Spring break (March 2025) - Part I

I decided that we should visit Florida this past Spring Break.  Mostly to go visit a couple of people that I haven't seen in a long time.  I'm glad Bobby and the boys agreed!

Thankfully the flight was not too early in the morning.  That's by choice - always make sure it's not O-dark-thirty when we have to leave for the airport.  We managed to have one of our neighbors give us a ride with his car service too. One less thing to worry about!

Food court we-fie:

Or..... go to the lounge, now that Daddy has enough point with the airline.  Graham is happy with all-you-can-eat prosciutto!

Tampa!!

And that's a giant flamingo in the middle of the airport!!  Yes, I just HAD to take a selfie with it :-)

Trying to get some ideas/inspiration for a bottle drawing:

Tallest escalator ever!!

We get the rental car and then within about 30 minutes, we are stuck in traffic!  So, we decided to pull out and took a nearby exit to ... I think it was called Midtown?

Just happy we are getting some yummy food in our belly. And yummy dessert too!

More inspirations:

The next day, we are looking for more food for brunch:

Found some ramen and pork belly buns.  YUM!! Charlie is happy, for sure:

Pretty neat place called the Joinery. It's almost like The Hanger in Long Beach, CA - where you have several vendors under one roof.  This was a good find!

And then we are off to the baseball game.  Spring training for Detroit Tigers - last game!

SOOOO many teams that do their Spring Training in Florida. Yikes!

Pretty good seats! :-)

We're off to visit my friend Bill.  We met quite a long time ago when I first started out on tour.  He was a starter working at the golf course that we played at and he ended up being my caddy. It's good to see him after almost 20 years!

And yes, that's his cane - and no, I didn't really hit him with it ;-P  And yes, Graham is up in the tree!

We spent a few lovely afternoons under the big tree.  Here's his wife Sandy.  So good to see her again too!

They are not far from the Florida Southern College. And who knew there are Frank Lloyd Wright works around here!

Most definitely FLW:

When we got back to the hotel, it's pool time for the boys.  They sure know how to have a good time!

Here's how I drew up my bottle for Bill and Sandy:

Notice the birds and the big leaf? I thought the golf cart turned out quite nicely too :-)

Has Charlie become a mid-westerner?? He's wearing socks with his flip flops! I'm guessing that's a big no-no in FL. LOL!!

We are staying near a small airport.  And there's a new restaurant.  We popped by and there's these Japanese wraps - don't remember what they are called now, but they were yummy!

Pretty good view of the planes going in and out:

Back in the room... and back on their phone. Sheesh!

Heading back to Bill's but before that, we go out and look for gators.  Ha ha!

Lovely park for a lovely walk:

Okay! Maybe we will find some here!

We didn't actually find any along this path, but we drove towards the lake and found some there!

It's a bit tricky to see the gator, but trust me - it's there!

We picked up some sorbet from the Publix supermarket. And yes, it really is YUMMY :-)

Graham is back up on his favorite tree at Bill's house:

Alright, dinner time. Cool mural!

These were quite some yummy pizza here. They used Focaccia bread instead of pizza dough:

And as if that wasn't enough, we decided to go out for some Japanese dessert:

Charlie has ice cream with a fish waffle, and we also order a crepe with strawberries and creme:

We were going to order something else but they refused because they were closed even before actual closing time. Wait, what?!?

And so, being dissatisfied with that, we decided to hit a custard spot around the corner:

Okay, we definitely have our fill of calories and sugar today!

To be continued...