Sunday 1st January – New Year’s Day in Tampa

New Year is a time of reflection for everybody, including for us.  The last month had been planned far more than we had imagined this trip ever would be, out of necessity.  Now the New Year was here we would be heading North and out of Florida I was looking forward to returning to the ‘winging it’ ethos that I had wished for during our adventures. I took stock of where our journey had taken us since we left Boston over two months ago:

There was so much still to look forward to.  I told Simon that we were not leaving Florida until I had seen a manatee in the wild.  That needed to happen!  But maybe the uncertainty of not knowing where we’d be from now was too much too suddenly? So I booked us a couple of State parks for our journey North through Florida that were in the regions where manatees can be spotted , just in case we couldn't find anything when needed. 

Ybor City's main street full of restaurants and bars

We did some internet Happy New Year wishing to family and friends before heading into an area of Tampa called Ybor City for the afternoon.  We were not as fragile as expected after our NYE festivities but we had agreed that today would be an ideal opportunity to find a cinema and watch the new Star Wars: Rogue one movie.  The cinema in Ybor even came with ‘D-box’ seating.  This is where your seat moves and vibrates in synchronisation with the action as well as having your 3D screen and surround sound audio.  The ‘complete movie experience’!  The showing we booked for gave us time to enjoy a meal, a couple of drinks and even some games of pool first.  2017 is looking good for me – I beat Simon at pool 2-0!  Then the film was immense!  I don’t think I’d worry about the d-box seating for anything other than an action film but I did feel that it added something.  Having said that, the film was so good I think I’d enjoy it on a phone screen in any case, so I’d thoroughly recommend viewing it if you’re a fan of anything sci-fi even if you’re not a die-hard Star Wars fan.

It may look like outside, but this was the inside of the cinema!

We totally lucked out after the film, sprinting to catch our hotel’s shuttle bus that was waiting outside for another couple who didn’t show.  This would be our last night in a hotel for who knows how long.  Despite Tampa not being a place that not many seem to rave about, we had really enjoyed our stay and met some lovely people.