Tampa

Last week was a very busy one and I am still trying to recover. Jeff had the week off before his second year of school started and so we took advantage of a little time together. We took a quick trip to Tampa, stopping in Orlando on the way to go to the temple. We had decided that with a nursing baby, it would be best to switch off doing initiatory. We got a bunch of names from our ward and headed down. Jeff went in first and did 12 names in a little over an hour. But when I went in for my turn, the lady greeting people told me that the initiatory was closed for the rest of the day because they didn't have enough workers. She asked if I would like to do a session, but I explained to her that my husband was waiting with the three kids, one of whom was a two-month old nursing baby. Tears brimming in my eyes, I told her I just couldn't do it and she encouraged me to come again. "We'll try," I said. I left feeling so discouraged. We had driven over two hours to get there, had called on the way to find out when to be there for initiatory, only to get there and find that they didn't have enough workers. I don't think you should ever leave the temple feeling like you want to cry, but unfortunately, it's not a perfect world we live in. And so, I wiped my tears away, hoping I would get some blessings for the effort, and we drove on to Tampa.

Besides the fact that it was blazing hot, we really enjoyed the time we spent there. We went to a national park devoted to Hernando de Soto, who was a European explorer who led an expedition from Tampa throughout the south looking for gold in the early 1500's. It was one of the first expeditions in the new world and Jeff was very excited to see the place (although, as it turns out, they don't know exactly where he left from and the national park is just an approximation, so he was a little disappointed). Here are Damon and Allie preparing to move into their new hut. We've come a long way, haven't we? I'm barely able to live in Florida with modern conveniences; I don't know how people did it when this was all they had.

Jeff claimed it was worth the drive just to see this tree.

Moments after Damon got busted for trying to climb on it, a nice ranger offered to take our picture (he probably felt bad that the lady who yelled at Damon wasn't very nice). You can see that Damon is still pouting. Who knows what Allie is doing--mocking him behind her hands?

Inside the visitor's center (or whatever it's called), Damon and Allie tried on some of the armor the Spanish explorers would have been wearing. An entire suit of armor weighed about 70 pounds (I think half was in the chain mail!) and the kids were struggling just to stay on their feet.

We spent the rest of the day at the Florida Aquarium in downtown Tampa. We had a good time and we saw a lot of fun things, but I don't think it was worth what we paid to get in. On the brochure, they claimed to have shows, and so we crowded around a mat on the ground, trying to find a place to watch the "Penguin Promenade." There are a few things I would like to remember if we ever go back:

1. Just because something is called a "show" doesn't mean it is worth your time. The penguin promenade consisted of two 6 pound penguins being wheeled out in a wagon to the mat. One penguin waddled around the mat, trying to eat the trainer's keychain, while the other one remained in the wagon. The lady with the microphone spouted little tidbits of trivia about penguins, such as "they eat fish," and "they don't fly." Very informative.

2. When hundreds of people are crowding around a tiny area to see even tinier animals, parents start to get testy when their precious child's view is blocked. As the show was starting, kids started crowding in from all sides, pushing their way to the front. Jeff had to eventually hold Allie up so she could see, as kids inevitably stood right in front of her. The lady standing next to me kept barking at other kids, telling them to move so her little boy could see. Had she known what was coming, I wonder if she would've been so concerned about her son having the best seat.

3. When in a large crowd of people, hold your breath. Someone WILL eventually pass gas and there's just nowhere to go to get away from it.

Valuable lessons, all. We did have a good time, despite the joke of a penguin show. Here is a cool pic of Jeff and the kiddos in front of one of the big tanks.

But the best part of the trip was free. We walked out onto the beach about an hour before sunset, just as things were starting to cool off, and watched, for the first time in Florida, the sun set on the water. That's the one thing that is missing living on the Atlantic--the sun doesn't set on the water. But Tampa is on the Gulf of Mexico, where the sand is white, the waves are small, and there are amazing sunsets. Here are a couple pictures from the beach. You can't see Allie's diaper sagging off her behind, or smell the bug spray that kept drifting our way, but it's almost as good as being there.