A Wherigo Tour Of Downtown Tampa

We took a walking tour of downtown Tampa by following a newer geocaching technique called Wherigo which involves being taken on a tour of an area before locating the geocache container. For this one, we walked around the City of Tampa and discovered a few things about Tampa we didn't know about.

To begin with, we were armed with our cameras, so we paused for every photographic opportunity we could. Of course we took a 'shine' to this hybiscus, because it reminded us of our upcoming vacation to Hawaii.

So, we started at a spot near the the University of Tampa. While we were here, we got a shot of this field gun there.

As we wandered along, we came across this strange looking flower. No idea what it is, but 'we knows what we likes'...

At one point, a rowboat when by on the canal next to UT.

Stroke! Stroke! Stroke! Get a move on!

Now, I don't know why, but this image and the dragonfly image below loaded onto the blog sideways and no matter what I did to make them come out with the right rotation, they still came out looking like this. as such, here is a sideways picture of a water lilly, that I thought was kinda neat.

As for this (sideways) dragonfly, he kept buzzing away, then he would land right back at this exact spot moments later.

Ah, another hybiscus falls prey to our cameras...

Remember the rowboat a few pictures back? Well apparently, there is some still college competition and the teams tend to paint their school collors on the walls (and bridges) along the canal. Many of them are very nicely done.

Our travels took us across the Platt Street bascule bridge, so I took a shot of the commissioning plaque posted on it. Wow, I didn't realize this bridge was made back in 1926!

We're still making our way along the river and a it looks like we piqued the interest of this seagull. Whenever we moved, he was completely focused on our activities. I guess he thought we might have something to eat...

By the way, if you were wondering what a bascule bridge is, this is what they look like. As you can see, the bridge tilts up on one side to let boats go through.

Still walking around Tampa and were came across this anchor mounted on a rock.

Can you imagine dredging up an old anchor like this, and realize that it was sitting there since who knows how long? And besides, I didn't realize that the waterway at Harbor Island was once named Garrison Channel.

Well, whaddaya know? There's the Jose Garpar, an all-metal ship used during the Gasparilla celebrations here.

So, we made it out to where the Wherigo geocache container was located, signed the logsheet and when we looked for the code on our Pocket PC to register our find with Wherigo, the Pocket PC said we needed to go back to Harbor Island to try again.

So, the school was a hotel first? Interesting...

There is a statue of JFK here, and it is ringed by plaques of some of his quotes. I didn't realize that this church was located here in downtown. I bet parking is tough.

Did you know that there is a monument dedicated to the first paved sidewalk in Tampa? I didn't know that either.

Next, we stopped by Macdill park and looked around. Just as we were about half-way across, it started raining, so we had to high-tail it back to the car.

By the way, why would somebody pay to put the equivalent of a couple of red french-fries on this park lawn? If this makes sense to you, then it must only be me that thinks this just isn't right.

Well, that's it for our tour. We hope you had as much fun reading this as we had walking it. Cheers!

Terror Plot At Local High School Foiled

As we were driving home, we saw a media frenzy going on at a church across from a high school. When we got home, we turned on the TV and the local news channel was saying that a teenager was planning to pull off a Columbine High School-style 'massacre' at the high school, but he wanted to have a higher body count "to beat the record". Thankfully, somebody heard about it and reported it to the authorities. Here's a picture from our TV of a school administrator and a deputy explaining the situation and that the boy was taken into custody before he could execute his plan.

Brad's Birthday & More

There's nothing like promising to create a birthday cake that looks like a Nintendo game controller to challenge yourself!

This is the birthday cake Katrina and I made up for Brad. It's a 2-layer reverse-marble fondant-covered, 1/4 sheet monster. Reverse marble is where you make one layer of yellow cake with chocolate marbling through it, then the reverse, or second layer, is made of chocolate with yellow marbling in it.

It took a bit to discover the right mix of fondant so we could actually work with it. We wanted a buttercream frosting flavor, so we used a product called Duff's, but it was too oily and kept sticking to the glass table. We found that mixing Duff's with Wilton's fondant gave us what we were looking for, something that tasted like buttercream, but worked like fondant should. Once I was able to work with the fondant in a predictable fashion, I lightly frosted the cake with milk chocolate frosting, then laid the white fondant on the cake.

At this point, most of the cake is done and I'm cutting out the 'Plus Button' for the left side of the Nintendo controller.

So, the white outline is done, and now I'm using a ruler to measure the cut out for the black center of the plus-button.

And, of course, I had an AutoCAD drawing of the cake with measurements to help us with the layout.

And to think this came about because Katrina & Brad saw this picture on the My Food Looks Funny website. Brad thought it would be neat to have something like this, only a little better...

Well, we were successful in getting it to the house in time for the party. It was funny to see some of Brad's friends take a look in the box and say; "Now That's Old School".

And it's time for the unveiling.

Here it is, about to come out of the box.

So, we removed the cake from the box and Brad just stood there and stared...

He thought for a moment...

And then, he tried to play the controller...

Katrina put the candles on the cake and lit them, while Brad stacked a couple of Mario Brothers stuffed characters in front of the cake.

I recognize Yoshi, Flying Mario and regular Mario, but I can't remember what the other one is.

After blowing out the candles, Brad started cutting away...

Here is the aftermath of the first pass-around of the cake, but when we left the party hours later, only about a third of the cake was left.

For some reason, Katrina & Brad decided to take Jaina the cat, for a swim. She was quite loud in voicing her opinion about her watery situation...

So they put her on the pool deck...

...and I grabbed a towel and started drying Jaina off. She really doesn't look all that pleased with being wet.

Awwww, what a cutie!

While I worked on 'polishing' the cat, the kids went back to monkeying around in the pool...

As a matter of fact, they tossed the monkeys all over the pool.

Bradley is about to make a splash...

After the pool antics, we had some fun with pictures, then it was time to open the birthday gifts.

Apparently, this package was tough to open. I wonder what's inside?

Ah! New sneakers!

And a book, too!

Next was Katrina's gifts and she hid them all over the house with a set of clues to guide him to his prizes. There was one in the kitchen cupboard, then this one under Jaina's bed...

Then, he found one in this Mexican Cheminea (chimney) oven.

Then, there was a gift hidden under the bathroom sink too.

After the gift session was over, the kids decided to throw Brad into the pool. Well, sorta...

And in he goes with a resounding splash.

At this point, Katrina chose to personally wish Brad a happy birthday. So, it's time to go. I'm sure there will be more to tell you later.