The Great Tampa Getaway
Last week our family spent three days in Tampa. This trip had many layers! My daughter was playing in the All-State concert band, which was part of the FMEA (Florida Music Education Association) convention. In addition to middle school and high school bands, orchestras, and jazz bands, there are all sorts of seminars for band directors. My husband is a band director, so he attends the convention every year for professional development. This meant my daughter spent her days rehearsing, and my husband attended seminars. My son did his own thing (including seeing a friend from high school who attends USF) and I was pretty much on my own. It turns out that this is the perfect “family vacation” for us, with just the right amount of togetherness (and apart-ness.) It all started Wednesday- as soon as my daughter got home from school, we loaded the car and took off. As you can see, my son is always enthusiastic. Tampa is a four hour drive from Boca Raton, but of course we had to stop for dinner. My son had several New Year’s resolutions this year: journal daily, meditate, and… eat more Taco Bell. I haven’t eaten Taco Bell in YEARS. Back in the day it was considered a vegan mecca, because there weren’t a lot of fast food places that had vegan options. I got away from it eventually because it’s not exactly a health food. But I didn’t want to thwart my son’s resolutions, so it was Taco Bell for dinner! We got to Tampa and checked into our hotel. My husband’s school pays for his hotel room, and this year we were lucky enough to get a room at the hotel downtown where my daughter’s band was rehearsing! This was a huge plus, because she had her own key and could go downstairs to her rehearsal and back to the room, being fairly independent. The downside- they couldn’t give us a room with two beds. We had one bed, a pullout couch, and a rollaway bed. We made it work! Thursday morning I helped my daughter get registered, and she had some free time as people got checked in. But after lunch she started her rehearsal, and I was off for an adventure. Tampa has a free streetcar, and I was able to walk from our hotel to the stop, and rode it to the end of the line in Ybor City. Ybor City is a historic district, founded in the 1880s by Cuban immigrants who worked in factories, hand rolling cigars. I found this website to be an extremely helpful guide, and while I didn’t drink a beer or smoke a cigar (as she did), I took her advice on many of the must-see attractions. The Ybor City museum, where I watched a short film on the history of the city: And I admired the wild chickens that roamed freely- descendants of the chickens the original immigrants kept in their backyards. I walked up and down 7th Avenue, which is lined with historic buildings, boutiques, cigar shops, and cafes. I had lunch at a vegan sandwich shop! I had a “chick’n salad” sandwich, which was actually made with chickpeas, and it was very delicious. You can see my book in this photo- one of the things I loved about this day was taking out my book and reading whenever I felt like it- while waiting for the streetcar, or eating lunch. So fun. I love exploring by myself! One last stop after lunch was Jose Marti Park, which- I didn’t exactly understand this- is owned by the Cuban government. I happened to get there at the same time as a tour group, and their leader was telling them (us) that as we stepped into the park, we were stepping into Cuba. Okay, cool! After that it was time for me to take the streetcar back to downtown Tampa. Such a fun little adventure! Yet another layer of this trip is that we have very close friends who live in Tampa. We met them when our sons were in preschool together, and have been friends ever since. They moved to Philadelphia (so sad) and then to Tampa (hooray!) so now we get to see them more regularly. We ate dinner at their house Thursday night. After all that excitement, Friday might seem kind of dull… but there was one special event! In the morning, after my run on the Riverwalk, I relaxed in the hotel room, drinking tea and reading (a true luxury for me) and then in the afternoon… I MET UP WITH STEPHANY from Stephany Writes!!!!! We met at a Starbucks and spent a couple hours chatting away about the Dolphins (sob), cats, living in Florida, books, and we also decided that we have QUESTIONS for some of you bloggers! Ha ha… we were trying to figure out how some of you manage to read so many books, with all the other things going on in your busy lives. So fun to meet up in real life! Friday night we went to the middle school and high school jazz band concert, which is always an All-State highlight. The high school jazz band especially is SO GOOD. This is the band my daughter auditioned for on guitar- but it’s virtually impossible to get in as a freshman. I think she was inspired hearing them play, and is already planning to audition again next year. Saturday was our last day, sigh! I didn’t want it to end. In the morning my daughter had rehearsal, and (after running my 3K race) we met up with our friends again. They brought lunch to our hotel, and then we walked on the Riverwalk. We dropped my daughter off at the Convention Center, where her concert would be… and continued to walk and talk with our friends until it was time to part. We heard my daughter’s concert- her band was excellent- and then sadly it was time to