March 30 – April 4, 2017
Julie, a colleague of ours from our time in South Korea, joined us for a day outing on Thursday. We visited Ybor City, founded in 1885 by a group of Cuban cigar manufacturers led by Vicente Martinez-Ybor, had lunch at Gaspar’s Grotto, and took a self-guided walking tour.
We also visited the American Victory Ship Maritime Museum, the ship is one of only four fully-operational WWII ships in the US. Great museum but a very hot tour, I recommend going on a cooler day. With the heat getting the best of us, we spent the evening in an air conditioned restaurant sharing stories and enjoying each other’s company.
The Gadarowski’s picked us up for an outing on Saturday, we spent the day visiting and hiding from the heat; lunch, the mall, and a tour of Davis Islands. The Davis Islands complex was developed during the early 1900’s Florida Land Boom by D.P. Davis. John and Jennifer lived here when they first came to Tampa and it is where we are moored. The marina is part of the 55-acre park that was donated to the city by Mr. Davis and named after his late wife Marjorie. One of the crown jewels of the islands is Bayshore Boulevard, a waterfront road that claims to have the longest continuous sidewalk in the world, 4.5 miles long and 10 feet wide. On one side of the road you have Hillsborough Bay and on the other side are multi-million dollar mansions.
On Sunday we met Silver, a paralytic Angora rabbit that Jennifer has been nursing. Such a sweet rabbit, she seemed to love coming to visit and spending time outside. We look forward to hearing more about her progress. Along with Silver, John and Jennifer brought us a cutting from one of their plumeria plants. We are looking forward to seeing how it grows on Andiamo.
Today we leave for Alisha and Patrick’s wedding.
