Halloween Weekend in Tampa Bay!

The weekend actually started on Wednesday, for the monthly Hyde Park Live Music Series, parking on the top of the garage at the Village, there was an amazing sunset that lit up the few clouds in the sky a very bright orange, and cast the same orange glow on the skyscrapers downtown. A few hundred people gathered as usual, listing to good live music in the Village. Afterwards, we all headed over to MacDinton's to watch the reaming 3 innings of Game 5 World Series, that was delayed for two nights due to rain in Philly...and our Tampa Bay Rays were not triumphant against the Philly's losing the Series 4 games to 1. What a Great Season though, and a more promising 2009 for baseball fans in Tampa Bay!

Friday was Halloween, and as I do every year, some friends came over and we sat out on the Front Porch, like my neighbors all do, with some drinks, watching the kids come up for their Trick or Treats, there were about 40-50 kids this year...by 9pm it was all quiet, and we headed out to Sunset Beach, a great little Gulf Front area on Treasure Island where some friends rented a huge beach house...was a great night, the Beach house was excellent, we walked over to Ka'tiki, one of the oldest beach bars in the area...there were a few people still in costumes this Halloween night, even at the beach bars.

Saturday we did a pre-party at my buddies Bayshore Towers condo on Bayshore Blvd, and then went a few blocks north in South Tampa to one of the largest, best annual Halloween parties in the Tampa area. A huge old house, built in the early 1900's, decorated all for Halloween, each room was different...a few hundred people showed up this year, all in costumes...GOOD TIMES!

Halloween in Tampa

Well, it's that time of year...Tampa seems to have geared up for Halloween, this holiday as come a long way..it now ranks up there with Christmas it seems, all the decorations inside and outside the homes, and the many parties and festivals for the occasion. This year I decided not to partake in Guavaween, the cities annual raucous festival of nearly 100,000 in Ybor City, and partake in the many Halloween parties. Friday it was up in the Carrollwood neighborhood, the Wendy's girl with the red hair and pig tails seemed to be very popular at that party. Then Saturday a few parties in South Tampa, the first house was decorated all out for the occasion, the second house we went to was a HUGE old Victorian just of Bayshore Blvd. Very wild characters, it's interesting to see people not only don the costumes, but play the characters as well(video below). After leaving the last party, I thought I was going to have to wait forever for a cab, but they were all over the South Tampa streets, running back and forth from Ybor City, so I was able to actually flag one down within minutes after leaving for the night.

My travels take me to NYC this week for work.