St. Pete & Me: Day 3, Tampa edition

I make this trek every year in line with the University of Tampa National Alumni Association Board meeting. I usually call into the board meetings over the phone, but the first meeting of the year is a great excuse to get away.

I am probably the LAST person my classmates would have ever expected to be on the alumni board - I explain why here.

But I wouldn't have become a writer without the newspaper experience (there was really no one who wanted to run the paper, so I got a chance to do so even though I had no experience), so I can't knock it completely hence my involvement on the board.

This is where I decided to become a writer. I was so homesick that first year that I'd sit on the dock by my dorm and write. Go figure.

ANYWAY, I headed into Tampa early to meet with a fellow freelancer at Indigo Coffee, which is a local coffee chain (much like Avalon Coffee is a local shore chain). She tipped me off to Sherry's YesterDaze Vintage, which is an awesome consignment shop that focuses on vintage wear. I picked up a backless Studio-54esque dress that, oddly enough, has long sleeves. Why not, right? Too bad the white mini dress with flower appliques didn't work. If I took off the Brady Bunch puff sleeves, it'd had been a perfect sheath dress for the summer.

Then I had lunch, per usual, with Andy Solomon, who was my newspaper advisor, at Cafe European (MY GOD THE MOUSSE!)

After the alumni meeting, we headed to a school get together at Four Green Fields, which is an excellent *authentic* Irish pub with a real thatch roof. It's the first bar where I maybe had a drink underage (at a bar that is not known campus wide as not carding, that is), and where I first tasted goat cheese.

Now, don't get yourself in a tizzy about this. When I was 19, I was a section editor on a newspaper staff of juniors and seniors. They were all over 21, so I tagged along and had a beer. Four Green Fields is also where I first tasted goat cheese. It opened up a culinary world.

Post-dinner, I went back to St. Pete Beach to my hotel's beach bar. It felt like a Jersey Shore night - I was wearing jeans, flip flop and hoodie to drink lite beer and watch a so/so cover band. The crowd was older than what I find at the shore, and all locals (meaning they live there now, not that they're born and bred Florida locals. Those are hard to find).

The next post will wrap up my posts about vacation. Saturday and Sunday weren't as packed as those first three days, mostly because of my running schedule and bad weather. So stay tuned!