Uneventful

My trip to Tampa was pretty underwhelming. The meeting I was there for was extremely useful and on point, but I spent most of my time in the hotel. It was in downtown Tampa, where there is almost nothing going on. I arrived on Saturday and went for a walk. There were basically no people or cars on the streets and everything appeared to be office buildings and lunch places that close in the evening on weekends. It was a lot of big new shiny high rises and a few old warehouse buildings that had been converted into offices.

The "interesting" bits of the trip:

1. The airport has these little mini-train things to transport you to various places. They reminded me of the Monorail and the train I rode around DisneyWorld at age 7 (at least I think there was a train. My memories of that trip are a little vague.)

2. I was out to dinner with a large group on Sunday evening. I asked the waitress where the ladies room was and she directed me toward a small hallway with a sign saying “Women” accompanied by an arrow. I ventured into a dimly lit hallway and opened the first door I saw. I was momentarily stunned to see an armless and legless bald mannequin amidst a bunch of random junk. I had apparently stumbled into some sort of supply closet, although I’m really not sure why a fairly upscale restaurant would have a dismembered mannequin. I quickly shut the door, noticing that there was a sign saying “No admittance.” I turned to my right and found the bathroom. Like I said, it was kind of dark.

3. There were basically no restaurants within walking distance of the hotel, so, at the concierge’s suggestion, a couple of us took a cab to a place called Channelside, which is a generic suburban looking “entertainment center” sort of place, with a movie theater and lots of restaurants, ranging from chains to somewhat upscale. When we told the cab driver that we were going to Channelside, she said, “Oh, you’re going to Hooters, right?” I found this really funny, because it seemed unlikely that three women were going to Hooters. Maybe it’s a big tourist destination, but don’t they have them in every city?

4. I made one effort to get out and see the city. I had a couple of free hours on Monday, so I walked over to the Tampa Art Museum, the only thing to do in the vicinity. Sadly, it’s closed on Mondays. So much for culture. I wandered through a depressing and deserted park next to the museum. I saw some tiny lizards and lots of palm trees. I took a few photos of the surrounding area. And that was pretty much that.

5. Since I spent much of my time at the hotel, I managed to get a fair amount of reading done (three books! That’s more than the I’ve read in the last two months.). I worked out once, which isn’t too bad, except that I ate huge amounts of food the rest of the time. There just wasn’t much else to do.