One of my closest friends turned 50 in September 2019. Us four friends decided to give her a trip in the summer of 2020. Well everyone knows that summer of 2020 wasn’t a good time for travelling and we postponed it. The pandemic continued and still very real in the…

Peter came home a little bit earlier today and we headed to Sand Key for some beach time before I move back to Sweden. We stopped by Subway for some sandwiches to take to the beach. Once we had set up chairs and umbrella P needed to eat 😉 We…

Time has been flying and the last weekend was busy. Friday I went to Treasure Island to have lunch with a friend. In the evening we had dinner at Season 52 with Rebecca and Steve. A lovely day. Saturday we had fika at Sucré Table and it was almost as…

My last Nordic lunch was going to be dinner and cocktails with the ladies. But I had to cancel as I came down with a bad cold and Covid. Those of us being in Tampa decided that we needed another one. We had a love evening with talking, laughter and…

My brother, sister-in-law and nieces have been here for about a week. They’ve been in Florida several times before but never to Tampa. We did the beach and hanging at the pool as well as they did do both Busch Gardens and Adventure Island a few times. They also went…

When we woke up this morning Richard and Anne took us to Taos and Arroyo Seco and showed us both places. Taos is a nice small town and due to strict building rules the city centre hasn’t changed much. The square is supposed to be lovely but they were conducting…

We left Santa Fe and drove to Taos where we headed to Taos Pueblo. It is a world heritage site and is an ancient pueblo belonging to tiwa speaking Native American tribe of puebloan people. It’s situated about 1,6 km outside Taos and has been there since 1166. There are…

We left Colorado this morning and headed to New Mexico. We started with visiting The Great Earthship outside of Taos. It’s a community that started in 1994 by Mike Reynolds and simply explained it’s a community that lives with nature and are self sufficient with water, most food, electricity and…

We wanted to leave Leadville early but it was almost 8am when we got into the car. We have been staying at super basic hotels and they have both promised breakfast. Again it was not really a breakfast more of sugar intake. We had 2 small waffles and then hit…

Georgetown Lodge had breakfast included but wasn’t to our liking. Coffee, juice and a Danish. As we had an early night yesterday we woke up at 6 am so got going early as well. First drive was to Loveland Pass and it was windy and a bit chilly. We walked…

We headed to the airport very early and flew into Denver. We got our rental car and started by trying to get something to eat in Denver. The brewery we found was on the way and perfect if it wasn’t for no parking nearby. Skipped food and drove to Red…

Today we celebrated Swedish midsummer with our Scandinavian, American, Canadian and French friends. We found a better spot than last year but it was still very hot. We had a ceiling fans, a fridge and an ice machine so way better than just the heat. We had a love couple…

We arrived in Helsingborg and my parents place later Tuesday night as Felicia was working and we wanted to go together to Scania. Wednesday was all about preparing for Emelie’s party and helping her with things in her “new” apartment. Well she has had it since last summer but there…

Friday we left Tampa for a few days in Sweden. The flight over is brutal when you can’t sleep on the flight and arriving in our apartment meant we’d been on the road for 24 hours. It was lovely to see Felicia again and after an hour sleep we unpacked…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.…

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…

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…

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…

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”.…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

After breakfast we put in Marker’s Make in Loretto. While driving there we saw a sign for Mammoth Cave. Decided to make a detour going to Loretto. The roads were narrow through rural land and nice landscapes. We drove through Stockholm (about 10 houses). Finally we reached the park but…

Yesterday we left a cool Florida with around 13C / 55F and flew to St Louis and was met by more winter temperatures 0C / 32F. It was cold!! It took forever to get our luggage and when we got to the rental car office they couldn’t find our car…

We spent a couple of hours at the beach today. It was warm but with the wind it didn’t make you sweat. The Mexican Gulf was cold – a lot colder than 2 weeks ago. Dinner did we have at OCC Roadhouse & Museum in St Pete/Clearwater.

We went to Ybor by streetcar and walked along E 7th Ave. a lot of places hadn’t opened yet and it was really slow. Then we took the streetcar back to downtown, got the car and went to Tampa Postcard Mural for a selfie. We had lunch at Armature Works…

We went to Lettuce Lake park to see some alligators. The water was quite low and the sun hid behind the clouds so not much activity. We started by seeing an alligator in the lake but nothing else. We continued walking and then saw two more laying on land. The…

I haven’t been to the Salvador Dalí museum or the Sunken Garden yet. So with visitors it was time. We started the day by going to the Dalí museum and even if it’s not a big exhibition it’s still a lot to see. After that we had lunch at a…

Today it’s Halloween and we took a walk after dinner in our neighbourhood to see all the decorations. A lot of kids out Trick or Treating with their parents. There was even a place that had adult treats such as beer, hard seltzer and wine 😊 There are no children…

It was colder in Savannah then we anticipated and today it was even supposed to rain. We decided to head south and leave Georgia and hopefully find some sun. When we drove into St Augustine the sun came out and we had 27 C again. We started our visit by…

Early this morning we headed to Savannah in Georgia. It’s about 6 hours drive and by lunch we arrived. We started with a stop at Wormsloe historic site which is where Noble Jones settled in 1733 after arriving with the ship Anne. Next to it there is the old Wormsloe…

Yesterday Camilla & Pål arrived in Tampa. For Pål it’s first time in US and it’s first time in Florida. Today we had to run some errands in the morning before we could enjoy the pool. We walked to Ballast Point pier to get some lunch and see the neighbourhood.…

Last full day in Tampa and the girls wanted to do the beach and then drinks and dinner in the evening. We didn’t want to drive long but wanted to try a new beach. We went to Davis Island but the water wasn’t nice but sitting on the beach worked…

The girls have seen a lot of native animals of Florida, alligators, dolphins, raccoons, turtles and a lot of birds, as well as manatees but from a distance. But today we went to Homosassa to see them up close. When we arrived we parked at the main road and took…

Today the Canadians had their coffee morning and it was really nice. They started by presenting Canada and gave a bit of facts that I must have learnt in school but nolonger remembered. After that we were put together in groups and they had a quiz about Canada. My group…

Today we went to Ybor for the girls to see it at daylight. They went here on a Saturday to see the nightlife in Tampa and enjoyed it. But it was a bit different during the day as there as way less people and not all places are open as…

Leaving Miami we headed towards Tamiami Trail and then took a left into Loop Road. In the beginning it was slow but then the alligators started to show. After the Loop Road we went to Wooten’s Everglades Airboat Tours to see if we could go with one of their tours.…

As we were staying at a hotel in Miami we had breakfast fairly early and then headed towards Key West. As it was a federal holiday we choose to stay in Miami as the prices in Key West are always high but get even higher at times like this. It’s…

We were supposed to go to Miami last weekend but as we needed to go back home after the evacuation we postponed it for this weekend instead. We left early Saturday morning to be able to see as much as possible. We drove over the small ”town” Yeeahaw former know…

Tonight we went for dinner at OCC (Orange County Chopper) Roadhouse where they have nice food, live music and motorbikes. The food was nice and we even tried one of their live action cocktails as well as beer. We moved closer to the scene after dinner and listened a bit…

As we couldn’t go to Circle B Bar, which is our to go to when you want to see alligators, due to heavy flooding we went to Lettuce Lake park which is also great to see some alligators. We could walk most of the trail, just a small part that…

Peter took the girls to the shooting range and they could try to shoot different weapons. They tried a Glock, a 357 Magnum and a Scar assault riffle. In the evening we went to see a movie at Ciné Bistro in Hyde Park. We saw Amsterdam which was a bit…

Since Felicia was here last time she has been wanting to go back to Green Lemon for their tacos which she finds to be the best in Tampa. She also wanted to introduce Cajsa to Margarona – the bastard sibling to Margarita. As it’s a very popular place we went…

I wanted to show the girls St Pete and they wanted to go to the beach. We started by going to downtown St Pete and walk the on the pier. Before leaving the pier we had some lunch there and it was a very nice pizza. We then continued to…

The girls wanted do some relaxing by the pool so we did Riverwalk in the morning and had lunch at Armature Work. On the way home we went to take some pictures at the Tampa postcard.

Today we went to Tarpon Springs to eat greek food and show the greek part of the area. The area is famous for it’s sponges and that a great part of the population is Greek, some even still speaks the language. We ate at Mama’s Greek Cuisine and I had…

Monday morning we understood that we might be hit by hurricane Ian and started to prepare for leaving. We had to make sure to pack every valuable and those things we couldn’t bring we had to put in water-safe containers in case the house would flood. We live in an…

Today Cajsa turned 22 years old and we ”woke her up” by singing for her. They still have not got into the right time zone and wakes up very early but she pretended to sleep at least =) They enjoyed the sun a little more when we went to the…