This weekend we headed to Charleston in South Carolina for some sightseeing. We left early on Friday morning to head north east and hoping to get there mid afternoon. The traffic wasn’t bad going to SC and we arrived in the afternoon and had Friday late afternoon, evening and all of Saturday and some part […]
Today our friends fly out late and we got a whole day to enjoy. Malin had some last minute shopping to do so we dropped of Olle at the beach on base and headed to the store. Once we were done we joined him for a while at the beach before heading home and do […]
Malin was an au-pair in Clearwater 32 years ago and we drove over there to see if she would recognise anything. Let’s say it has been a lot of changes over the years 🤪 We drove from north of Clearwater and the along the water south. Drove past Kolb Park and then had lunch at […]
We decided to do some breweries today and I was the designated driver which was fine. We started by Peter and Olle taking a walk along the Riverwalk while Malin and I driving to Armature Works. But we took the wrong turn and decided to go to HB Plant museum where parts of the university […]
It’s a long time since we went to Circle B but it was more or less the same. Maybe some more vegetation and dead alligator. We saw several large alligators out in the lake which I have never seen before but not so many small one. We met a guy who said there was a […]
We had invited the other Swedes today for some After Work as it’s some time since we all met. This will also be my last one with the Swedes as time is flying right now. I’m leaving in beginning of August and between then and now we have 3 travels and visitors coming as well. […]
Today I and Rebecca took Pat for lunch to celebrate her birthday. We do have lunch together now and then but for birthdays we treat each other to the lunch. None of us need this and this is a nice way to celebrate. This time we went to a place that was new to me […]
Today we wanted to show our friends St Pete and also visit a new spot to us. We started at Coffeepot Bayou which is south of Weedon Island Preserve. The area gives you a picturesque drive in St. Petersburg. Where the name comes from I have no idea. We did a bit of a walking […]
We started by taking our guests on a tour around the base. First time for them being on an American military base. It’s so different from a base back home which is just a working place and nothing else. We then took them to Ybor to show the old part of Tampa. We had a […]
Today we decided to go and get over with some shopping and see downtown. We started with going to the base to get their base pass so we could bring them in to the base. Then we did drive along Bayshore, through Hyde Park, passed the Amalie Arena and stopped at Sparkman Wharf for lunch. […]
Tonight Peter and I was invited to celebrate King’s Day at the base together with the Dutch community and some other international guests. It was a beautiful evening with firends and we came home when the mosquitos became to annoying. Our guest took a nap while we were away as they were still tired after […]
Today we had another Nordic lunch at Westshore Yacht Club where all the Norwegian families live. We started a little earlier by hanging out around the pool before we ordered the food. We decided to eat out of the sun which was nice and a bit cooler even if it was hardly noticeable. We hung […]
Tonight we went to see the playoff game for Bolts. This is the first round and it’s best of 7 to go to next level. Earlier this week they played in Toronto and now it was time to come home for two games. They played well and it came to overtime where they ruled 19 […]
Another coffee morning with four countries going together to invite us to their culture and food. We had presentations about each country and then topped it off with delicious food from all the countries. So many things I couldn’t eat everything so I skipped some chocolate from Poland as I’ve had it before and the […]
I have wanted to go to Cedar Keys as it’s said to be how Key West used to be before the tourists found it. Cedar Key is Florida’s second oldest town and was established in 1869 but have history going back 1000 years. It has been destroyed by hurricanes a few times over they years. […]
We’ve been to baseball games but it’s not our thing. Today we decided to try watching softball instead. Simply explaining the difference – softball throws underhand while baseball throws overhand, the softball field is smaller and the ball is bigger in softball. From the beginning the hall was softer but they’re harder nowadays. We went […]
The Tampa Police Department is together with Hyundai and Kia handing out free wheel locks to prevent car theft. Peter asked me to go to the police to get one. I went to the nearest police which was the HQ which is downtown. I wasn’t really looking forward to it as I had to find […]
After I visited Imagine Museum I heard about another glass museum close by. I decided I had to check it out and today was the day. It’s a matter ch smaller museum and all the glass art is from Dale Chihuly, an American artist from the state of Washington, who started his career in glassblowing […]
Hilary and Brian arrived in Tampa last week and have stayed with us for a week. Now they are heading home to Canada and the cold weather again. First day Hil and I went to the Korean coffee morning and then we just relaxed in the afternoon. I had my volunteering at Service to Service […]
This morning the South Korean ladies were hosting a coffee morning at the family center. Walking in the smell was fantastic and I was really looking forward tasting everything. First we saw a short video about South Korea and then we teamed up for a quiz. I had the best team members and we were […]
Once a month all the Nordic ladies meet for some lunch. At the Nordic coffee morning where a part of the gift bag was home made pot holders some of the Nordic ladies wanted to learn crochet (specifically learning to do pot holders). I offered to host as it would take more time than a […]
Friends from our time in Northwood moved to Tampa just a week after I arrived. Today they had visitors from Sweden that also lived in Northwood when we were there. We all met up at Salt Shack for dinner and time to catch up as we haven’t seen Sven and Kicki since we left UK. […]
Last day for our visitors and we chose to go to Tarpon Spring. It’s a piece of Greece in Tampa where the streets have their names in both English and Greek, the stores are like the stores in any store on the Greek islands. We did a walk and looked at the sponge boats and […]
As we needed to get out of the house and move around compensating for one day sitting in a car and one day of eating and drinking. We headed to Lettuce Lake Park and walked around. As it being spring break there were more people than usual and a lot of kids. But we saw […]
As we sat in a car all day there were no beer yesterday so today was a brew day. We started with Tampa Bay Brewing Company and had lunch there as well. Afterwords we continued to Trouble Waters Brewery in Safety Harbour.
Early morning as we decided late yesterday to drive straight home. Well it was not extremely early but early being a Sunday. Decided to cross the worlds longest bridge over water. The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway Bridge is 38 km and is even mentioned in Guinness book of record. It’s a bridge and not much happens […]
We took it slowly this morning and decided yesterday that we would meet at 9 am to go for breakfast. First place we went to had a line and we decided to continue. We walked down Chartres Street and found a small place. After breakfast we looked for the bar that is in NCIS New […]
When we woke up today we took a walk from the hotel to a place we were recommended for breakfast. Bob’s Downtown Restaurant had nice breakfast and was busy so I guess it is popular. We then left the hotel and Alabama and drove to New Orleans in Louisiana but went through a part of […]
Yesterday our friends from Sweden arrived and this morning we headed to Mobile in Alabama. The men were in interested in visiting the USS Alabama. They went inside and me and J stayed outside and looked at the things they had on display there. Afterwards we went to our hotel in Mobile – Malaga Inn […]
At their time of the year Plant City (about 50 min from us) holds a strawberry festival. Last year we didn’t go but did this year and it was their 88th time holding this festival. We went early and that was a good choice as the traffic and amount of people increased significantly during our […]
Our lunch outing today went to Hard Rock Café but we had to walk through the entire casino to get there. The complex looks big from the outside but it was humongous inside. And people… there were people of all ages but the majority was using a walker 😉 The food is good and the […]
Today we decided to go slightly north to Oldsmar for lunch. The only thing I knew up there is a gigantic flea market. We started by going to the water and the park R.E Oldsmar Park, it had a nice amphitheater, a big playground and a small pier but that was it. We walked around […]
Today we went to a place I had read about. It’s called Heritage Village and is at place where they have saved old houses from around Pinellas County which is the county on the peninsula where Clearwater and St Petersburg are. The houses were from between 1850 and about 1930. By each house there was […]
After we had been to Heritage Village we needed lunch and drove north east in Pinellas County to Safety Harbour. It’s a small “town” by the water and was established in 1917. A very nice Main Street with small stores and restaurants along it. We did some walking there, visited a brewing company and had […]
Peter had a work thing tonight that we were invited to. We were about 30 minutes north of us in a private house, sorry mansion that was incredible. The art just in the entrance must have been worth more than our apartment in Sweden 🤪 But we had a nice evening and enjoyed ourselves immensely.
It’s a year ago since last time we had our Nordic coffee morning. Time really flies. I made sandwich cake (smörgåstårta) and cinnamon buns. But there was so many delicious things that needed to be eaten. Normally I have just a few bites and mostly savoury things at a coffee morning. But today I had […]
Today it is Super Bowl and we are invited over to some friends to watch the game and have some food. Kansas City Chiefs vs. Philadelphia Eagles and none of them where teams I have been following. To be frank I haven’t followed any team but you hear about the local team, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, […]
Today we took a longer day trip and went south of Tampa to Boca Grande. It’s just north of Fort Meyers which was badly hit by hurrican Ian. Boca Grande had been hit as well but either they have recovered quickly or they were lucky. We saw damage but it didn’t seem to extensive. I […]
Yesterday I was invited to go to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Band Street by our friends Rich & Pat. Rich is a big fan of Bruce Springsteen and as he grew up in New Jersey also saw him playing in clubs before he became the star he is today. When Rich bought the […]
With only 6 more months in Tampa I need to get around to see everything I’ve marked “want to do”. So today I went with friends to visit Imagine Museum in St Pete. It opened in 2018 by a local glass artist who wanted to show glass art by contemporary artists. Parts of the museum […]
I’ve never been to a comedy club but do follow some comedians on IG. One of them had his tour dates on his IG and I saw Tampa on it. I went online to get tickets for Peter as a Christmas gift. Surprised by the prize as it’s not that more expensive than going to […]
Today the Japanese and Singaporean ladies invited us for coffee morning. It started with a Kahoot with a mix of questions about both countries. It’s always nice doing those as you do learn a lot about the countries that you might not have known before. During the coffee morning we could also sign up for […]
Today’s outing was lunch in Sun City at Old Castle Restaurant, a German restaurant. We had Wiener Schnitzel and apfelstrudel. I’m sure you can get even better in Germany but we are in Florida and it was close enough. I had potato salad with my schnitzel and the potatoes were to mushy but that’s how […]
Yesterday it was my birthday 25th anniversary of turning 29 🤪 Before Peter left for work he and Emelie sang to me. She over FaceTime and he IRL and then he left for work. During the day I talked with Felicia, my parents and friends before P got back home. I had got the instructions […]
Today we had no plans except going to the Tampa Bay Lightning game. We were invited to one of the boxes by the Australian SNR. The seats were good as well as the appetisers. While being at the game one of neighbours asked if we wanted to join them for some drinks to celebrate the […]
We decided to be outside as much as possible today as it was Emelie last full day in Tampa. We were going to Emerson Point Reserve and decided to go past Apollo Beach so we could also see some manatees outside the power station in Apollo beach. The manatees like to go there when it’s […]
As the weather was still a bit cold we did shopping today so we could be outside once the sun returned. We went to Westfield Brandon and Emelie found a few things. Going home we went to Lettuce Lake Park to see if we could spot some alligators. We saw one at least. We had […]
Emelie saw in our book 100 things to see in Tampa that there were an old cemetery in downtown Tampa that had some history to it. We decided to go and check it out. Oaklawn Cemetary opened in 1850 and was a place for “white and slave, rich and poor”. There are government figures, businessmen, […]
Food, food and some more food was today’s activity. We started the day by having brunch at Datz. Their portions are huge and we couldn’t finish our food. Emelie and I shared two dishes – Waffles & Chicken Benedict and something called Cheezy Todd. The Cheesy Todd was a burger with “buns” made of fried […]
We had a long lunch at Sparkman Wharf and enjoyed the sun as it’s going to be really cold this weekend. Afterwards we took a walk in the Channel District of Tampa. We also drove by Postcard of Tampa.
Emelie wanted to visit the Sunken Garden in St Pete. It’s a lovely place that has been around for a very long time. It started by a family loving plants and then it just grew into an attraction. The children of the first owner took over but when they wanted to retire it was to […]
Yesterday evening Emelie arrived in Tampa and we picked her up at the airport. Today she and I did go for lunch in St Pete at The Library. It’s not a library nor have it ever been but it’s decorated as a library. I’ve been told that the food might not be the best but […]
We decided to invite some of our neighbours for some advent’s “fika”. Two of them already had other plans but the other four could make it. I had baked “lussekatter” (saffron buns), a saffron sponge cake as well as ginger snaps and some chocolate. We had some Swedish ”glögg” (mulled wine) from last years special […]
Tonight we went to see the Holiday lighted boat parade that takes place every year. It starts at the south tip of Harbour Island, passes Convention Center, turns up by Armature Works, goes back down to Convention Centre, south tip of Harbour Island and ends at Sparkman’s Warf. This year it started in time and […]
Today the French ladies invited us to their coffees morning. We had a quiz, cheese, charcuterie, champagne, quiche and a lot of pastries. A lovely morning as always.
On Tuesday Lucia is celebrated in Sweden and on Thursday Peter has a big meeting. So yesterday and today we have been baking 120 Lucia buns. We had to start by getting everything we needed and then by dinner time we took a break and finished today instead. Now we are just being cozy and […]
Thursday was the International Night at MacDill Air Force Base. It’s the first one in three years due to Covid. Last year the base closed again due to rise in people getting sick and it had to be cancelled. Last week I got 9 kg (20 lb) shrimps delivered and on Tuesday Peter’s assistant and […]
Today it was Thanksgiving and we celebrated with Colleen and Daryl and their extended family. The turkey was to go in the oven by 5 am and Jake and Nicole were in charge they were the only ones that needed to get out of bed that early. They did go back to bed once it […]
We left Louisville and headed west to do some more sightseeing along the way to Collinsville. We left a sunny and cold Louisville, Kentucky and crossed the Ohio River into Indiana. Siberia was just a fun thing that we saw on the map after we ran into Stockholm the other day. Slightly bigger than Stockholm […]
We woke up to a lovely day and left Bardstown after breakfast. We were heading to Fort Knox but stopped at Boundary Oak distillery as we passed it. They had a lot of cool bottles and we tried some that tasted very little bourbon. The prices for doing a tour is not expensive but their […]