Why is the University of South Florida in Tampa?? It's not even in the southern half of Florida.

After Sarasota, I (counterintuitively) went back north to Tampa. I took the scenic route over the skyway bridge at April's suggestion. 

Five miles of the skyway bridge provides panoramic views of Tampa Bay. To answer the question I’m sure all of you are asking, no, you are not allowed to camp at the bridge fishing piers.

In Tampa, I met up with my friend, Jeremy, who I met at camp last summer. 

Jeremy is finishing up his junior year at USF, where he’s double majoring in Finance and French with a minor in Insurance and Risk Management. He’s not sure what he wants to do when he graduates, but he is sure that it won’t entail insurance or risk management. He’s done enough of those to realize it ain’t for him, but the minor sponsors some awesome free trips (this summer to Germany, next winter to London), so he’s decided it’s worth keeping the minor. Outside of class, he’s in the French Club and the Risk Management & Insurance Fraternity (yes, apparently that is a thing). He also regularly has wildly vivid dreams - to the point that him and I talked about starting an amateur dream interpretation podcast last summer - but that’s a topic for another blog post. Jeremy grew up in the Tampa area as the middle of 3 children. His dad works as a lawyer for the electric company and his mom was an engineer in the Air Force before deciding to homeschool the kids after being unimpressed with what Jeremy’s older brother was learning in the 3rd grade. On the whole, Jeremy feels like being homeschooled worked out in his favor. It let him get way ahead of his peers and begin taking college course in high school. He got far enough ahead that he came into college with 60 credits and was able to double major and minor. He’s not sure if he wants to stay in Tampa after graduating, but he does know that he doesn’t want to spend summers in Florida (he’s managed to find a way to be somewhere else for the past 13 summers). 

Jeremy and I grabbed a bite to eat at Armature Works before a long hike on the river walk. 

Armature Works is an interesting park/communal space in Tampa. A restaurant incubator, a lawn for movie screenings, and the parks along the river walk make it a popular gathering place. 

Armature Works ... From a distance

A heron in a spring next to the river

The river walk and some new high rise construction

Because it couldn't be South Florida without neon purple lights

I think Jeremy said this was a super exclusive private school that costs more than most colleges

Jeremy's church as seen from across the river

The hockey arena where the Tampa Bay Lightning play

I think this was/is town hall

Like I said, it was a long walk/city tour

When I first arrived in Tampa, I was figuring I'd either camp or stay with a different friend who I was waiting to hear back from (Jeremy's roommate was deathly ill and not in a place to have guests over). I'd seen a bunch of campsites on the map, but the options quickly began dropping like flies as I determined that every campsite in a 45 minute radius either a.) didn't exist, b.) was closed, or c.) was completely booked. This was a surprise to me as it was a Sunday night and I’d had no issues with campsite availability anywhere else in the US so far. As the situation became increasingly hopeless, I began taking more drastic measures ... like calling the nude campground 25 minutes north of Tampa (turns out they need 24 hours notice to run a background check). Just when it looked like I was gonna have to bite the bullet and illegally squat at a campground or even worse, book a cheap hotel room, Jeremy came to my rescue, letting me know that he was gonna stay at his parents' place and that I could crash there too. Crisis averted.  

The next morning, I did some more exploring in Tampa. 

Ballast Point Park - Apparently they put a bunch of these thingy-ma-bobs on the bottom of the bay for oysters to adhere to.

The Tampa skyline as seen from Ballast Point Park

A friendly snowy egret. Yeah, I've learned my crane species inside and out after spending the past month in Florida. 

The beautiful bayshore. Yes, that is its official name. 

Tampa, as seen from the beautiful bayshore

After getting my steps in on the beautiful bayshore, I headed over to Ybor City at Jeremy's suggestion. Ybor City is the historic Cuban neighborhood of Tampa and is home to the world famous Columbia Restaurant (don't be fooled, it's Cuban, not Colombian).

The flagship Columbia restaurant is massive; it's grown to a full city block with 14 separate dining rooms. It's rumored to be the birthplace of the Cuban sandwich. 

At the suggestion of my bartender, Carlamarie (left edge of photo), I got the unofficial Columia trio: the original Cuban sandwich (1915 recipe), the Columbia salad (Carlamarie claimed people come from around the world to try this dish), and Cuban bean soup. All were fantastic; Columbia is a must see if you stop in Tampa. Carlamarie used to work in alcohol marketing/sales but got burnt out on the corporate grind. She initially got into bartending because she liked making drinks and enjoyed meeting people. Working at one of Columbia’s other locations, she soon found that with tips she was making comparable money to her corporate job along with solid benefits. After a few years at the other location, she got the call up to the big leagues at the original/flagship location. At first she said the sheer scale of it -100+ staff and 14 dining rooms - was intimidating, but she's since found her footing and loves her job.

We need more Cuban food in Ohio, 

Food Critic Kev