One of our priorities whenever we are in Florida is to spend some time with our niece, Robin, and her kids, Destiny and Jeremiah. This year and last year had the added benefit that Pat’s brother and sister rented a house near Robin for a month so we get to see even more family!

We stayed at the Bay Bayou RV Resort near Oldsmar. This is a nice park, well maintained, and with the added benefit that it is close to Robin’s apartment. There are nice routes for cycling and walking from the park as well as a convenient kayak launch.

One of our first activities was to drive to Lakeland to watch the Detroit Tigers at Spring Training. I can’t remember the last time I was at a major league baseball game. I think the Tigers have some work to do to be ready for the regular season; we were disappointed that they didn’t give us the win we were all hoping for. An added bonus was meeting one of my old National Guard buddies. You just never know who you will run into these days.

The next day we headed to the beach on Honeymoon Island. What else would a bunch of refugees from a cold Michigan winter want to do but soak up some sun! It was nice to hang out, wade in the Gulf of Mexico, and toss a Frisbee around. The sunset was great, but the afterglow was outstanding!

Jeremiah is very much into sports, especially football. Even though he is in Sixth Grade he already plans to play in the NFL! We were fortunate that he had a game on Saturday and the whole family was able to watch him play and cheer him on. He is really quite good and plays hard to support his team.

Last year we went to the horse races at Tampa Bay Downs and enjoyed it so much we went back again this year. Admission is only $3 on the weekends and free during the week. The program gives you all of the races and which horses the odds makers have favored to win. The problem is if you bet on the favorite you don’t make much profit from your bet and if you don’t bet on the favorite you increase you potential profit, but also increase your chances of loosing. However, the minimum bet is only $2, so you can have a lot of fun taking a small chance. It makes for a reasonably inexpensive entertaining afternoon.

While we were busying doing all of this, we filled in the gaps with going out to dinner. We ate at some great restaurants, but our best meals were the ones we prepared for each other at the house.

Our time together was fun and ended too soon. Sunday, March 16^th we headed up the road on our way to Pensacola.