Tampa

From Gatorland, I went straight to the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center for load-in.  The PAC is a big, modern facility with plenty of room for everything and everybody.  We've shortened our load-in schedule a bit in recent weeks; instead of a 1 o'clock start for the whole crew, everybody comes in at 6 PM for an average load-in.  While the change is good, financially, for the presenters, it has the bonus effect of meaning everyone can get a bit more sleep.  My load-in duties were done pretty quickly and I spent much of the evening regaling everyone with what it was like to hold an alligator.  

The Tampa Bay PAC sits on the Hillsborough River

For the Tampa engagement, I shared another Vacation Rental house.  Paula, Gurr, Suzanne and I lived a ways out of town in a 4 bedroom house with a big screened-in "Florida Room" in back.  The house was in Riverview, FL - and while it did not feature a view of any rivers, we did have a pond replete with wildlife.  All manner of birds could be seen swimming about and stalking the waters edge.  There was even a resident alligator!

Several Great Blue Herons (as well as their smaller cousins, the aptly named Little Blue Heron) waded around the pond's edges looking for a snack

This White Ibis was more adventurous, coming right up into the yard for a meal - a Ibis even wandered into the screened-in pool area.  Gurr had a time persuading it to go back out the door, while Paula restrained the dogs.

I saw this gator on a walk through the neighborhood park - we eyed each other and both decided to stay where we were...

Tampa was a busy city for comings and goings.  Callie Carter rejoined the touring Spamily.  She left us way back in Seattle to return to her husband and NYC.  Since then, she was recruited to the Broadway company, took over as their Dance Captain and was part of the closing night cast. Before she had even arrived, Callie picked right back up where she left off; I got an email inquiring if there was any roadfood in Tampa!  (Indeed, there was some great Roadfood - Ken tagged along and the three of us enjoyed some tasty Cuban cuisine between shows on Thursday.)  Callie came back to us as part of an elaborate plan to cover the departure of two of our girls: Candy and Angelina.  Candy is off to LA to work on an opera and Angelina is headed to Broadway as a swing for West Side Story.  

Of course, the departure of our beloved Muffins was a reason for a party!  Angelina has always been one of our "Let's get dressed up and go out!" girls (see my pictures from the New Year's party), so a pizza and beer sort of affair would never do for her farewell.  Instead, we headed to a more swank establishment, The Blue Martini.  The house band was great and got most of us out on the dance floor - and when the Spamalot girls head to the dance floor, they can draw a crowd (which is, I suspect, just how they like it!).  Those of us who weren't dancing, relaxed out on the patio.  It was a fun night in celebration of one of the most fun girls.

 

Francesca snapped some backstage photos of Angelina & Candy's last show.  Here they are getting ready for the infamous "Hump Circle" that welcomes each new cast member to the show and also sends them on their way to their last performance.

Ang and Nigel during the finale - Nigel surprised her and swung out her partner for the number

When the show played Florida last spring, I tried - and failed - to see a manatee.  This time around, I was determined to make it happen.  Months before we arrived, Angela emailed me about a day trip to Homosassa Springs to see the gentle giants up close.  So, Wednesday morning I was out of bed and in the car first thing in the morning for the drive up to Homosassa Springs.  At 8:30, I was squeezing myself into a wet suit and boarding a pontoon boat.  A short while later, I was floating in the waters of Homosassa River face to face with Florida Manatees.

Angela brought along her underwater camera!

I've done a lot of really cool stuff on this tour, but swimming with the manatees is certainly among the coolest.  

We were near the headwaters of river where the warm (being a relative term) waters of the Homosassa Spring bubble up.  The manatees hang out near the spring in the winter months to keep warm and conserve energy.  The area is protected habitat: there are manatee haven areas where people are not allowed to bother the giants and a crew of volunteers was on hand to make sure we all followed the rules of engagement.  In other areas of Florida, it's a crime to touch or bother the manatees; but in this one county, the state has established guidelines for human/manatee interaction.  

The manatees were quite friendly.  They would swim right up to us (one even nudged me from behind when I didn't see it coming).  They didn't mind being petted, many wanted to be scratched. They would roll over onto their backs, inviting us to scratch their enormous tummies.

  

Encountering these creatures in their world was amazing.  They are huge - like big, swimming refrigerators - but absolutely benign.  They simply aren't equipped to hurt you.  They're slow, but quite graceful; especially when compared to me splashing around and trying to remember I'm breathing through a snorkel.  They're so slow paced, in fact, that their backs are covered in a layer of algae!  Their skin is much like that of their closest living relative: the elephant.  They're, surprisingly, not soft feeling at all - their skin is sort of heavy feeling and they don't feel soft and fatty, rather very dense.  They also have long hairs widely spaced all over them, which I wasn't expecting at all.  They have "fingernails" on the ends of their front flippers - again, sort of elephant-like.

The manatees were very sociable.  A pair of them played with Angela, Katie and I for the last 20 minutes or so that we were in the water.  The mother and calf circled us rolling over for scratches and coming in for nose to nose encounters.  It was an amazing morning.

The other much anticipated event of the week came at the very end.  With a mid-week matinee and the long trek for the trucks to Austin, we closed on a Sunday matinee leaving the evening free.  Tampa is home to the justly famous Bern's Steakhouse.  I joined the tour shortly after they played Tampa the first time, and for two years I have been hearing from Karl how much I would enjoy Bern's and how sorry he is that I wasn't there the first time.  I couldn't let a golden opportunity like a Sunday night off get past - I made us a reservation.  

Six of us (Karl, Wayne, Ben Whitely, Gurr, DVZ and myself) spent five hours feasting.  Granted, the first hour was mostly spent in conversation at the fabulously bordello-like bar as we waited for dilatory Karl - but that still meant we were at the table for a marathon four hours.  And what a four hours they were!  My meal included oyster beignets (oysters dipped in light beignet batter, fried, and returned to their shells with a creamy, herbed sauce and bacon), a trio of soups (french onion, lobster bisque and vichyssoise), salad, baked potato, fresh green beans, hash browns and a perfect Delmonico.  All of this was accompanied by wine from Bern's cellar of more than half a million bottles.  After our steaks, our waitress (who was AWESOME) took us on a tour of the kitchen and the wine cellar en route to the dessert room.  Yep - there's an entire other facility for the consuming of dessert and after dinner drinks.  There I capped off the experience with some calvados and a vanilla soufflé. We all staggered out into the night at midnight to pack our suitcases for Austin.  I paid for the experience the next morning when I had to leave for the airport at 5AM, but I loved every second.

Tampa and Melbourne were a much more pleasant Florida experience than the six weeks we spent in the Sunshine State last spring.  The sunny weather went a long way toward brightening everyone's spirits, even if we didn't get to wear shorts every day.  I welcomed spring with some baseball (hopefully enough to tide me over until the middle of May when we intersect with a home game again).  I encountered all manner of Florida wildlife (Westfall and otherwise) and I got to put my toes in the ocean!  A very pleasant spring break.

JV