Silver Surfers rocked Ybor City.

The trip to Ybor City was great. We learned a lot of new things. The most important thing that we learned is that the Solivita Silver Surfers don't mess with the timing. The trip was advertised to leave at 12:30 p.m. We got a phone call on Monday reminding us of the trip and telling us to report at 12:15. We arrived on the dot at 12:15 thinking we were right on time, even early. OH NO! The bus was full. We were the last to arrive, and it pulled out at 12:16 as soon as we got on the bus. Hm...then after the museum tour, we had a few hours on our own before our 6 p.m. dinner reservation at the Columbia. We were told we could meet back at the museum at 5:45 and walk together the four blocks to the restaurant or just show up at the restaurant. We decided just to show up and got there at 5:45, again thinking we were early. WRONG AGAIN! We walked in at 5:45 and found our three long tables completely filled. Once again, we were the last to arrive. Fortunately the leader, who knew we were rookies, had saved us two seats next to her and her husband. We should have known because we go to the Thursday night movies almost every week, and they start on the dot at 7 p.m. Obviously, Solivita does not operate on Jewish time! LOL

We also learned the history of Ybor City, a company town for the cigar industry. Spaniard, Vicentes Martinez Ybor, left Spain at age 14 to avoid conscription into the army. His parents sent him to Cuba because they felt he was too little for the army. He learned the cigar trade in Cuba. Eventually, he became a successful cigar manufacturer, but he also sympathized with the revolutionaries trying to break away from Spain. He was marked for death as a traitor, so he fled to Key West and set up another cigar factory. This didn't work out for lots of reasons, so he was looking for another place to continue his business. In 1885, he founded Ybor City in the Tampa area and the rest, as they say, was history. We saw a great video in the museum about the Cuban, Spanish, German, Sicilian, and Jewish immigrants who all flocked to Ybor City and the cigar industry. It was one of the first multi-ethnic communities with people of all races and religions working and living side by side. The area is now on the register of historic places, and the museum, plaza, and company house are a state park.

After we finished the tour, we had a few hours on our own. Mark and I love trolley rides, so we walked two blocks and hopped the historic trolley. We rode to the end and back without getting off at any of the dozen stops. The ride goes past the aquarium, the convention center, shopping districts, the cruise terminals, and other locations. It gave us a nice view of a lot of downtown Tampa. When it got to the farthest end of the line, the conductor flipped all the seat backs to face the other way! He then took the controls at the back end of the car, and we retraced our steps. Cool.

Actually it was anything but cool outside. It was 100 in the shade and the humidity felt the same. Walking in my long sleeved shirt was hot, even though I was wearing a spaghetti strap camisole underneath. When we got of the trolley, Mark realized he had forgotten his umbrella back in the museum, so first we went to retrieve it. Then we walked a block to a cozy coffee shop where we had an iced sugar free latte. I also had a small serving of homemade lemon and raspberry sorbetto. So deliciously cooling and refreshing. There was still about an hour left until dinner, so Mark decided to walk about six blocks back to the shopping district to look for people hand rolling cigars. There are still some shops there that do this. I didn't feel like getting sweated up again, and I knew he could do it faster walking by himself. I sat in the coffee shop, ironically drinking a hot coffee to warm up (the A/C was going full blast!), and reading.

The Columbia Restaurant is the oldest restaurant in Florida. It has 1200 seats in over a dozen separate rooms. We were in the room with the stage! After dinner there was a fabulous Flamenco dancing performance. Dinner was also very delicious and included a salad, mahi mahi with citrus salsa, baked yucca (tasted like a potato), fried plantains, and brown rice. We each received a little loaf of hot bread, and dessert was a huge slab of Godiva chocolate cake with chocolate mousse frosting plus delicious hot coffee. Scrumptious. When the show ended at 8, we all promptly boarded the bus for the ninety minute ride home.

It was a wonderful day!

Today we are heading to shul. There is a bar mitzvah, and I'm going to wear one of my new dresses from Kohl's. Later we will go up and do our weight routines.