Maremy's Blog

Day 7 was our last full day in Florida.

I ended up going for my morning run early since we were going to Tampa with Marty & Karen. We left for Tampa around 9:30. Our first stop was the International Plaza. This is a very new, very posh mall in Tampa. It is VERY nice! We had brunch at a restaurant called "Too Jays" and it was very good! I veggie wrap I had there was one of the best ones I've ever had.

After brunch, we wandered around International Plaza. We went into a few places while we were. I went into this tea store called "Teavana" and it was the BEST store I have ever been in. They were having a major "end-of-year" sale and I picked up a beautiful tea pot with four small tea cups for 50% off. I also managed to find the bamboo whisk for making matcha tea (I have it a couple times a day) as well as a bowl to whisk the matcha in. Yes, I'm a bit hard core when it comes to tea. ;)

We also went into the Apple Store while we were at International Plaza. Now that was cool! Believe me, both Jeremy and I were uber-impressed with the Apple store (are you surprised I was ;) ). On a side note, when I was looking at purchasing a new laptop a few months ago, I was seriously considering a Macbook BUT they were a little bit out of my price range (hence the reason I purchased the HP laptop, which I am still very happy with!). I got my first close up look at the Macbook Air, which was very cool.

After International Plaza, it was off to Whole Foods. This is a chain grocery store that specializes in organic foods as well as other speciality foods (i.e. gluten free, sugar free, etc). Karen shops in there all the time and I was looking to pick up some coffee (highly recommended by Karen). I picked up three different types of coffee, some different flavoured salts, crackers as well as some organic dark chocolate (my favourite!). They also had a very impressive wine section as well! There are a couple Whole Foods stores in Ontario (one in Oakville and one in Toronto) so I hope to get back to one soon.

After Whole Foods, it was off to Total Wine. The guy I spoke to in there referred to them as being "the Home Depot of wine". Indeed they were! I could have spent quite awhile in there actually! I managed to find a wine I've been looking for for MONTHS and does not seem to be available at the LCBO (surprise, surprise!). It is a Nero D'avola from Sicily.

Our last stop of the day was to this gigantic shoe called DSW! This was the biggest shore store I have ever been in! I bought a new pair of Doc Martens (40% off) and Jeremy got a very cool pair of Tommy Hilfiger slip on shoes (argyle pattern!).

On the way home, Karen drove along gulf shore and we some some incredible houses! We also drove through Ybor, which is a section of Tampa and is very much Cuban. It was really cool and I'd love to go back there sometime!

When we got back, Jeremy and I went to Sam's Club & Wal-Mart to pick up a few things as well as over to Lakeside Village again.

We went on our usual evening stroll (kinda sad, cause it was the last one of our trip!), sat on the lanai for awhile and turned in early (we had a long drive the next day!).