Florida-Day 2

So it was our first full day in Florida. I actually overslept by an hour, I guess for the alarm clock on my phone to work, the phone needs to stay on. I guess a certain someone in the hotel, not named me, left too much toilet paper in their pants, since I wound up seeing a trail coming out of their crack. Must have been ten feet long at least. Anyway, we went south down 275 towards St. Petersburg. We found the Skyway Fishing Pier, which used to be the bridge that connects St. Petersburg and Terra Ceia. Now they have a new bridge next to it and it’s rated one of the Top 10 bridges in the world. So we walked the length of the pier before leaving and driving a little bit north past Tropicana Field where the Tampa Bay Rays play baseball. And yes, it really is as ugly and dull as the hype.

We headed to downtown St. Petersburg, so Mom could check out the Mayflower Tours office. Being that it was one day after Christmas, it was closed. So instead, we went to a small art museum, which had a lot of food-related art. I did see one nice painting of cinnamon rolls. I also liked that there were three wrestling-themed drawings: one of CM Punk, one of Randy Savage, and one of the Road Warriors.

Then we went into northern St. Petersburg and found the Florida Orange Grove Winery. We went in and they let us try nine fruit wines and three smoothies. I think my favorites were the watermelon and Coco Polada, which had pineapple, orange, and a lot of coconut. If I lived in Florida, I’d be drinking a bottle of that every week!

Lunch time and I knew where to go: Ted Peter’s Smoked Fish. I had seen it on the Food Network and it’s tough to get great seafood in the Midwest, so I thought it would be a good idea. It’s basically a covered shack, nothing fancy at all. The waitress gave us free samples of their fish spread, Manhattan clam chowder, and German potato salad. Everything was amazing. The potato salad had bacon and bacon grease, no mayo, the way potato salad should be made! And even though the fish spread looked a little like tuna salad, it was awesome. I spread that on a saltine cracker and it was just a really light, flavorful condiment.

Mom got the salmon and I got the mullet, a fish I had never had, but was supposedly a big deal in Florida. Of course, I got another order of potato salad. The plate came to me with a huge filet, a pickle spear, tomato slice, onion slice, and a wedge of lemon. Apparently, you squeeze lemon on the fish and then eat it with the tomato and onion before taking a bite of the pickle. I have no idea who comes up with this, but it was great. The fish was moist and flavorful. The only hard part was I had to pull a lot of little bones out of it; there must have been at least 20. I would definitely return.

After that, we went into the fancy section of Tampa to walk around the pier. It was cool seeing people riding bikes, driving boats, and just remembering what a palm tree looked like. We checked out the Vinor Hotel, which is an elegant 100-year old hotel. I took some photos of their waterfalls, pool, and lobby Christmas tree. Then, we went into the Chihuly museum. Dale Chihuly is a famous glass designer who has galleries across the country. So we checked out some really interesting designs for about an hour or so. The colors were really bright, the designs very intricate. I can’t even begin to explain how they were made, but it was a neat thing to check out. Just goes to show I have interest in things other than sports and food, despite what some may think.

OK, back to food. We walked down the street and stopped at Kilwin’s, a well-known ice cream joint. Mom got a scoop of peppermint and I got cinnamon crumb cake ice cream in a waffle cone. What made this different than other cinnamon ice creams was it had bits of cake batter and a gooey cinnamon swirl mixed in. Absolutely crazy good ice cream. Then, back in Tampa, we made a stop at Publix to get some fruit, milk, yogurt, and, for me, a toothbrush. I forgot my Sonic Care at home; I always forget one thing every time I travel.

We stopped back at the hotel to chill for a while and I used the computer in the lobby for a while. Feeling in the mood for pizza, I drove us to one of the local malls for some Garibaldi’s. It’s a Brooklyn-themed pizza place and I liked that it had several NYC subway signs in the restaurant. I tried taking some photos of it. Unfortunately, I backed up towards the bar and there was a middle-aged woman right near me and I guess she didn’t sense me there. Our backs were to each other and somehow her right elbow hit my left shoulder. As that happened, she apparently spilled her glass of water on herself. She was pretty upset, but at least it was only water. The staff even apologized to me about it, but I wasn’t really upset. We got a 16-incher with sausage, tomatoes, and roasted peppers.  Even after eating a caprese salad, we had no trouble wiping out the whole pie.

We got back around 7:30 but I wasn’t ready to settle in for the night. I walked over to Brick House which was adjacent to our hotel. I had a really cute blonde bartender named Sam, who I chatted with a fair amount for a couple of hours. And I also talked for an hour with a girl named Rochelle, who was sitting next to me at the bar. My drink of choice was the Jacked Up, which was Bass Ale, Jack Daniels, Red Bull, and sour mix. I definitely didn’t notice the Bass; the other flavors were much more noticeable. It was a fine drink though. Then to top it off, I had a 22 oz Fat Tire.  On the TV, I watched a little of the Northern Illinois bowl game. I’m not a college football fan, but that’s kind of the local team, so I hoped they’d win. They didn’t. I made it home at 11:30 and went straight to bed.