Ybor City

 

 Bill is a Yankees fan.  I am a Phillies fan. Last year we had gone to a Phillies-Yankees preseason game in Clearwater and this year, we were lucky enough that they were playing each other again but this time in Tampa.  We had to travel from one coast of Florida to the other and Bill asked me what I wanted to do when we got there.  Silly man!  Of course, I wanted to find some boxes.  I have long been an admirer of FloridaFour on Atlas Quest.  She is respectful and considerate in her answers to some questions that I just have no patience for so since I would be in her stomping grounds, I definitely wanted to find one of her boxes.  We needed to eat lunch and what better place than the Tampa Bay Brewing Company which had delicious food AND a box!  Interestingly enough, as we were eating, a family came in and sat at the table next to us.  They were all decked out in Phillies gear so we asked them if they were going to the game also and they said they were.   Another it's a small world moment happened when they said they were from Allentown which is about 30 miles from our Pennsylvania home.  As we were discussing the coincidence, the lady at the table behind us popped up to tell us that she was from Philadelphia.  This all goes to prove my theory that there are no native Floridians, everyone there is from somewhere else.

 

 

 

 After lunch, we still had time and I convinced Bill that he wanted to grab a beer at the outside bar while I hunted for a TECO line streetcars series by NotMyCircus.  This took me for a short walking tour of the very, very historic area which seemed to have been founded by Cuban cigar makers.  I totally enjoyed this experience and was gone a bit longer than I had planned because I wanted to read each and every sign and plaque around.

 

I have about twenty pictures of this statue because I had to look busy and yet inconspicuous while I looked for the nearby box.  There was a man on a cell phone who just would not go away.  Finally, I realized that he was not paying attention to me, he was focused on his conversation so I was able to collect the last box that I needed for this series.

 

 When I got back to the restaurant, Bill seemed to have just noticed that I was gone.  He had been enjoying the beer in the sunshine and just watching the world go by.