Trip to Tampa

We had a wonderful trip to Tampa! Joey attended his convention while I enjoyed sleeping in, swimming, and reading by the pool! We also had some time to spend together being tourist. Some our the highlights of our trip were The Florida Aquarium, A boat tour of the bay, Ft. DeSoto Beach (#1 beach in America for 2005 and 2008), and the Rays vs Red Socks baseball game.

Joey riding the wave outside the aquarium.

I was trying to catch the wave!

On the Eco Tour Boat tour of the bay. It was really a dolphin tour where they see dolphins 95% of the time. We are part of the 5% that did not see dolphins. We did still enjoy the tour seeing lots of neat islands and seabirds.
After our boat tour of the bay, we went back to the aquarium. I was brave enough to touch a starfish. I could not bring myself to touch a stingray.
The next day, we rented a car and drove to Ft. DeSoto Beach. There ware a fishing pier on the way that we stopped and walked out on. This picture is from the pier. We did see dolphins that were swimming around the pier. They were too fast to get a picture of. We also saw a huge manatee and a lot of neat seabirds, not to mention the fish that were being caught.
We then went to the beach and enjoyed laying out, swimming in the ocean and seashell hunting. We took this while both of us were standing in the water!

It was a great trip and a lot of fun! Unfortunately, the ending was not as happy as the trip. Once we landed at DFW and were on our way to Snyder, we were in a 5 car pile up on 183. We were the 4th of 5 cars. We were glad that no one was hurt and that our car was only damaged and still drivable. We have since found out that there is $7,000 plus damage done to the car - as Joey said, "That is what we have insurance for." Since we were returning from vacation, I so conveniently had our camera in my purse so I got a pictures of the damage. As you can see, the back is much worse than the front.

So after the delay from the wreck, we continued to Snyder and made it safely in the damaged car!