To Tampa and Back

Tom and I left for our whirlwind trip to Tampa, FL on Friday morning.  We arrived at the Hilton Garden Inn around 3 that afternoon and this is the first view of the room.  I have to laugh at the lumpy comforter.  The hotel did not research how these comforters would wash, that's for sure.  That''s OK, the mattress wasn't lumpy.

One of our drives along Bayshore drive I spotted this house.  I made Tom drive around the block in order for me to photograph the house.  Then I decided I needed more shots of this house so I had him stop and drop me off.  You can click on the photo to enlarge it - can you see the giant ornaments hanging from the trees?

This photo is so gorgeous that I may have to make it a Christmas card photo option for next year.  Love it!

I wanted to take photos of  old Florida hotels and cottages, but there were precious few places to park so I could jump out.   This was one of the cottages in the Clearwater area, I think.  I'm a sucker for palm trees and combined with the hot pink and that gorgeous tile - ohhh goodness, it's lovely.

Tom and I almost always visit an open house or two when we visit a new town.  On this day we toured the model of a condo building.  The place was only 2.5 million dollars.  I told the Realtor that I would like to take photos, so he wouldn't get all nervous that I was hanging out longer in each room than they were.

I took a lot of photos, but this is one of the highlights.  lights.  highlights. haha.

This is the pier at Clearwater Beach.  This guy was actually feeding the seagulls (or as I call them - skyrats.)  He would hold his arm up with a piece of bait in his fingers and the birds would hover hover hover just an inch over that bait and wait for him to give it a little toss in the air.  It was great.

It was freeeeeezing out there though.  I know, I know, it's not like winter temps in the North, but it got down to freezing in Tampa and that's cold.

One of our tasty meals came from this place.  It was a tiny place that was chock full of character.  I had fish and chips that were to die for!  Yum.

I really liked the light fixtures in the Crab Shack.  They were especially festive with the green and gold garland.

Ooops this got out of order - this is one of the bedroom photos from the multi million dollar condos. 

Finally, this is a photo of the sunset off of the pier at Clearwater Beach.  I found out today that one of my highschool classmates was also on this very same beach, next to this pier at sunset on the night we were there.  Amazing.  I had no idea.  Next time we'll meet up.  She lives in town - once again, I had no idea.  There are quite a few of us from my graduating class that live in Florida so we may have a little mini reunion this year.

I hope you enjoyed the mini tour of my weekend. I never got a chance to download my photos of IKEA, so that will be coming up in the next day or so.

Have a delightful week!
Kristin