Florida Trip - Day #9. January 22, 2019

What a fun day!

After breakfast and getting ready for the day, we took off for an hour and a half drive to Tampa.  We were meeting Gin and Bob, a friend from DWLZ and her husband.

Gary doesn't like driving where he doesn't know where he is going.  This is stressful for me because he expects me to know where we are going, even if I have never been there before.  It is doubly bad if the trip is one I want to take and he doesn't.  So when the GPS told us to "proceed to the route" in the middle of her directions, everything went downhill.  I had no idea where we were to meet them except someplace near the aquarium.  Gin gave  me no specific name of a restaurant or a place to meet.  Just park in a parking garage near the ports and they would meet us.

Pretty specific, huh?

So I was near tears.  No. I was crying.  Gary was mad and not talking to me.  He didn't know these people, and I had never met these people, so what the heck were we doing in Tampa, not knowing where we were going?

Finally we parked in a parking garage, short term, not the long term cruise parking.  We walked to a place that had restaurants and overlooked the water where the cruise ships pulled out.  After we waited for about 45 mnutes and I had been texting Gin, we met up with them.

They picked a place to eat which had us walking to a restaurant.  Bob thought he knew where we were going, but after walking over a bridge toward a residential area, we back tracked and went to a River Walk which is where Gin wanted us to go in the first place.  We did learn that Derek Jeter lives in the section we had been heading over the bridge.

The name of the restaurant was the Columbia Cafe and Gin said it was one of the oldest restaurants in Tampa.  They are famous for their 1905 Salad and Cuban sandwiches.  There was a special on the menu for a half salad and a half Cuban so that is what all four of us ordered.  The salad was impressive.  It was all iceberg lettuce, plus ham and tomatoes, Swiss cheese, and grated Parmesan, plus homemade mixed dressing and some green olives.  The waitress mixed it in a big bowl at the table, then divided it between our four plates.  It really was delicious, and it was nice to have a salad without any of the fancy greens that are so popular now.

After lunch we walked on the River Walk which was really interesting.  They pointed out various hotels, a convention center where the Republican Convention had been held, told us about the various water taxis and streetcar systems, and explained the Gasparilla Festival which begins this weekend.

I had never met Gin in person even though we have been friends on Dotti's for probably 15 years.  I was shocked that she remembers so much about my posts and knew so much about my life.  She knew all of the grandchildren by name.  She remembered that my dad had gone on an honor flight before he died.  She mentioned how bad she felt when Gary's folks then my mom all died within months of each other.  I felt bad that I couldn't remember as much about her in return, but I did remember enough to continue conversations.

It was a good afternoon, and I am very glad we went to meet them.  It was fun to see Tampa through someone who lives there.  It was also good to put a face with a name and to meet her husband too.

When we returned, we sat for a while I. The condo, watched some tv, then went downstairs to the restaurant for dinner.  I ordered a chicken Alfredo flatbread and a bowl of French onion soup.  The flatbread would have been enough!  Gary ordered the fish and chips.  He had a beer and I ordered a strawberry margarita.

When we returned to the room, my legs really hurt from walking so much. Nearly 10,000 steps today!   I read my devotions, read my book for a while, commented on the OBS posts on FB, and went to bed after taking some Tylenol.  I woke up in a sweat, and the sheets were wet, so I decided to get up and write the blog post while the events were somewhat fresh in my mind.