Tampa Bay

May 2001 - mixing business with pleasure again, we head out to Tampa Bay the weekend before Melanie's biz training session. Here are a few observations.

_

_

The Westin Innisbrook Resort get in line This is where the firm is hosting the training session. The sprawling resort is located in Palm Harbor, close to the Gulf Coast a few miles north of Clearwater. It's probably fine if you golf but we don't, and this gives us time to focus in on all the little... idiosyncracies, shall we we say, of the accommodations. Our room keys don't work right away. No minibar when we finally get into the room. Cheap-looking paint and upholstery in the Italian restaurant. It feels like the place has been decorated by the accountants at HQ, and that may well be the case - they probably laid out the five golf courses first, then used whatever change they had left over to set up house. On the plus, the food at the restaurants is excellent. But no way is it worth the daily rate. Unless maybe you golf.

The Dali Museum Located in St. Petersburg (across the bay from Tampa proper) this waterfront museum is a must-see for anyone at all interested in art of the twentieth (or any other) century. The man's range was phenomenal - long before he veered into surrealism he'd mastered realism in the style of Vermeer; by the middle of his life he'd begun to incorporate the bizarre concepts of quantum physics and the DNA double helix into his towering masterworks. Just go.

The Sad Ballpark But you can probably skip Tropicana Field (about a mile away from the museum) unless you really like to check out as many ballparks as you can before you shuffle off this mortal helix. Indoor baseball in Florida - woo hoo. It's like local hockey rink ambience brought to the big leagues. Kind of puts things in perspective, watching a major league game in a quarter-filled concrete dome, listening intently for crowd reaction...

ball game or genesis concert?

_

_

We scramble to the upper deck to get a full view of the park, and hope the little indoor blimp buzzes by.

The "bleachers" are about fifteen hundred feet above sea level at the tip top of the upper deck. Hint: buy bleacher tickets, then sit anywhere you want. Or just bypass the sad ballpark altogether. Word is they're having trouble making payroll anyway.

indoor bleachers

where's the blimp?

Tropical Heatwave festival - Ybor City Now things get good. Every year the local freeform radio station ropes off a few blocks in Ybor City (the touristified cigar-rolling district), sets up a half dozen stages and has a bunch of mighty fine lesser-known acts play. The crowd runs the spectrum from musically-oriented college kids to aging hippies... tilted maybe a little toward the hippie end. Very good-natured, a nice change of pace from the steakhead HFStival crowds that have grown big and stale in DC.

blue plate special

_

_

Split Lip Rayfield is our favorite, four guys and one gas-tank bass laying down furious bluegrass with lyrics covering broken-down cars, Donkey Kong and Rush - truly a band for our times. Prodigal is fresh from Ireland mixing jig and drum n bass. Melissa Ferrick mesmerizes the basement crowd with her acoustic guitar and one blistering drummer.

split lip rayfield!

prodigal

_

Our night wraps up with Dave Alvin (roots Stratocaster rock) and the North Mississippi All Stars (sliiiide guitar and more blistering drums). The party keeps going, but we're beat and it's time to make the long trip over the bay causeway to recharge for the beach.

dave alvin

_

Caladesi Island On our way to Honeymoon Island (just south of the resort) Melanie gets a piece of advice - take the 15-minute ferry to Caladesi Island, and experience a true Florida beach. Our first Florida beach experience looks like it will be short and our last as we crest the dunes on Caladesi to find an armada of pleasure boats bobbing in the Gulf waters and some goofball corporate event under a tent, speakers blasting music we don't really want to hear right now. Plus all the umbrellas are rented out. We trudge back to the dock, miss the ferry back, and settle in for lunch at the snack bar. In the little shop I spot a box of $15 umbrellas and an aerial picture of the island - there's a wide beach at the southern tip, and it doesn't look too far away. The girl at the counter recommends the twenty-minute walk south away from the crowd. We buy an umbrella for not too much more than a rental would cost, and strike off down the beach. The boats thin out pretty quickly, and we find a nice secluded stretch of white beach to while away the Sunday afternoon.

That's it Like anybody reads these things anyway. Enjoy!