June 2nd, 2010 by admin
I’m going to start adding reports, updated as I get new information, about the effect of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico upon the Tampa Bay area.
Thus far (Wednesday, 2 June, 2010) nothing here and no expectations that we will get anything. This is—so the theory goes—because the Florida Loop Current, ‘way out there, will take any oil that would have come straight east to the Tampa Bay area and shunt it down to the Florida Keys and then on up the east coast, riding the Gulf Stream. Lucky us.
This is, to be honest, not so good as if it just dumped on us. We can clean beaches, it’s a lot harder to clean the Florida Keys coral reef, the largest in the Western hemisphere and already getting beat-up pretty bad just by the pressure of tourism and too much loving by too many people.
March 15th, 2010 by admin
Wrote this today to a British newspaper’s fashion columnist.
You recently advised a colleague from a rival newspaper — it was ‘cough cough’ as I recall — on men’s dress in the workplace. I am a freelance journalist in Florida, where, for 25 years now my ‘beat’ has been tourism, boating, and swamps. A lot of swamps. I have always assumed I was dressed appropriately but the reaction of some of the denizens of those swamps leads me to check with you. I have bite marks all over my paddles and even on my canoe from large lizards who disagreed with my fashion choices. One once ate my hat, which I had only recently vacated. I have been chased over difficult country by things you would not think could run or slither that fast. I turn to you for advice.
Normal wear in summer, which in Florida is like being in a sauna but with ultraviolet radiation, is a Columbia fishing shirt called, aptly enough, “the Bonehead.” Everyone wears these. The one I’m presently wearing has six pockets of various sizes, a small loop suitable for attaching a whistle or something, and the velcro thingee for holding my fishing rod tip while I change lures. The cargo shorts have six more pockets. Shoes are usually Sperry Topsiders that can get wet and muddy and shrug that off, and the hat has a brim and kepi so I can look like something out of Beau Geste and shout ‘march or die’ to my fellow boaters.
My questions:
Are twelve pockets really enough?
When approaching, in a 16-foot canoe, a 13-foot female ‘gator zealously guarding her nest, do I need a bigger boat? Is a bigger boat considered a fashion accessory? What would be the best color?
Is it wise to wear a snakeskin belt when the local water moccasins might recognize their cousin?
———-
OK. That was fun. And if the columnist doesn’t use it (a 99.99 percent liklihood) then I did. But all seriousness aside, this is spring, when a young alligator’s dim-bulb thoughts turn to love. Or sex which, for males of all species, is more or less the best you can expect. My advice is to not to avoid canoeing or kayakking in our fresh water lakes and rivers, that would be silly and you would miss out on the beauty. But stick to larger waters, or places where canoe outfitters run a lot of boats down the river each day so the ‘gators are accustomed to this. You will save a lot on repair bills to your boat and yourself, and replacement costs for lost or hastily-abandoned equipment too. Trust me on this.
March 1st, 2010 by admin
Hope the horrible Winter of Our Discount Tent is finally over. Lord Almighty! I did not get my sailboat out until one — one — day in late February when the weather broke for about six hours. I was starting to feel like one of those soldiers in paintings of Valley Forge, huddled miserably in a flea-infested thin blanket, over a tiny campfire, chewing on a piece of old boot for sustenance.
OK. OK, I know. I’m your typical whiny spoiled Florida wimp. I was not always thus. I can recall waking up in Tonawanda, New York (next to Buffalo but with worse weather) and the first thing I did each morning in winter was to scoop up the snow that had come in through the open window — we did not seem to have screens at all — and toss that back outside. Then we turned on the heater and by the time that was going I was dressed up to an approximately spherical shape and I sort of rolled out to the school bus stop. In the afternoons I shoveled the driveway. My parents didn’t need no steenkin’ snowblower; they had a teenager. If it was warmer than freezing I only wore a sweater. Today I don’t own any clothes useful in a northern winter. I wouldn’t have a sweater except that I use them in winter on sailboats. I can put on foul-weather gear over those and be sort of warm, though I then resemble the Mrs. Gorton’s Fisherman. Or, possibly, a fire hydrant.
In passing, a writer friend just started a Baltimore/visitor web site,
Welcome to Baltimore, Hon! and is selling Snowmageddon 2010 tee-shirts.
Buy a Snomageddon tee-shirt
No. I long ago seized one of those plastic windshield-scrapers, faced south, and started walking. I stopped when someone asked me what that funny-looking thing in my hand was. Like a barnacle, I fastened on and have been here since.
This week will still be cold. I know this is so because I am already scheduled to go sailing next Saturday. When I schedule boating, the weather forecasters all dive under their desks. But at least we have some Cheap Tampa Bay news for you. Check out the newly-reinvigorated web site at
TampaBayOnTheCheap.com
Got some travel advice and a restaurant review. Later this week look for Spring Break Places to Flock to and Spring Break Places to Avoid Like the Plague. They’re the same places, only your own age is different.
January 19th, 2010 by admin
Courtesy of our friends at VacationFunFlorida.com:
January 22-24 will be a busy weekend in north Pinellas/Pasco counties:
Friday, Jan. 22, Dunedin and the Suncoast Association of Chinese Americans will celebrate the Chinese New Year 2010, The Year of the Tiger downtown in Pioneer Park. Performances from 6-9 p.m. include traditional Chinese folkdances, marital arts, music, and a Chinese fashion show.
Saturday, Jan. 23 the Dunedin Historical Society will present its annual “History Comes Alive” at the Dunedin Cemetery on Keene Rd. south of S.R. 580. From 10 a.m.-2 p.m. you can watch volunteers in period dress portray six former residents of the area; among them a city commissioner/postmaster; the town’s first physician/newspaper publisher; and a couple of actors who opened a movie theater on Main Street.
Jan. 23-24: the 5th annual Suncoast Arts Fest will be held at the Shops at Wiregrass , 28211 Paseo Dr., Wesley Chapel Over 100 artists and chalk artists will exhibit their works to the strains of live music, from jazz to polkas to bluegrass. This event that benefits Arts for Kids in Pasco County adds a number of other art organizations who offer special programs during the weekend. The Pasco Arts Council, Holiday, Pioneer Florida Museum, Dade City, and Leepa-Rattner Museum of Fine Arts, Tarpon Springs join five others in New Port Richey to feature individual displays that add miniatures, nautical and photography to the artistic mix. Click on www.suncoastartsfest.com for map, hours, days, any fees, artists, displays and contacts at the different venues.
Jan. 22-24 is Tarpon Springs 3-day annual Glendl at Spanos Pappas Community Center –Theofilos Hall, 348 N. Pinellas Ave. Eat traditional Greek food to live music, dancing, and occasional shouts of “Opa”! There will be activities for kids, so bring the family Noon-11 p.m. Friday; 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Saturday, noon-6 p.m. Sunday. 727-858-2630 or 727-937-3540.
Jan. 30 brings the annual Gasparilla Extravaganza to Tampa for a full day of FREE entertainment. Party time Saturday lasts from the 11 a.m.-1 p.m, Pirate Invasion up Tampa Bay, through the 2-5:30 p.m. raucous beads and beer Parade, to the downtown Pirate Fest Street Festival fireworks climax at 10 p.m.
January 14th, 2010 by admin
Next Monday, January 18, is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. day. Lots of events scheduled. Click here for the St. Petersburg Times‘ list.
And here are some Gospel Skating events, courtesy of the Tampa Tribune. Sounds like fun, though I would be praying on skates, not singing. On skates—and skis too—my specialty is the straight-line, screaming, run until I hit something or someone that stops me.
And, since Americans seem to celebrate everything by buying stuff, here are some MLK-Day Sales.
January 1st, 2010 by admin
That date looks like some kind of digital code. Maybe it is, code for a new year of Florida travel. I’m not big on resolutions but I did make two relating to Florida travel. Sort of. First, I resolved to get outside more, canoeing and sailing. I love to do both and the Tampa Bay is one of the best places in the country to do both. But when the day rolls around and I get up and have coffee and stare at the boat or canoe, it just seems—easier—to go sit in my office and do something else instead. 
Sitting in the office keeps me from feeling too guilty, but it’s not getting me ay exercise and vitamin D either. My other resolution is to get out and about the Tampa Bay area, and Florida in general, to find more goodies tobring to you and to the readers of Adele Woodyard’s VacationFunFlorida blog too.
You can help. If you know of things I need to be writing about in the Tampa Bay area or anywhere else in Florida, let me know at steve@tampabayonthecheap.com
November 6th, 2009 by admin
To honor the nation’s 25 million veterans and 1.3 million active-duty service men and women, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) will offer free day-use entry to all state park visitors on Veterans Day, Tuesday, November 11, 2008. Click here for more info
Caladesi´s white sand shores have been rated as the nation´s #1 best beach.
October 27th, 2009 by admin
Is cooler weather really here? Is it just teasing us? Do we buy lots of candy for Halloween and then have no kids show up, so we have to eat it ourselves? Do we buy no candy and then have tons of kids show up looking pitiful? If we buy the good (and expensive) candy we like, the kids will show up and take it all—the ungrateful little urchins. If we buy cheap rot-tooth junk candy no kids will come—the ungrateful little urchins.
Today’s bargains are all about travel, sort of. The Society of American Travel Writers holds an annual auction and sometimes you can score a good trip or the like.
We also tossed in a cute story about the Owls defeating the Piper High School football team. GO OWLS!
This and much more at our web site
October 5th, 2009 by admin
Monday, 5 October, 2009: Getting ready for Halloween. You know it’s spooky time when the supermarket drags out all that candy left over from last year. At least that’s what I suspect; a package of that candy corn (why corn?) could have been minted during the Truman administration for all the difference in taste. My occasional-writing-partner-in-travel, Adele Woodyard, reports that Peeps, the cute sugury baby chicks, turn rock hard after a year. I don’t want to know how she knows this.
One year I fled the house figuring to dodge the little beggars on Halloween by going to the movies. That was dumb. The theatre, in a mall awash with tots, had a dozen screens, eleven of which were showing Freddy Kills Just EVERYONE slasher flicks for the mob of teenagers there. One lone window had no line and was showing a German art-house, English-subtitled movie of the life of Martin Luther, he of Reformation fame. I sidled up and slid in a few bucks and got a ticket in return.
“Wait a minute, “I said. “I’m a senior citizen. I want the discount.”
“I already gave that to you,” said the kid, deadpan. “Anyone who would even ask to see this movie gets the senior discount.”
Fortunately, our discounts today are less humiliating. We have some Halloween stuff (Sea World’s Spooktacular, Lowry Park Zoo’s Zoo-Boo), end-of-year resident discounts (Disney World’s 4-3-2 hotel/ticktets bargain) and, this being a recruiting month for my singles sailing club, a link to Tampa Bay’s Bay Sailors, the best deal aflooat if you’re into sailing. Oh, and we are happy to report that Waldo surfaced, phoned home and has been rescued.
All of this is at: http://tampabayonthecheap.com
September 21st, 2009 by admin
American Stage Theatre Company has several Pay What You Can shows coming up on September 20 and 29. Click for details.
We have added a permanent bargain (we’ll do more soon, promise) in Bay Sailors, a Tampa Bay singles sailing club. I just spent the weekend out with them, bounding over the bay and overnighting at a marina/pool/restaurant with other boats/crews from the club. Fantastic! Click for details. (And thank goodness for shore power and on-board air conditioning for sleeping on a hot night.)
sailing with Bay Sailors
