Florida!!

Last week, Lance and I got the opportunity to go to Tampa, Florida! It was sort of a last minute decision, because the Monday before we left, Lance found out that he had to go there for some training. He called me immediately to see if I would like to go with, and since I had nothing else to do, I accepted. Oh, plus, I had never been to Florida before, and was pretty excited to go. :)

Our flight left bright and early on Monday morning, and took half the day. That night, Lance and I explored. We were initially searching for a beach, or something, and a place to eat, but we ended up just finding a ritzy neighborhood on the waterfront, where everyone had their own personal dock. It was unbelievable how much money can be spent, but it was fun to see.

One of the houses we saw. It's huge!

I'm in front of one of the personal boat docks.

After about two hours, we decided that we were super hungry, and decided to go back. We never found the beach that day.

The next day, Lance had to go to class from 8:00-5:00. So, I decided to explore the mall. I know the mall isn't that exciting, but I didn't know what else to do by myself, and I didn't know what else would be safe for a young lady to do in Tampa. Then I went back to the hotel and relaxed until Lance came back. That night, we went to the International Plaza, which for you Utah folks, is sort of like the Gateway in Salt Lake City. We mainly just walked through, and continued on to the Buccaneer's Stadium. For you non-sports fans out there, that is Tampa's football team. I didn't know that before, either. Then, we were super hungry because it was dinner time, and we went back to the International Plaza and ate at the Cheesecake Factory!!! YUMMY!!!! I had a cashew chicken salad, and Lance had a hamburger. Then, for dessert, Lance had raspberry lemon cheesecake, and I had peanut butter chocolate fudge cheesecake. It was DIVINE!!! You can't go to the Cheesecake Factory and not get cheesecake! Then, it was dark, so we headed back to the hotel.

We are at the International Plaza, and there is a pond with a sign that says, "Warning alligators may be present. Do not feed or harass. We thought it was pretty hilarious.

This is the Buccaneers stadium. Lance is pretending to be a pirate with his bag of loot, aka my purse, on his shoulder.

This is me in front of the Cheesecake Factory, and part of the International Plaza.

The next day, while Lance was in class, I decided to get out of my comfort zone and explore. I found an area via the Internet that might possibly be a way to the beach, and so I took a walk along that route. Guess what! I found it! It was behind a bunch of businesses along a parkway, but it was there! I sat and relaxed along the beach for a while before going back to the hotel. It was great! Well, except for the fact that I forgot to put on sun block that day, and the sun decided to kiss me a little too hard. When Lance came back, we decided to take a bus to Downtown Tampa, which turned out to be really lame. There were tons of huge buildings, but there was nothing to do! We thought there would be some yummy restaurants or cute shops, but no, just businesses. The coolest thing we saw was the University of Tampa, which we walked through, but didn't do anything there, either. Oh, and we saw a drawbridge, which is pretty cool, because you don't see those in Utah. Then, we decided to go back, and I took Lance to the beach. We got there at sunset. How romantic ;) Then, we went back to the hotel.

This was at the park on the way to the beach. You can see the bay. I love the palm trees that were everywhere!

This is Downtown Tampa. Lots of buildings, nothing to do.

Preview

Lance is sitting on the ledge alongside the sidewalk on the drawbridge we crossed.

Lance and I are on the beach at sunset. Romantic! Don't worry, we only kissed once . . . or twice.

The next day we headed home. Our flight left at 6:48am, which for Utah would be 4:48am, so we woke up at 4:30 Florida time, and 2:30 Utah time. Tiring day!

It was a super fun trip!