Tampa - Cousin Taylor's Graduation

David's cousin Taylor graduated high school at the end of May, and a bunch of his family came down to celebrate her accomplishment. We made a few days of it and drove down with David's parents and Aunt Marianne. On the way down to Warner Robins to pick up David's family, we stopped in Macon for dinner and discovered a new video game bar had opened! Fun!

We stopped in downtown Macon on the drive down, and found a video game bar!

After the long drive, we had dinner at David's Uncle Rick and Aunt Terri's house. They recently moved inland from closer to St. Petersburg to a big house in New Port Richey. We went and found some local beer to share from Big Storm Brewing Company (which was hit or miss). On our way to our hotel we had a colorful Florida experience at a local 7-11 in which we also managed to find a terrifying treat. You know...basically, Florida.

What nightmares are made of!

The beer scene is growing in the South - Big Storm Brewing Company

The very next day we went to Busch Gardens for Paul to get his roller coaster fix. The weather was a little sketchy so the park was pretty empty. Score!

First stop - Montu!

Paul's not afraid of Tigers!

The new "Pantopia" section is very colorful and has a fun free-fall tower...

...that Paul was crazy enough to ride!

It was a rainy day but the water rides were still popular.

Bacon pretzels and craft beer! Healthy theme park food.

After hanging out at Busch Gardens for a few hours, we met up with David's cousins (Vegas and Florida crew) in downtown to check out the river-walk and grab some food at the Tampa Pizza Company. More bad weather led us to a video game bar in Ybor City called Game Time for an hour.

Walk along downtown Tampa's riverwalk.

Hmm, these look both look familiar.

Tampa has some nice old buildings in downtown and in Ybor City.

Streetcar in Ybor City - small loop that runs into downtown.

Taylor and Zach sucking up some ghosts in Luigi's Mansion

Paul celebrating one of his many victories in Mario at the Olympics game

Ybor City is really cute with lots of bars and walkable areas

There were chickens all over Ybor City. It was weird.

Tampa's bike share is pretty much identical to Atlanta's, right down to the color scheme.

That evening, we bailed on the family (sorry family!) and went to check out Tarpon Springs. This city has an interesting history focused on the sponge. Basically, the sponge diving industry in Europe was wrecked by a blight and lots of Greek people immigrated to this community, which had the correct conditions for sponges to grow.

Today, Tarpon Springs has the highest percent of people of Greek descent of any American city. It has a touristy waterfront with lots of Greek restaurants. There were even people walking down the streets speaking in Greek. It's pretty odd, but worth a look if you're ever in the neighborhood! We stopped for dinner and treats for the family at Hellas Restaurant and Bakery.

Water in Tampa Bay is like glass!

The Tarpon Springs waterfront.

That's not how sponges work, Paul!

Super cheesy, but pretty good food at Hellas!

Paul's leading a secret double life down in Tarpon Springs!

Taylor's graduation party was on our last full day in Florida. It was great catching up with family and celebrating David's cousin Taylor! Taylor is planning on attending the University of South Florida in the fall.

Congrats cake!

There's a lot going on in this picture to the trained D'Onofrio eye...

After party location at a beach bar!

It's not a D'Onofrio family gathering until these guys start singing!