Sunday, January 03, 2010

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

9 comments:

Jean said...

Love the variety of photo subjects that you use. I love the palm tree with the pink cottage.

Hope you had a great trip.

Happy New Year!

Liz Mays said...

You really took some beautiful photos!!!! I see why you'd like that one for a Christmas card too. :)

Ruth Ann said...

Your photos always amaze me! I love the one with the ornament hanging from the tree, the one with the palm tree shutter, and the the one of the sunset! Unbelievable! I would totally be afraid of taking photos of someone's house. I'd be afraid they'd yell at me or something! I really need to get out there and photograph life! You're such an inspiration! Have a great week and stay warm!

Keetha Broyles said...

Loved the tour.

Loved the lumpy bed.

Loved the FACE on that view thingy in the last picture.

Loved it all.

k

Anonymous said...

oooh, a mini reunion would be great for all of you in FL - I hope it happens and you take lots of photos.

LAC said...

Great pics! I esp. love the ornament shot and the gerber daisies. (they're my favorite)

Sounds like a lot of fun, and your hubby is a nice guy like mine. Driving us around so we can get cool pictures!!

Leigh of Tales from Bloggeritaville said...

Almost stomping grounds...we lived in Sarasota. Oh, how I miss that place!
LOVE the palm tree shutter on the pink cottage! LOVE it!
Great pics! Glad you got to get away!

Debby@Just Breathe said...

I love allot of the sites in Tampa, so old, so Florida. That is where I would fly into. We always go to Clearwater too. My family is in Palm Harbor. Looks like you had a nice time.

Terri said...

I have almost the exact same location photo as the one where the guy is feeding the birds, except without the guy (lol), you can see the pier, the beach and that big pink hotel in the background! I still can't believe we were nearly there at the same time.