Tampa Is…?

I took off from work to spend a couple days with the soon-to-be 3rd grader.  Having exhausted my patience with crafts, games, Barbie, and SpongeBob on day one, I thought we should get out of the house for a second day of fun.

I didn’t have a spare hundred bucks laying around for a theme park, so I figured I’d try to keep the nearly-eight-year-old happy without spending a bunch of dough.

Not only did we have a good time, but I got out of it without spending much at all.  In fact, after breakfast, I didn’t spend a thing.

We started out at Dunkin’ Donuts.  Yep - the Rays won the night before, and When the Rays Win, You Win!  So we each enjoyed a free donut for breakfast with all the old folks!  With my coffee and her milk (and, ok, another donut for each of us), we got out of there for about $5. 

Next we went to the library.  There is a lake and a park adjacent, so we took our time walking around a bit.  We looked for frogs on the lily pads (none), butterflies near the flowers (a handful), and dragonflies everywhere else (a bunch).  We successfully avoided all fire ant mounds.

Once inside, she immediately found the library’s toys for smaller ones, and the little girl had fun with them for quite a while.  She then walked the entire juvenile section - over a dozen aisles! -  looking for a good book or three.  I convinced her to put Junie B. Jones (First Grader) back on the shelf and keep the Goosebumps story, The Girl Who Cried Monster.  She also grabbed a big Narnia book.

Then we went off to the mall!  Not to buy anything, but to play in the kids’ play area.  She towered over the other kids, and had fun getting chased around.  I found out later that there is a 42 inch limit to that play area. Luckily, no one kicked us out.  But I was getting hungry, and we left anyway.

We went home, where I taught her how to make a double-decker peanut butter sandwich.  She thought a triple-decker would be a good idea, but seeing as how I am the daddy, I had to put my foot down.

But just because we were home doesn’t mean that we were done for the day.  On to the pool!

The City of Tampa has a dozen parks with pools, and they are all free to use. We went to the Spicola Family Pool at DeSoto Park (we love DeSoto Park!) and spent the afternoon there in the Palmetto Beach neighborhood.

Like the pool at Sulphur Springs, Spicola has lap lanes, two waterslides, and a giant waterspouting mushroom-looking thing that kids love. They even have a shade tent where a daddy can comfortably read his own library book!

On the way home, we stopped at the McKay Bay Nature Park, part of the Great Florida Birding Trail.  It was fun for about 20 minutes.  We saw unusual birds and big spiders on bigger spider webs.  In our one bad decision, we picked a random trail that wound through the brush.  Although we didn’t get bit, we were chased right back into the car by a cloud of mosquitos!

The kid will tell you she had a great day (although she was not much impressed by the mosquito attack)!  Daddy had a great day, too, watching his daughter be a kid.

It wasn’t difficult, either. Just go and use the amenities that are available to you!

For Free!

Rumors suggested Wal Mart would open a store at the corner of 22nd and Adamo. But, it was announced today that Ikea is coming to Tampa in that spot. Just a month after breaking ground in Orlando, Ikea will build a store in the heart of Tampa at the former Tampa International Center.

Back in January, Carl Cronan guessed it would be in Brandon, but the 353,000 sq ft store and their 1,700 parking spaces will occupy the 29 acres where you see a huge bunch of warehousing. Yeah - 350,000 square feet right between Palmetto Beach and Ybor City. It will be an interesting site.

Apparently those that buy the furniture and have experience with the company are gaga over the entire operation. There are even fan sites for the furniture store, such as Positive Fanatics and The Ikea Hacker. And even fan sites for singular items - a desk called the jerker, for example.

Of course, you can always buy the furniture on IKEA.com.

So - who among you have any experience with IKEA’s products?

Did you know that the City of Tampa has a neighborhood department. Yup. TheCity of Tampa Neighborhood and Community Relations mission is to “bring government closer to all people by serving as the liaison between the government and community to help Tampa thrive and shine.”

They also include a list of 104 Tampa neighborhood groups. Unfortunately, only 26 of them have a website:

• Ballast Point Neighborhood Association
• Bayshore Beautiful Homeowners Association, Inc.
• Bel Mar Gardens Neighborhood Association
• Davis Island Neighborhood Planning Task Force
• South Seminole Heights Civic Association
• Lowry Park Central Civic Association, Inc.
• Hunters Green Magnolia Chase Neighborhood Association, Inc.
• The Marina Club Of Tampa
• Davis Islands Civic Association, Inc.
• Oakford Park Neighborhood Association, Inc.
• Riverside Heights Civic Association
• The New Tampa Community Council
• Old Seminole Heights Neighborhood Association, Inc.
• Palma Ceia Neighborhood Association, Inc.
• Palmetto Beach Community Association, Inc.
• Civic Association Of Port Tampa City, Inc.
• Ridgewood Park CPCA, Inc.
• Southeast Seminole Heights Civic Association
• Sunset Park Area Homeowners Association
• Gandy/Sun Bay South Civic Association
• Swann Estates Neighborhood Association
• Tampa Heights Civic Association
• Tampa Downtown Partnership
• Temple Crest Civic Association
• The Virginia Park Residential Neighborhood Association
• Wellswood Civic Association

I grabbed them all from the city, so if there are bad links, please let me know.

65 years ago…

November 15, 1941 – A $202,739 ($2.6 million in today’s dollars) defense project to connect the shipyards with downtown Tampa and Ybor City by way of 19th and 20th streets is submitted by the city to the Works Progress Administration. As written, the city would provide equipment and material to cost $26,653 ($351,162 in today’s dollars) while the government would foot the bill for the rest of the paving roadwork crucial to the nation’s defense effort.

Courtesy of the Tampa Bay History Center.

85 years ago…

October 28, 1921 – An interesting discovery is made in hurricane-ravaged Palmetto Beach, were dozens of hollowed-out logs are found strewn all over the community south of Ybor City. The logs were almost certainly employed in the illicit trade of trafficking liquor – outlawed in the US since 1919 – into the country from Cuba.

Courtesy of the Tampa Bay History Center.

95 years ago…

August 13, 1911 – The sound of fireworks rocked the “Sunday rest” of the people of Tampa, especially in Ybor City, as a “multitude of Latin Americans” celebrate at a picnic in De Soto Park in Palmetto Beach. Telephone operators (known as “hello girls”) assured residents that there was neither a fire nor a riot in Ybor City.

Courtesy of the Tampa Bay History Center.