We had one more chance today to do some sightseeing before we head for home on Thursday. We decided to visit the Dunedin Historical Museum this morning then head over to Ybor City on the northern edge of downtown Tampa and have lunch at the original Columbia (Spanish) Restaurant. The plan after lunch was to then take the trolley into downtown Tampa and tour the American Victory, a WW II Liberty Ship docked in the pier area next to the Tampa Aquarium that we had visited earlier in the trip.
Alas, the historical museum was closed on Monday so we drove directly over to Ybor City for lunch. Ybor is a historical district that was once the center of the Cuban cigar industry in America. The city is now kind of an entertainment, restaurant, shopping area that is a nightlife destination and tourist attraction. There is also a very nice museum and replicas of area worker housing that we visited on our previous trip in 2012.
We had another great lunch at the Columbia Restaurant. This is the original restaurant, opened in 1905 and still very popular. The Spanish food menu is the same as we had earlier in the trip at one their other restaurants at Sand Key, south of Clearwater Beach .
Although it began to rain pretty good after lunch as forecast, we decided to still take the trolley and tour the liberty ship. The trolley is an electric trolley on rails with stops along the way between downtown Tampa and back to Ybor City.
The liberty ship tour was O.K. and might have been better if it wasn't raining. It is one of the last operating liberty ships and takes periodic 4 hour cruises around the bay to raise funds for keeping it operational. There was also a large Royal Caribbean cruise liner docked nearby. Tampa is an active cruise ship departure port and regularly schedules cruises to Caribbean and Mexican destinations.
After the tour, we took to trolley back to Ybor City and navigated rush hour traffic in the rain back to the condo. Judy cooked hamburgers for dinner tonight. We're meeting Eileen and her family tomorrow in Tampa and having dinner with them prior to the Phillies - Yankees game there. We are also going to start getting organized for the trip back to CA and maybe tour the Dunedin Historical Museum if we have time. There is a game on Wednesday and we leave on Thursday. It has been fun but we are ready to come home.
Day 28 Pictures
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