Gasparilla Weekend!!!

My buddy Dave flew in from Boston for the Gasparilla festivities. Friday after my conference, I met up with Dave and we headed downtown Tampa. Dave had to take care of somethings at the courthouse. We had some lunch at Eddie and Sams pizza, some of the best Pizza ive had in Tampa. We walked around downtown, went to the Police Museum, which had some very interesting items to view, and old pictures of Tampa. Dave wanted to check out the Riverwalk, so we headed to Kiley Park which was very sad. I hope they plan on doing something about that space. We started our happy hour around 2pm at Hatricks, which was very crowded, as there seemed to be a lot of people in town for the weekend. We then headed over to Ybor, and had another chilly beverage at Green Iguana, then Tampa Bay Brewing Company. Ybor was also VERY busy for the middle of the day. Happy Hour continued at Channelside's Margarita Mama's. Day turned to night, and we headed to SOHO to eat at Dubliner, and of course, more chilly ones. We ended Friday night at Green Iguana Westshore-walking distance to home.

Saturday morning was beautiful, a great day for a parade. This was my 19th Gasparilla, and goes on the list again as one of the BEST. This year, Dave, Lisa Maryann and I started at Bay to Bay and Bayshore, and walked up to where Maryann's friends were on the boats near the bridges crossing to Davis Islands. It was great to be able to watch the parade by boat anchored along Bayshore. The usual mayhem and drunkenness of course, lots of beads...and a lot of reunions with people I havent seen in about a year. Lisa enjoyed liftin guys shirts, checkin out their abs, and she did several lifts of her own of course....we did the usual chicken and beers stop at Publix to rest up before walking over to The Hubb, and ended the long day with bar hopping in Ybor. Dave and Lisa party'd like rock stars, literally, as the took over the stage at Gaspars Grotto, Dave with the mic, and Lisa with the Tambourine. I had no idea that Gasparilla is the 3rd largest public event in the nation(behind Mardi Gras and New Years in Times Square)....