Tampa - Day 2

After relaxing all morning with my pot of room service coffee, TV and I met up for brunch around 11am. As the only restaurant offering was a $24.99 buffet, we opted for the food court. After our quick bite, we hopped into the rental car and headed out to see Dali. Words of wisdom to those who dislike bridges – Tampa is chock full of them. With just a few missteps of St. Petersburg navigation, we blindly stumbled upon the museum. As we entered the gallery, it was quickly clear that many other people also had the urge to adore Dali that day. I’d been to the museum a handful of times – but never had I seen it this busy. Dali must be working some great marketing…

We dodged the museum tour as well as we could, working our way back and forth through the rooms to escape the annoying voice of the guide.
[start rant] May I please take a moment to point out some museum (and video store) etiquette? If I’m standing 2-3 feet from something, and staring straight ahead, I’m probably enjoying the view (or trying to determine if THIS will finally be the movie where I understand the Quentin Tarantino hype). Please do NOT step in front of me to press your nose against the glass shielding the painting. It’s nearly as rude as not watching your children as they stroll aimlessly into me. [end rant]
All in all, the museum trip was excellent – they’ve really upgraded it since my last visit 10+ years ago. If you’re at all a Dali fan, I highly recommend a visit.

Back into the car – we immediately melted in the 120+ degree oven-on-wheels. Next on our itinerary was the Gulf Blvd tour up from St. Pete to Clearwater for our lunch destination, Frenchy’s Rockaway Grill. I pointed out to TV the condo building where I used to live…as well as the Sheraton Sand Key - infamous for the Jim Baker/Jessica Hahn incident. Traffic didn’t get hectic until we crossed the new bridge to Clearwater Beach…whoever’s idea it was to install a traffic circle at the entrance to the beach – ugh – talk about a big cluster-fuck. We successfully avoided the minivan from VA that was determined to be rear-ended. Lunch was good – not as great as I recall (heck, I had college student standards back then)…the view of the beach was beautiful – minus the sweaty-bare-chested-hair-monsters that meandered through the restaurant as we ate. As expected, it was quite warm at Frenchy’s (the thermostat above TV’s head said 90 degrees)…but it was the pungent fish smell which eventually made us flee back to the car.

I took the long way back to Tampa to burn up more of the tank of gas for which I’d prepaid…so we meandered up through Dunedin and through Highwaygirl’s hometown. Too bad she wasn’t available for a quick cocktail…she does have a thriving forum to moderate…who are we to pull her away from the hammies? After arriving back at the Hard Rock, we retired to our rooms for a little catnap before dinner. Dinner at Floyd’s was just as good the 2nd night, although there were times that I thought the staff was going to lift our table out from underneath us as they prepared for their magical transformation from restaurant to nightclub.
[start rant] Hey, I understand the tables need to be moved, but don’t seat us at all if there’s not enough time (we only ordered salads and desserts) – and if you do, seat us away from where the tables are being broken down. [end rant]

We stopped by the lobby bar for an after-dinner drink. Unfortunately for us, what I can only imagine was the Entertainment Director’s daughter and her boyfriend; the house band was terrible. Seriously, between the screeching, the Kajagoogoo rock star hair flip and headset, and The-Culps-like banter between the two…it was enough to drive us to call it an evening.