Culture is roughly anything we do and the monkeys don't.

I had a pretty busy weekend. On Sunday I visited the Tampa Museum of Art for the first time since I have been in Florida while hanging out with a friend for the afternoon, Cherie. She's always involved in her Master's program and pretty much the only time that the stars align to giver her a few moments is between semesters. The best part about going to events like that with friends, at least those on your level, is the ability to chat about each of the pieces and make jokes. There is definitely a lot of humor in art if you try. After spending quite a bit of time there, we walked over to the University of Tampa campus to explore a bit as well as check out what kind of festival was happening. On the way there we stopped at the amphitheater so I could show here the location of my virtual geocache so she could experience the effect that occurs when standing in a certain spot (think perfect acoustical parabola). Before getting to the campus, we stopped by Snow Park which was once listed a the world's smallest park. It was really fun to walk around UT's Plant Hall since it was a major high end hotel back in the late 1800's. The architecture was really exquisite and we were able to check out a lot of nooks and crannies, even a fire escape or two. It was pretty easy to get lost in the depths of the building and I'm sure it'd have a really spooky feeling if there alone late at night!

After the exploration, we walked around Plant Park where there was an Israeli Independence day celebration. There was a live group doing some reggae (very much like Matisyahu) as we walked around a bit, though seemed to miss the most active time since many booths were packing up. With an hour and a half left, we hit the Florida Aquarium for a little while and got to see the cruise ship 'Miracle' leave dock. That will be the ship upon which I will be staying on the hash cruise in September. After a quick Bennigan's dinner, we headed back to Brandon where Cherie left her car. It took a lot of begging on, ummm, her part, yeah that's it; but finally the skee ball challenge was accepted. I cannot reveal the outcome, however it seems the year of working at Chuck E Cheese in high school actually might have given a bit of an edge.

Overall, it was a fun afternoon. I have a lot of cleaning to do this week and organizing in the garage since I need to find all my hiking gear before taking off at the end of the month for a trip to North Carolina.