If you're getting run out of town, get in front of the crowd and make it look like a parade

Today was the annual Gasparilla day parade in downtown Tampa. After looking at the gloomy forecast, I almost didn't go,but decided to brave the rains and join the festivities. I took my camera, as usual, however the light was just horrible, so nothing really came out right (maybe I'm just become more selective of my shots now). I did get to see one of my old friends in the parade, but missed seeing the floats for a couple of other people I knew. After the parade was over I rode the bike along the Riverwalk area and then headed back to the Aquarium where I had parked.

Pirates demand your money or your life; women expect both.

Kristen was able to get some VIP tickets for the Gasparilla event and parade, so she invited me along with her mother, father, and best friend. In the previous years I'd always been on the public side of the read. the VIP areas were nice with relatively empty seating, some food and drink, and a lack of drunken people running into you. On the way in we saw the famous Naked Cowboy posing for pictures. The Red Bull flyers were out and the parade was pretty enjoyable, though Kristen of course got the majority of the attention and the motherload of beads that she was collecting to be a part of the 'Relay for Life' event next month for part of the pirate planned theme.

The only two things a pirate will run for is money and public office.

Today was the annual Tampa Gasparilla day parade. The hash has lucked out in that one of the members lives/lived right off of Bayshore Blvd and has allowed the group to use the place as a base of operations. several of us met in Temple Terrace and carpooled down to make parking a lot easier and arrive around 10:30. just before it was going to get crowded. The parade is a great excuse just to get silly, hang back and have a good time. A lot of people dress up, so I decided to play along and see how many beads I could get. Since I didn't use it for Halloween as I intended, I pulled out my old Burger King mask, threw on an eye patch, and waited as the parade drew near. I certainly wasn't expecting all the attention from the crowd, laughs, and picture requests that I received as well. For the past few years many of the guys have thrown on bras as a means to get more beads, so I figured, 'why not complete the ensemble'? Life is only as fun as you allow it it be and the day ended up being quite enjoyable. I had mentioned to a lot of friends where we would be and had several people drop by to visit. The beads, floats, and laughs were indeed plentiful and I even recognized several people in the parade itself, so that was always a treat (plus it being very beneficial in terms of the bead booty). After all, I'm pretty sure that even the invading pirates enjoyed seeing people out having a good time.

After the parade we retreated back to Finger's place to hang out and wait for some of the traffic to die off. The group eventually made its way to Tiny Tap and later to the VFW for the evening until we finally decided to check out Whiskey Park, a club I previously never had occasion to check out. We hung out and danced until midnight at which point I decided I had enough and needed some rest since I planned to go to the office the next day (yes, a Sunday). The weather outside for the parade was great and I had another great time. The Tampa Red Dress Run is the evening of the Gasparilla night parade, so hopefully it'll turn out to be an interesting time then as well.

The weekend pics can be found here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=vnlbugz.4fidlhm7&x=0&y=re7rz

Kayaker Philosophy: Turn over and smell the fishes.

My old high school buddy Jason is in town for a couple of days. When he get in on Thursday we were able to meet up with another friend that had just gotten to town for a couple of days. We had dinner at the local Ale House and a quick game of darts at another nearby sports pub before heading home for the night. On Saturday morning I noticed that where was going to be an electric boat parade downtown and decided to go check it out. After a few phone calls, I found a few friends interested in joining as well. Marianela and her sister had a cousin from DC visiting, so I was fortunately able to get enough gear together for everyone. Jason and I headed to Brandon and loaded the 4 kayaks and gear and drove down to the public boat ramp and unloaded the gear before the rest showed up. After a brief false start (when the nice marine patrol officer reminded us of the need for lights [doh!]) we headed towards Channelside where the boats were hanging out. As we headed up Garrison Channel we were able to enjoy the line of boats as they followed the Starship Dining Yacht on their way back out. There was a short drizzle of rain for 10-15 minutes, but it was light enough to not be a pain. after it passed the water was like glass and the air temperature quite comfortable. After some hard paddling, right at 5 miles for the entire loop, we headed out to get some food. We just missed the operating hours of every place that we could find on Davis Island, so we ended up heading to Channelside for some food goodness at Bennigan's.

Overall, it was a great way to enjoy a comfortable evening, get some exercise, and experience some different perspectives on the water.

Arrrrrr, avast ye mateys!

This was the weekend for Gasparilla, an annual event in Tampa that has a large boat flotilla, day parade with tons of beads and floats, and parties. As has happened for the past several years, the hashers were invited to Karen's (Finger in the Dyke) place since she lives a block from the parade route on Bayshore. Though I have only seen her a few times in the past year since she works in traveling sales, she has always tried to be around so the hasers could use her home. Candy, Just Shari, and Service met at my place around 10AM so we could carpool in. We were running a bit late since I had to get food and Candy had to get a new tap since the call came out that the normal one wasn't working. Since we had vital party gear, Finger saved us a spot in her garage instead of us parking up the road at Tiny Tap. For $10, we had a base of operations with clean bathrooms, a keg for the parade (plus one for after the parade), food (burgers, cookies, and snacks), and staked out spot on Bayshore for the parade. That was less than most people were paying for just parking anywhere that day!

The parade was fun with the normal debauchery by attendees in efforts to get some imported plastic beads. It was kind of sad to see people nearly fight over these things however. Most of the stuff I caught I threw to folks behind me or gave to the beadless when walking back after the festivities were complete. The floats were pretty elaborate with the individual costumes also being quite detailed and exquisite. It looked like everyone was having fun with even marching band members smiling the whole time; except for the tuba players that were not smart enough to on put cap covers since they just made themselves moving target receptacles for beads.

After the festivities were complete we had a trail to Tiny Tap and hung out for a few hours while the traffic cleared out. I eventually took the other hashers back home and considered going back out, however a call to Finger's found that most people had left and those remaining were dropping like flies. I stayed home and hung out with the roommates in the hot tub and crashed around midnight or so. Unfortunately, Finger is selling her house and moving to Houston in a few weeks, so home base will soon be gone. Hopefully we'll be able to have a 'Go away Finger' hash before she leaves (a tradition for any leaving hasher).