, which long ago whisked passengers to and from Ybor City, Ballast Point, Hyde Park, Sulphur Springs, and other points.  Built in 1892, the electric streetcar line was a critical part of everyday life.  Workers took the streetcar downtown or to the cigar factories of Ybor City and west Tampa.  On the weekends families would board the streetcar system to go to a picnic or ball game in one of the parks.   I love this shot of the early 20th century streetcar that I found on the TECO website!  Seeing the streetcar juxtaposed with the ...

March 12, 2017 We set an alarm for 7 a.m. and struggled to get up given the first day of daylight savings time was upon us!  But off we went for the final leg of our journey to Tampa.  We took Route 75 all the way from Miramar to Tampa.  Known as "Alligator Alley," the road is pretty much a straight line from Fort Lauderdale to Naples and then skews north to get to Tampa.  Somewhere along the road I began noticing a tremendous number of herons -- snowy whites, blues, and a couple of others that I did not recognize.  Eventually we came upon a rest area where we pulled off and were mesmerized by the river and marshland that was teeming with wildlife.  Difficult to capture the beauty with my iPhone camera, but I tried: I loved the reflections captured in all of the above pictures of the white herons!   Look closely, and you will see an alligator in both the top and bottom pictures! We were so enamored of this stop that w...

March 11, 2017 All good things must come to an end, and so our time in Key West closed out today.  We woke up early to help get Peter and Betty Lou off to the airport for what they thought would be an early flight, but ended up not leaving until noonish.  I loaded sheets into the washer and then did our own packing while Jeff took them to the airport.  We finished up loading our car and set off at about 10:30 a.m. heading back up to Miramar (about half way from Key West to Tampa).  We stopped for lunch in Key Largo - very good fish sandwich for me, while Jeff had a burger (and some Key Lime Pie, of course). The verdict on this version was that it wasn't as good as the ones he had eaten in Key West, but it was definitely the prettiest.  Notice the two green feet - made of white chocolate that had been died key lime green! When we got to the hotel, we relaxed for a bit and the walked over to Blue Ginger, the hibachi place we had gone to last week. ...

March 10, 2017 We woke to some clouds this morning, and Jeff took some wonderful pictures of stormy weather well off the coast as he took his morning walk.  Fortunately, none of that rain came our way; the day was sunny and beautiful once again.  We went to an organ concert at St. Paul's at noon, and then had a nice lunch at the Thirsty Mermaid, a delightful little place a block or so away - and right across from Fausto's Food Palace!   I had a delicious "Italian Burger" that had proscuitto, caramelized onions, mushrooms, and arugula on it.  The arugula gave it a lovely spicy tang -- really delicious! Then it was back to the cottage for a nap and some quiet time.  We had "clean out the refrigerator" dinner and were off again to the Waterfront Playhouse to see Avenue Q! The set was really spectacular! The theater is also full of Old Town charm! The history of the Playhouse goes back to 1939 when a group known as the Key West Pl...

March 9, 2017 It was another beautiful day here on Key West, although quite warm and a bit humid.  Temperatures soared into the mid eighties under a mostly sunny sky with occasional light breezes.  As I checked my Facebook feed the first picture I saw was posted by my sister, Vicki, indicating that her cruise ship had docked overnight just around the corner in the "Navy Mole" -- literally a stone's throw from our condo!  I knew she was on a cruise, but I had no idea that their last port of call before returning to Miami was right here in Key West!  And, irony of ironies, she was aboard the Norwegian Pearl - the same ship Jeff and I sailed to Alaska! We set off a little before noon to go to the Farmer's Market.  It wasn't a large market, but it had a wide variety of tents with many different wares for sale.   Just inside the area we entered was a young man with a business called Keez Beez.  Jeff tasted the palm honey, declared it "delicious" ...