[margyloveswdw]

Day 8 - Thursday 4th June

Woke around 9am, got up and finished packing the last few bits. Decided to have a quick CS breakfast at Pop before we headed off for our last few days on the coast. Left Pop at 11.15am and had a pleasant and straight forward drive across to St. Petersburg. The views as you cross the Howard Franklin Bridge (over Tampa Bay) are great even though on this occasion it was a bit grey!







Stopped at a Wal-Mart outside Tampa to return a pair of shorts that DH had bought and only tried on when we were packing and they were huge!

We arrived at the Beachcomber Resort in St. Petersburg at 1.15pm and checked in to our room (223) which had pleasant views of the pool and the beach/sea.





We unpacked the bits that were needed for the next few days and got back in the car to drive back into Tampa to Tropicana Fields (The Trop) as we were going to see the 4.08pm game of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays play Kansas City Royals. Those of you who read my pre-trip report may remember that DH bought these tickets as a ‘surprise’ for me!

DH at the Trop




Check out the baseball bats on the outside of the building:


As there was free wi-fi in ‘The Trop’ I entertained myself for a little bit by going on the Dibb using DH’s iPod touch but I didn’t last long as I got really frustrated with the tiny screen. (Patience is not one of my strong points!) Also did the essential lottery number checking to see if we had won and would therefore no need to go home so soon The fact I am writing this report back in Manchester will tell you the answer to that question! Anyway back to the baseball which Tampa won 3-2 in the ninth inning and after sitting through the whole damn game I missed the two winning runs ‘cos I went to the loo (typical!) DH enjoyed the game which is the main thing! At this point I must tell you that I had some popcorn :pop: whilst at the game and it was salted?!? What’s that all about? The bread is sweet but popcorn is not…..woah that’s all messed up!

Left ‘The Trop’ and headed back to the hotel via Starbucks and Treasure Island where we noticed some changes since we stayed there in 2004. Once back at the hotel we went for a stroll on the beach as the sun was going down and just decided to head off the beach at the right time as the wind got up and the rain started! We took refuge in the beachside bar, Jimmy B’s, where we had three Mai Tai’s (me) and Pina Colada’s (DH) (I don’t really drink much and DH doesn’t drink at all so for us that was a lot! ) and were entertained by a very drunk American man who had arrived that day for a vacation (americanisms again!) The rain wasn’t stopping so we headed off quickly back to the room and got settled in bed, Dh watching TV and me making use of the free wi-fi in the resort and missing my refillable mug.