Dustin saw that Incubus was coming to Tampa for their Morning View tour a few months back. We decided to go and to also ask Pat and Jessica if they wanted to join us. We all figured since the show was on the Tuesday after Labor Day we might as well make a little trip out of it since traveling to and from Tampa is always such a cluster.
We got there on Monday afternoon, checked into the hotel, and met up with the Bunce's to figure out what we were going to do for the evening. Pat's idea was an escape room and then Dustin came out of left field with a Tampa Bay Rays game. See what I did there?
Next thing we knew we were off to eat at Engine No. 09, where Jessica and I shared the biggest corndog I've ever seen. It was right down the road from Tropicana Field so a real quick drive over to the game. I have only ever been to one MLB game and that was in Pittsburgh. Ahh memories of the prettiest view of the river, pierogis, and ice cream in a little plastic baseball hat. The Rays do not have the fanbase that the Pirates have even though I've heard they both suck on equal levels. But one thing about Pittsburgh sports is the fans will always show up no matter what; the same cannot be said for Florida teams unfortunately. I don't follow baseball so I only know what others tell me. However, it was very clear by the ghost town of a stadium how sad the fan base is. There were so many empty seats that it hardly felt like a professional baseball game, but that also meant tickets were cheap and getting in/out was really easy.
Larnach on the Minnesota Twins hit a home run and the ball ended up smacking a guy in our section. He tried to catch it without a glove and it ended up bouncing off his hands into his face. I was shocked, as seen below in the screenshot I took of the video that was posted on SportsCenter. This poor guy bled all over the place and had to have a medical team come help him out which was followed by a clean up team. After that happened I gasped (probably annoyingly so to all baseball fans) every time a ball was in our vicinity (aka any time someone hit the ball). I kept picturing the Marcia Brady scene where she gets hit in the face with the football. No thank you.
Towards the end of the game we walked around on the hunt for ice cream. We found a cart but then were told they only had chocolate. We kept trekking on a mission around the empty halls of the stadium as if we were on our way to Mordor. We finally found another ice cream cart and I got to add to my plastic baseball cap collection.
Once back in our seats, we noticed the guy who got hit in the face had come back to watch the remainder of the came. Trevor Larnach, the outfielder that got the homer, talked to him in between batters. He was glad that he was ok and offered to sign his bat. All was well.
The following morning we went out to breakfast at the Oxford Exchange. Jessica had a few places on her list and this restaurant was one of them. We were very confused by the building at first because when you walk in, there is a book store (Katie and I had this on our list next Tampa trip), then you walk down a hall and there is this open two story hang out area where people were sprawled out with laptops, books, and coffee. We were all thinking um is there even a restaurant in this building? We asked someone and they directed us to the back corner. It was a good size restaurant but kind of hidden with no signage. We were under the impression it was a standalone restaurant not a whole thing.
I got breakfast bread which consisted of carrot pound cake, walnuts, raisins, and cream cheese glaze. I wanted something I hadn't had before, and I haven't had essentially carrot cake for breakfast. It was delightful. I even brought half home and nibbled on it for the next day. The boys were barely alive during breakfast since they are not morning people but we all enjoyed ourselves regardless.
The bill came in the middle of a random old book that had doodles and signatures all over the pages. Dustin left his mark on page 66. They also gave us little bookmarks with a different quote on each one. There were such nice details in the whole experience including the decor and aesthetic!
Just outside the restaurant is a cute little shop of random home goods. We perused around the rest of the building taking in all of it's old charm and beautifully crafted remodel before making our way to the Dali.
I have had The Dalí Museum on my list for years so it was cool to finally get the chance to take it all in. The building itself is really neat architecturally, both inside and out.
I enjoyed Dali's floral fantasies exhibit but the real standout was most certainly Lincoln in Dalivision. He has so many large scale pieces where the longer you look at it the more you notice something new, but this one in particular was really something to marvel. He was known for his mustache and there were little nods to it all over the property. I joked to Dustin "He really would have really loved the mustache trend of 2012."
We grabbed some snacks from Publix and headed back to the hotel for a little nap, well at least Jessica and I did; the boys drove to some music store. The four of us reunited for dinner at Armature Works which is my personal favorite food hall that I've been to. Katie and I went years ago after a comedy show and it was great, so I wanted everyone else to experience it while we were in town. It was really hard to narrow down what I wanted because in reality, I wanted it all, but I ended up going with a walking taco from Muchachas. It was PHENOMENAL. No notes. Chef's kiss!
We headed to Amalie Arena for the grand finale of our trip. It was bumper to bumper traffic getting in the damn garage but par for the course. It also had started raining but my emergency ponchos once again came in very handy while we walked across the street. Meanwhile, in the women's restroom there were some poor ladies wringing out their drenched hair over the sink. Not Jessica and I! PONCHOS FOR LIFE.
Coheed and Cambria went on first and were really great. I've never been a die-hard fan of theirs but definitely a regular one and enjoyed their set. Incubus came out and played Morning View in its entirety and other hits - except for Stellar. How do you leave that one off the setlist? We still had a stellar time regardless. There is nothing better than good music and great friends.
FRIDAY: I bought 'The Casual Vacancy' and even though I'm not all that far into it yet, I'm liking it. We'll see how it goes. Even though it has zero to do with Harry Potter, it's fun reading a new book by J.K. Rowling. There's just something about her writing style that is really brilliant. This book is strictly for adults. I couldn't believe it when I read the first 'fuck'. I don't mind it, it's just strange coming from J.K. (Side note: I would like to point out for the umpteenth time that I never looked at Harry Potter as children's books. For me, they were more like 'all ages' book. So I don't think this book is as big of a jump as people are making it out to be.)
SATURDAY: Dustin and I were already planning on seeing 'Looper' after my trip to the gym with Erin. Then Pat mentioned to Dustin that he and Sam wanted to go too, so we all ended up seeing it together. Oh. My. God. It was a really great movie. Seriously. Sam had to go wedding shopping with her cousin so Pat came back to our house to hang out. He and Dustin watched Prometheus (I had already seen it in the theater with Dustin when it first came out.) while I got busy planning my big sewing project. I also cooked an entire meal (chicken, green beans, mac-n-cheese, and rolls) with very minimal direction from Dustin. This does not happen often or ever for that matter. I felt like Suzy Homemaker with all my sewing and cooking. Dustin said everything tasted good so I guess I'm not such a terrible cook. I just hate it. Cooking gives me a headache. Sam met up with us later on and caught the end of the movie. Then we watched some football and ended the night with frozen yogurt.
SUNDAY: Nicole and I woke up with the same idea in our heads - "BYE week = no stress!". So Dustin and I got to just enjoy (and ultimately not really give a shit) who won what game. I finished up all my sewing and enjoyed Sims 3 which I hadn't been able to play much lately because I've been so 'busy'.
