We didn’t have a lot of time to see big attractions in Tampa, Florida when we were there in April. We decided to skip Busch Gardens and the Big Cat Rescue and check out mostly free attractions. (The first day is always a travel day and we were delayed an hour leaving as it was).

The next day Sean had his meetings and Brian and I were kind of stuck in a strange town not knowing what to do. We ended up getting the hotel bus to take us to the mall. They had a nice restaurant area and we ended up going to a deli style place.

The mall itself was ‘high end’ with even a plastic surgeon tucked in a corner. Get botox and go shopping!

 

We had planned to go to a famous steak house and decided not to as it was very expensive. We found a little place and had a coupon where we ordered lots of  small plates. We also played 1980s trivia for a while. That was fun and different.

We looked for a few caches and found one down the road from the restaurant. We then drove around Tampa and ended up checking out the University of Tampa campus too.

Wow! It was awesome!

If we had known better, we could have stayed in St. Petersburg or Clearwater, both very close to Tampa. They would have given us something to do-sit and relax on their gorgeous beaches!

The next day we did the ‘recommend to see in Tampa’ part of Trip Advisor.

The first place we stopped was Watmongkolrata, a beautiful Tai temple right there in Tampa.

The inside was very ornate

They we went over to TECO (Tampa Electric) where there is a manatee viewing area there. Unfortunately, it was starting to get to warm near this area and the manatees were gone seeking cooler waters. We got a virtual cache there and enjoyed seeing this area.

We then decided to take the short drive to St. Pete’s beach and we were glad we did!

The Don CeSar

If you watch ‘The Little Couple’, you may know that Bill Klein and Jenn Arnold got married here. We didn’t go inside though.

The beach was gorgeous! We got a little sunburn in the 20 minutes we were there!

It was close to our 30th wedding anniversary! A nice way to celebrate.

We found a cache here and enjoyed the scenery

We then went to eat in some little town because I got a coupon for the place-like a Red Lobsta. We had eaten lunch in St. Pete’s and Brian and I had split a Cuban pork sandwich. I’m sorry we split it as it was so good.

Next post will be our last long day in Florida starting at Lake Lettuce Park and ending in Clearwater.