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3/1/2015 Sunday Tampa Arrive 7am
We’ll be up early this day, since Holland America will want us off the ship as soon as possible so they can prepare for the passengers arriving in the afternoon. A seven-day Western Caribbean cruise starts today for those people.
Reservations have been made to stay two nights at the historic Don Vincente de Ybor Inn in the Ybor City section of Tampa. The hotel is located at Google Maps and its website is here.
Looking at the Google Map above, there is a train-track along 8th Avenue. That track is the TECO Streetcar line. It runs a few more blocks to the east. But going the other way, it runs down 13th Street. If you move the map to follow the track, you’ll see that it goes past the Cruise Ship Terminals, and the Aquarium, and the American Victory ship museum. Then it turns and goes past the Arena and the Convention Center to its end.
An all-day ticket on the streetcar costs $5 ($2.50 for each of us), but it can also be used on the bus lines that connect to it in several places. You can get all over downtown Tampa and could even get to the airport this way.
With all the attractions in historic Ybor City and Downtown Tampa, we should be kept busy, and there are literally scores of restaurants willing to feed us.
20150301 Sunday Tampa PhotoLink
Actually, we arose at the usual time and had breakfast. Then we waited in the cabin for our time to exit. Around 0900 we were called and went to the pier. We grabbed our luggage and went through immigration/customs. We were at the shuttle waiting spot by 0930 and in our car by 1000. We drove to the hotel and asked to sit in the lobby. The desk-person gave us the wifi password, so we did some internet.
Then we felt we could do some food, so we walked to 7th Ave (main drag in Ybor) and along it looking for a place. We saw a sign for Cristino’s so we went there. Nice little place. I had spaghetti carbonara & Jai Alai beer, D had linguini and clams with a mimosa. It was very nice, sitting in the courtyard outside in the shade.
The streetcar came by so we hopped on it and rode it to the other end of the line (downtown) and back. We’ll use it again tomorrow to get to attractions we want to do. We walked back to the hotel for a coke and to take it easy for a while.
A rain shower came by, then sun again. We took our umbrellas just in case and walked back to Centro Ybor. We dined in the Tampa Bay Brewing Company facility. Too much food. D told the waiter to take the remains of her beast to his dog, which delighted him. Beers were good. Then we hiked back to the hotel.
The internet service here isn’t good. I can get on the wifi with my Macbook but the iPhone and iPad won’t connect probably due to smaller antennas. We might play with the router location tomorrow.
We didn’t sleep well last night. I suppose we were anxious about leaving the ship. Going to bed early.
20150302 Monday Tampa
We slept in. When we finally got going, we went to IKEA, which we don’t have in Jacksonville. We found all sorts of doodads for the house and certain children, plus some Swedish foodstuffs for me. We returned to the hotel for a while.
Then we walked to the streetcar stop and rode to the aquarium. It a very nice facility, not cheap, right in the center of the cruise piers and convention center. Among all the fish and other denizens of the deep, they have a colony of lemurs. We enjoyed it until our lower backs gave out.
We rode the streetcar back to Centro Ybor and wandered 7th Avenue looking for a place to eat. We found a Green Iguana and sat in chairs on the sidewalk. The pub food they served was quite nice and the people-watching was very interesting.
We hiked back to the hotel then and loafed until bed-time.
20150303 Tuesday Jacksonville Beach
We slept well, got up and packed. We took a bagel breakfast in the lobby. Packed the car, and away.
The GPS led us back almost the same way we came down. Near the house, we stopped at the Publix to get food. Then we came to the condo and unpacked.
We’re home again. Thanks for coming along.