Last Weekend in February

Wayne was scheduled to sing with his chorus, Una Voce, at the Winter Pride Festival in Al Lopez Park in Tampa on Saturday morning. The weather forecast was not too promising. When we got there it was overcast, but no rain yet.

We parked in the field east of Raymond James Stadium. Home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and walked across the street and thru the park to the area where the event was taking place.

Spring Home of Yankees, Legends Field . . . This is across the street from Raymond James Stadium.

Around noon the sky opened up and there was a torrential downpour with lightning and thunder. The performance was cancelled and as the rain continued and as the ground began to be covered in water, everyone began to pack up.

Cute, but I wonder how this little fella really felt?

Before the storm hit.

There's about an inch or two of water on the ground.

We were walking back thru the park to get to our car, when this panel truck pulled along side and this woman asked us . . . "Want a lift to the parking lot?" We were soaked, so we said sure. She said (in a gruff voice) "Hop in the back!" We rounded the truck and opened the side door and climbed in. It was an empty truck, with only windows in the back doors and a cage blocking the front seats from the back. As we shut the door we looked at each other, both thinking..."we're going to be driven somewhere and hacked up!" Fortunately, that was unfounded. But, unfortunately, this woman had no idea where she was going. She drove around to this intersection and said this is where we should probably get out and just cross the street to our car. As we exited the cab, we noticed that we were actually back on the other side of the event area and even farther from our car from when we started. As we were again walking to the car, some of the others from the chorus we passing us, saying, "We thought you left a while ago?" "It's a looooong story..."

Later that night we were to meet some of Wayne's co-workers to celebrate some of their birthdays. We had dinner reservations at the Gallery Eclectic Bistro in the Bay Street area of the International Plaza in Tampa.

Pineapple Mango Salmon..... YUM!

Wayne and me.

James and Milena. Milena is one of the celebrants. She is from Colombia.

It was a fun night. There were about 15 in the party. This is Milena, Sylvia and Dema. Dema is from Jordan and is expecting her first child in less than a month. Cynthia (not pictured) moved to Tampa Bay area from New Orleans after Katrina hit. It was fun talking with people from such different backgrounds.

A shared Fried Cheesecake...