BRIO Tuscan Grille at Intl Plaza's Bay Street
What a beautiful place--just too bad my food this evening wasnt as beautiful. Brand new at Internaitonal Plaza's BayStreet, they did a great job renovating the old 'pizza' place that used to be here. Ample outdoor covered dining, white curtains, a nice large bar that extends from inside to outside...HUGE high ceilings, looked very 'Cheesecake Factory" like with a bit of Tuscany thrown in...ok, now onto the food...we were greeted by very friendly hostesses, and the service was impeccable, obviously these servers(very very corporate, chain like, almost like robots, making sure they dont forget to upsell

Guavaween Weekend - 2009
The weekend started Friday with a victorious win from the USF Bulls over West Virginia...met up with a bunch of Alumni in Lot 4(we parked at the Westshore Marriott, and took a cab to the stadium...they offered the shuttle, but it seemed the Westshore Marriott was the home base for all the WVU fans, so we cabbed it it there)...it was great seeing so many people, the game was excellent! Leaving the stadium we ran into the Marriott Shuttle on Dale Mabry, and just decided to get a ride back in the shuttle...with ALL THE WVU fans! Last stop was the Green Iguana Westshore for some

Wat Mongkolratanaram - Tampa Buddhist Temple Sunday Brunch
I finally made it to this amazing Sunday Brunch along the Palm River in Tampa. Wat Mongkolratanaram is a Buddhist Temple located off Palm River Road, just east of 50th Street. It was a picture perfect day,. with cooler temps, and sunny skies. Arriving there around 1230(the brunch runs form 10am to 1pm, but we still saw them cooking at 2pm), it wasn't to crowded, there was a line for the soups and pad thai/main dishes, but other than that, we were free to roam around and explore.We tried nearly every

Going 'Green' with the Tampa Bay Lightning
Thursday evening was 'Go Green' night with the Tampa Bay Lightning Hockey team...they were promoting green awareness, powering the Forum with renewable energy the entire night, recycling all plastics/aluminium, etc. And if you rode your bicycle, you received a free ticket to the game, OR if you brought a phone book to be recycled you received a ticket for $5. Soooo, a few of us rode our bikes, and getting onto the Forum Plaza, there was an area set aside for Bike Parking where someone watched them all evening, and we were each handed a great seat to the game. In addition, City Bike Tampa gave anyone with a bik

USF Bulls > Cinebistro > Kayak >Pops in the Park > Bike > Stone Crabs and Jazz
Wow, I love this time of year, weather gets cooler, and something is going on!!Thursday evening went to the USF Bulls vs Cincinnati Bearcats nationally televised football game for Big East Conference dominance....It was a great game, but the #8 ranked Bearcats dominated the second half and beat the Bulls 34-17 in front of almost 65,000 fans. We arrived about an hour before the game, easily parking in the #10 lot on the corner of Himes and Columbus...met lots of other alumni in the game.Friday was the Grand Opening of a new movie watching