It was only a short 20-minute drive to our destination which we found very easily. The meeting places for these Segway tours are always quite strange and today was a locked-up Pub a few blocks back from the marina area.
There was a parking area but it only offered a daily rate of $15 which I felt was too much. I moved it to a parking meter slot on the road which offered a charge of $1.50 per hour which was better, until I realised that you could stay in the slot for a maximum 2 hours. As we were early, we decided to drive round a couple of blocks to see alternatives and found a multi-story car park offering a daily rate for $6 and I was happier with that.
By now Karen needed a coffee so we walked to a nearby Starbucks to replan our morning. I discovered there was a large market taking place next to the Rowdies Stadium so we headed walking off in that direction. Normally these markets I find a bit meh, but this was large, noisy with a band playing, bustling and full of people. There were loads of interesting stalls selling all sorts of things from fruit we didn’t recognise to Kimchi and hats for dogs. It was obviously a big weekly event for locals and many had brought their dogs with them (some of which looked very dapper in their new hats).
We had a peek into the open Rowdies Stadium and saw a few people training on their pitch, but nowhere did it say that it was Tampa time.
Then we decided to walk along the marina to the pier area. The weather was perfect and within that small window of what Karen deems to be hot but not too hot. Even more pleasingly was that my knee was behaving itself today after causing some issues the day before. I was wearing a compression knee brace and the pain was bearable providing I didn’t try to push it.
