Monthly Archives: March 2013

Truly paradise that I live in.

Last year I moved to Florida on April 1st. This was rather disheartening because I love watching Indy Races and I had just missed the Grand Prix of Saint Petersburg by one week. Even worse, I didn’t get a chance to go to either the Kentucky Speedway or the Indianapolis Motor Speedway like I had in previous years. So when Leslie told me she bought us tickets to the races for my birthday I became super ecstatic.

The Grand Prix actually sets up shop along the coast of the bay through the streets of Saint Petersburg. To describe this as exciting is an understatement. Even more so, the track runs next to building of my employment and even through our parking lot. While this does become a burden, due to the fact that we had to park three blocks away and make a trek every morning, it was definitely worth every second. The best part is the fact that the track actually runs through my parking spot. (Each day when I am one of the last to the leave the lot I like to pretend I am an Indy Car Driver…maybe one day).

The week before the race actually kicks off is insane. Downtown becomes a mess and the cars are running their practice laps and qualifiers. Yachts from all over come to park along the shore for a fun filled weekend and for me that really adds to the beauty of it all. Friday before the races I wasn’t able to get any work done. The cars were roaring right outside my window and I was as excited as ever.

Leslie forgot her earplugs

Come Saturday we realized that this race track wasn’t like most racetracks. Since the Grand Prix was a road course views were limited. Even worse, we found out that our seats were General Admission only and that didn’t provide any actual seating. This didn’t stop us from having a good time though as we were able to find a nice grassy spot to post up at thanks to the recommendation of one of my former roommates.

My Sophomore year of college I had a roommate, Ben, hellbent on making a name for himself in the racing world. Like me he was an engineer but his focus was on mechanical engineering. The gods truly blessed him as he has now succeeded at getting his foot in the door and is an engineer for one of the drivers in the Indy Racing League. My current roommate and I actually went out to eat dinner with Ben a few nights before the race and by chance randomly sat at the table next to his driver, Ed Carpenter, which was pretty freaking cool.

Since my office is literally right next to the track, my company has a Race Day party every year in the conference room. The conference room is super awesome because it basically looks down on the entire track. As such, I took the opportunity to make my non-work related appearance at one point during the day.

Once we got home and I realized my neck was flamingo pink I could officially say the day was an overall success. I am superglad I had a girlfriend amazing enough the bear through the masculine day of motorsports with me.

One day in early January, a co-worker was making her rounds through the office asking for volunteers for the Pub Crawl. What’s a pub crawl you ask? The pub crawl is where you pay $30 bucks, and get to bar hop between five bars in downtown Saint Pete for four hours.

A picture of a co-worker. He doesn’t know its posted here, but the skyline in the background makes it my best photo from the day.

This is exceptionally awesome because downtown Saint Pete is packed with nothing but bar after bar with beautiful Florida views in the background. There’s not a lot to this post really. I am only posting it simply for the fact that I wish my readers to visit the bars of downtown Saint Pete at some point (and if you can day drink during this experience it will only add to the value of the adventure).

We started the day at Cafe Alma. A quiet little restaurant in the basement of one Saint Pete’s downtown buildings. Apparently it was decided that all the volunteers from the company should meet at a breakfast location so that we could line our stomachs.

This is how the day started out.

It slowly crept to this.

And finally the day started looking like this.

I was hoping to save a place like Busch Gardens for the middle of summer when tourist season is in full stride, lines would be huge and muffin tops will be moist with sweat and exposed for all to see. Instead I chose the coldest day of the year to go to Busch Gardens. It just so happened to also be my birthday.

But there was a reason for the date that was chosen. The Goo Goo Dolls, arguably one of the best pop rock bands of the 90’s was playing a concert. It just also happened that Leslie had mentioned that the Goo Goo Dolls happened to be one of her favorite bands. Being horrible at giving Valentine’s Day gifts, I saw this the prime solution.

Unfortunately, the website didn’t tell me until after I purchased the VIP tickets that admission to the park was not included. Ok, no big deal, or so I thought. We are both Florida residents and they probably give good discounts at the door. I was wrong. To get into Busch Gardens it is $85 American Dollars. FOR ONE PERSON. Highway robbery. Never have I ever paid so much to gain admission to an amusement park. And today would not be that day either. Leslie came through in the clutch with her Active Duty Military Discount. Awesome.

I haven’t been to Busch Gardens since I was a little kid but the one thing I remember were the giraffes. So it was my obligation for this adventure to make sure that we saw the giraffes. To be honest, I was let down. You can only get so close to the giraffes unless you pay extra for one of the guided tours. So I was kind of saddened.

This inner-melancholy was quickly relieved when I found one of my other top favorite animals of the animal kingdom…The Flamingo.

One thing I did learn during this adventure was that each Busch Gardens has a particular them. The one in Tampa is Africa. This for some reason never clicked with me. I just always assumed that it was warm in Florida and therefore the Busch Gardens in Tampa had an African themed zoo. Who knew?

So in addition to the concert, this particular day was also a barbecue beer festival going on with unlimited beer sampling. What a great birthday! There’s one thing for certain with beer. Even on the coldest day in the Sunshine state, thousands of people will line up for unlimited beer. We were only able to snag two beers before it was time for the show.

I didn’t know my $30 VIP tickets were going to get us four rows back from the stage, but it very well could have been one of my life’s best purchases. The show was super phenomenal at such a close sight. I suppose The Goo Goo Dolls are past their prime and forced to only play shows at carnivals, state fairs and amusement parks but whatever, I’ll take it.

To close off one of my favorite birthday’s in my quarter century I was given an awesome gift. When thrown into the crowd, the wind guided the guitar pick perfectly four rows over the crowd and right into my hands. It was at this point I decided the day was a complete success!