MARCH!

Wow, first apologies, I've received several emails asking where were my updates. Things have been crazy busy with work and life in general, but let me try to sum up some things I've been up to in the Tampa area over the past month since I last posted.

Sunday Feb 28th, went to the last showing of the Broadway Musical 'Wicked' at the Starz Performing Arts Center in downtown Tampa.

Wednesday March 3rd was a good friends birthday, so about 15 of us met up at The Brasserie in downtown St. Petersburg to celebrate, and my friend Rob was playing solo his great tunes. The food here was excellent, we tried the Onion Tart, a large pie shaped Tart, great flavor, perfect to share for two as an appetizer. I had the Burger, a huge juicy Burger with cheese on a soft Onion Roll, and crisp fries. Perfect!!

Saturday, March 6th was the annual Florida Brewers Guild Beerfest held at Centro Ybor...taking the #19 bus from South Tampa, we were able to try over 40 different Florida brewers showcasing their fine brews...$25 gets you a 4oz cup to sample for 4 hours...lots of really good stuff this year. Then it was off to The Forum downtown for a Lightning Hockey game...

Sunday March 7th, was the ending of Gasparilla season, with the Gasparilla Festival of the Arts at the Curtis Hixon Waterfront park, a beautiful day for it in downtown Tampa.

Wednesday a few of us caught my friend Rob again playing at Hula Bay/Dukes on the waterfront, a cool evening with good tunes, and good food.

Saturday the 13th was the annual St Patricks Parade in Ybor. We started at La Terazza's Italian restaurant around 6ish to celebrate a friends birthday...excellent service and food in this small Italian cafe on 7th avenue...then we walked over to Gaspars grotto to watch the parade, a stop in green Iguana, Spurs, Coyote Ugly, Club Czar, and to end the night we munched on some exccellent Tacos at Jalepenos De Ybor.

Sunday was A nice bike ride from Westshore Blvd to Bayshore Blvd along Euclid Ave, and then up Bayshore Blvd through downtown to Ybor City. It was a beautiful day for it.

Monday I was off to NYC for work.

Free Beer Samples at Tampa's Busch Gardens---GONE!!

Typically dont write about this stuff, but this kinda bugged me....InBev, the new parent company that bought Anheuser Busch and its Theme Parks(Busch Gardens), announced that as of January 25th, they will no longer offer the 2 free 10 oz samples they have offered for over 50 years. This 'sampling' was not only a tradition of the park, but also gave you the opportunity to taste, try and sample they're different variety of beers introduced to the market each year/season. What a poor marketing decision on they're part..not only do they break from tradition, but now I wont even think about buying an Anheuser Busch product I didn't have the opportunity to taste before hand, or remember tasting when they were once available to sample...tsk, tsk....