Oh man! What a fun night. Even if I got no photos I would claim the evening a success.
The trolley ride was OK. The trolley barn was interesting. The company was way too fun.
We started out at the first trolley stop near Centennial Park. We got aboard a trolley and they took us to the car barn. We got to see one of the oldest trolleys in existence. Sherry laid on the tracks for a fun photo op. I was using my camera’s live view instead of stooping down and that was overheating my camera chip. There wasn’t much to see inside the barn. Or maybe I was just too hot to find much of interest.
We went back to pickup some late arrivals. Then continued onto Channelside. Since we were just there a few days before, there wasn’t much I wanted to shoot. Norm & I went into Wet Willies and got large margaritas. We were soon joined by others. The place has great colors for hdr.
Jeff introduced me to Bob who shoots with an Olympus E-3. The only two Olympians in a group of 300+ photographers! Jeff used to shoot with Olympus back in his film days. Olympus was late to the game with good auto-focus and dSLR cameras.
Jeff took the group down to the Dick Greco plaza. Norm, John, Sherry & I started to follow but it began to rain so we used that as an excuse went back to Wet Willies for another round.
John wanted to shoot from UT. The four of us got on a crowded trolley and headed towards the convention center. We had to walk the rest of the way. We got about halfway there and Norm decided to turn back. I went with him. We got back on a trolley and found more of the group. They stopped at Channelside again! but Norm & I continued to Ybor and Tampa Bay Brewing Company.
The drinks flowed. The conversation flowed. It was a fun night. They couldn’t provide separate checks so the $300 bill took quite a while to straighten out. We could have had more drinks while we waited!
Tags:channelside·photo walk·photography·tampa·trolley·ybor city
(click to enlarge)
Dade City is an old town. It is the county seat but it’s not the biggest town. I have been there a number of times but only once to photograph it. The last time I shot it, I had only had my dSLR a few months and was just getting into photography again. I walked around on Easter Sunday (while my dad thought I was at church) shooting mostly architectural details. Shops were closed so I didn’t go inside the many antique shops.
I scheduled a photo walk and was a little concerned that people would just see the out of touch old town and not the quaintness. It does not generate the tourism like the towns along the coast. Only 6 of us signed up. I didn’t expect Jeff to enjoy himself.
I had planned to take the historic route but no one wanted to follow a plan. Maybe I will do that myself another time. Dade City is small so we wandered about. The architecture is varied from the Olde City Hall to the post war era bank to the recent court house. Most shops are unique, the only chain, Beef o’ Brady’s, is local to Tampa Bay.
The hardware store is an old one. And inside you could find just about anything you would every need. And loads of stuff you didn’t think of until you saw it. They had used baseball gloves for sale.
This is the new county courthouse. It’s relatively new. It’s a nice building but not very detailed.
Doyle had to leave early. He probably didn’t want to watch us eating while he had to wait to eat his diet food later. We talked about eating at Lunch on Limoges but Jeff looked at thought it was too hoity toity. We went to Kafé Kokopelli. It is an interesting place. The building is covered in vines and the entry is in the rear of the building. The interior is a mix of reused building materials and newer decorative items. They used old doors to make banquette seating and old French doors to create seating areas. The food was casual and good.
Sherry and I went into another antique store on the way to our cars. This one had very nice, pricey antiques which had been restored. They also worked on clocks.
For some reason, I like taking photos of fire hydrants. Sherry noticed. I like the way this one had different colors of paint peeling.
Jeff said he did have a good time and wants to schedule another walk on Saturday.
Tags:beautiful·dade city·photography
Our first day of summer break. Only 67 more to go. It’s a Thursday which means pool, lunch & groceries. Dad is here now and he buys most of the groceries on Tuesdays & Fridays. Since dad is here, the boys have a choice about staying home or coming with me. Both boys came with me.
Only a few women were doing water aerobics at the pool. They said hello but we did not join them. Ryan wanted my attention and Andy seemed content just to be in the water. The water did feel good.
Lunch was Wendy’s and Chick Fil A. Ryan has been trying new things and recently decided he likes Arby’s curly fries. But only occasionally, he had them on Wednesday after his moving up ceremony at school.
The boys looked at books and toys at Target. There are loads of Toy Story 3 items to tie with the release of the movie in 2 weeks. Andy spent his time recording the sounds of the toys on his digital recorder. Smart kid.
I have been working to process and catch up with my photographs. With all the photo walks and events, I am very behind. I did get a collection of images taken in March finished today.
The boys have been going out after dinner to ride their bikes & razors. Ryan is quick about it, making one loop around the village and back home. Andy rides a little longer but not much more than 15 minutes. We recently moved things around in the garage. I wanted to get rid of the bike ramp that they no longer used. But I pulled it out and they use it again. Figures.
Tags:autism·behavior·family·summer·summer break·swimming·weather
