Walking on Sunshine

CC and I went on a long weekend trip to Tampa. It has been a while and we really needed the break. I have been looking at houses online for months, just wishful thinking as the Son is still in school and we decided we would browse around the town and try to narrow the search process down to an area. (It's an awful big place to be surfing for real estate). We have a couple that intrigued us and Dad was nice enough to set up showings of the houses for Saturday.

We decided to take Allegiant Air to Tampa. It looked like it would be a good deal. The problem is that they only fly out of Lexington, so we had a drive before we could fly. They also only fly to Tampa at one time and home at one time so that was definitely a limitation. Next time we will just take Southwest.

We arrived late Thursday night, and got our rental car. CC got us a convertible Mustang! It was nice and comfortable after the long flight. We found some food, the motel and got to bed. Friday morning we got up and decided to drive around and enjoy the day. We found neighborhoods of houses we liked, and drove past the ones we would be touring the next day. The weather warmed up to the mid to upper 60's and we drove around with the top down on the car. I think a lot of the locals thought we were crazy tourists! The sun was shining and was so warm! (Especially since the highs at home were hovering in the mid 20's). We went to Ybor City which is supposed to be a hip part of town. It was a bit disappointing. Although there were restaurants and bars and some shopping, there was not any decent housing beyond condos and apartments. After lunch and a quick walking tour of the area we were off again. We stopped at Wally world for a couple of Lightning t-shirts as we were going to the game a bit later. Tangent time: They are all the same. It doesn't matter what state, what part of town. Walmart always caters to a "special" segment of the US population.

We arrived in plenty of time for the game and were able to get a bite, a beer, and have a look about the arena. They have everything from your basic soft pretzel to Outback Steakhouse. We found a booth with garlic fries. I MEAN GARLIC FRIES. Oh my! They warned us, but wow!!! I'm so glad CC had some too because it was some potent stuff. Mix that with beer and our breath was kicking! Speaking of beer, they had Labatt's. Not too uncommon but they had it in 24oz CANS! With koozies you can buy to keep them cold. They were tasty! We ended up having three a piece! The beer really helped when it came to the game. In the first period the score was 4 to 1 Devils. Needless to say, they are seriously lacking in the goal tender department. we did talk to some nice people in the stands. We had really close seats, third row behind the Devil's bench.

24 oz. Labatt's. Who knew?

It was neat to see a game in a different venue. I must say though I am really spoiled by how fun the Predators games are. The atmosphere is much better in Nashville. The music, the crowd. There were a lot of empty seats at the Lightning game and it was on a Friday night. By all rights it should have been sold out. It was kind of a shame. They could use some help in the music department. A bit heavy on the AC/DC and not much else. They even had the organ music... I must say they have the most lame mascot I think I have ever seen. Especially for a professional sports team. When I think of lightning I think of Zeus, thunderbolts. I really wasn't expecting a lightning bug. It was cute in a children's show, Barney kind of way. Not a mascot for a hockey team. UGH!

After all of the beer and the excitement of losing a game, we made our way back to the motel. Someone slid ads for pizza under the door while we were out. In my happy buzzed state I decided we needed to have some pizza. So, in 30 minutes or less, pizza was delivered right to the room. :)

Saturday arrived and we had pizza again for breakfast! We jumped in the car and went out scouring additional neighborhoods and areas of town. We had a bit of time before Dad was to arrive and decided we would drive out to the suburbs. There is a plethora of housing in the suburbs so we thought we would check it out and see how far of a commute it would be into town. PACK A LUNCH! It seemed as if it took forever to get out to the home we chose to look for. We decided most definitely that particular zip code was not for us.

After an outdoor lunch at Panera, we left to return to the motel to meet Dad. After everyone checked in we were off. We looked at the first house in Temple Terrace we had chosen. It was a Mediterranean Revival. It had a nice lot and the closest neighbor was a school and a library. No one right next to the house. There would be a bit of work involved with the home but we liked it. The realtor for that home had another house she added to our list. She knew we wanted a house with character and showed us another house in Temple Terrace. We loved it!! It was petite 3/2/1. slate and terrazzo flooring. Beautiful neighborhood where we could see the river from a covered porch on the front of the house under a live oak tree. It really reached out to speak to us. We looked at a few other houses including a mystery house we stumbled across on the Hillsborough River. After all of that house hunting we were hungry so we went to dinner at Kona Grill. Three of us opted for the sea bass. It melted in my mouth! The brownie dessert was a big one for sharing. The service was excellent and we had a wonderful time.

Our flight home was at the crack of dawn! No more Allegiant Air. We had a 0720 flight out so by the time we flew to lexington and drove home it was 1130. The whole way home all I could think about was that house. ...