We checked out of our penthouse suite in Tampa on Friday and headed out to the Salvador Dali museum.  Dali is my favorite artist, so I was pretty excited.  On the way there, I had to stop and take a picture of a road sign.  Was I going to be the dork who stands by a goofy sign to have his picture taken by it?  You bet.

The museum was extremely interesting and I learned some things about Dali I never knew.  I really enjoyed it.
I have a print of this painting at home...one of my favorites:
"Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea which at Twenty Meters becomes a Portrait of Abraham Lincoln"



The title of the painting is no joke.  If you stand back 30-40 feet, the painting is actually Lincoln's head.

After the museum, we found a nice little Italian restaurant where we ate lunch.  Interestingly enough, later on, we found out it was in the "gay pride" area of Tampa.  We were lucky to make it out alive.

Here's a shot of the inside of the restaurant:

After lunch we headed to the Holiday Inn Express in Sarasota to meet up with the rest of the wedding Guests for Christy and Mark's wedding.

That evening, Teresa and I enjoyed dinner at The Melting Pot.  After dinner at The Melting Pot, we hung out in the bar and watched the Penguins beat the Red Wings in game seven of the Stanley Cup Finals.  Good times.  I was happy to see Pittsburgh beat Detroit, in Detroit.

Day 3:
On the day of the wedding (Saturday), Mark, Sted, Jeff and I spent the day at the beach...where Mark proceeded to get a little too much sun on his face just hours before his wedding.  When Mark took his sunglasses off, our eyes got kind big as Mark had a bit of a raccoon look going on...but it didn't seem as bad when it was showtime.

Mark and Christy's wedding was on the beach and everything turned out very nice.  A bit of a haze had come into the area which helped with the heat of the sun (which was hot that day) and the glare for pictures.  I assisted Teresa with the wedding photography, and I have to admit I was quite awesome in that role.

That evening, I discovered they had Yuengling beer in the area.  So, I got to enjoy a couple Yuengling's while we were down there.  You can only really find Yingling on the east coast.  I first had it in North Carolina a few years ago.  Good beer...and cheap.  Jeff and I had two massive mugs of Yuengling for $2.25 each.  They had to have been 26 ounce beers.



Day 4:
On Sunday, we checked out of the Holiday Inn Express,  left Sarasota and headed back to Tampa and the Grand Plaza hotel (no penthouse this time...but still a very nice room), where we hung out at the beach and in the ocean all day.

Here's a shot of the beach from the hotel pool patio.


That night, we ate at an Italian restaurant on the St. Pete coast that was rated #1 for 11 straight years.  I had spaghetti.  It was ok.  Nothing great.  And of course, after dinner we went back to Larry's for more Gelato.

Day 5:
On our last day in Florida we were looking for a place to eat lunch before heading back to the airport.  So we drove around for a while and finally just stopped at PJ's.  Which turned out to be a pretty cool place (not in the gay pride district).  Teresa and I both had crab legs, which were quite good, and I had another Yuengling.

The flight home was uneventful, which was a good thing.  We only checked one bag this time, and it correctly arrived with us in St. Louis.  American Airlines sucks.  I'd rather not fly with them again.

It was a fun trip (baggage issues aside).  Congratulations Mark and Christy!  I hope you guys enjoy your photos.