Florida is Florida. We've been here before, so there haven't been that many surprises. Over the last 4 days, we've experienced the peninsular state in Jacksonville, St. Augustine, Orlando, Daytona Beach, and Tampa. This part of the trip has been more about reconnecting with friends, than really exploring new places. Kristen's friend now lives just outside of Orlando. She and her husband David took us around a bit.
Saturday we went with them to Daytona Beach, which, according to the sign when you get there, is the most famous beach in the world. For $5 you can drive your car onto the beach, which seems strange since sea turtles lay their eggs there. But there are alternating parking and no-parking areas, so the turtles just have to read the signs. I have to say, though, that by the end of the day I somewhat guiltily enjoyed having our vehicle so close by.
Later Saturday night, we went to a place called "Old Town", which is a sort of carnival car-club thing that happens every week. We saw some sweet classic cars with probably 10x the horsepower of Shrimpy. There were also plenty of kitsch shops that my Gallucci genes demanded I visit. A leather shop, a knife shop, an alpaca fur rug store, and a place where you can get your dog's portrait etched in 3D inside a glass cube all added up to a good time.
Sunday, we moved on to Tampa. We checked out Ybor, which is the historic cigar industry area-turned entertainment district. We met up with my friend Benny and his girlfriend Pamela Anderson (real name) and ate at Tampa Bay Brewing company. Then, Ben and I were able to get in a few good games of MTG, since we hadn't played since college. You'll be happy to know that I won a few games with the blue-green control deck. But Benny won the majority.
Afterwards, we drove around the city and I was surprised to find out that most of Tampa's downtown has nothing going on. No one really goes there to do anything unless they go to this pretty small area of shops called Channelside.
Other things about Florida that struck me as different:
There are a bunch more commercials on TV with white people rapping or singing.
There are many more commercials for getting your degree at an online university.
The law firm billboards here are just as plentiful as NC, but even more annoying than Deuterman Law. Most have terrible pictures. I saw one that just had "DIVORCE" in bold letters with a guy with his arms crossed, looking smug. And if I see one more advertisement for laser vasectomy procedures, I might have to pull over and get one.
We can't wait to get to New Orleans so we can really experience a place neither of us have been, we keep you posted.
~Mario
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