tampa bay days

 The rest of our time in Tampa was spent making the most of “local” food and shops i’m not gonna lie. I always said I wouldn’t necessarily want to live in a city but the pure convenience of being able to drive less than 5 minutes and be able to find almost anything you want/need is a luxury I could learn to live with!

We decided we wanted to use our Busch Gardens passes a few more times before we had to leave so we made the executive decision to arrive past opening time on a sunday before all the Tampa schools were due to start back from the summer. The cars backed all the way up and we decided that actually we didn’t want to spend the day there and it be so crowded so we went to Tampa outlets. I may have made an exciting purchase- a kate spade handbag which due to back to school deals and no sales tax that weekend ended up costing around £200 less than it should have done!

Monday we ventured back to Busch gardens which was a lot less busy. We rode all the rollercoasters again and spent a whole looking at the animals in the africa section I liked watching the hippo swim I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that before! The weather held out for most of the day too which meant they didn’t shut the rides until only a couple of hours before closing. We also watched the ice skating show and the acrobatic show which were pretty good as well as just being a relief from the heat outside!Tuesday we didn’t make plans til last minute to visit tarpon springs and the sponge docks. As soon as we left to get food the heavens opened and it poured down for pretty much the rest of the day so we didn’t fancy it and instead explored the dollar tree for more things for my classroom and then we spent too much time and money in target again! Later that night we took Baba to Twistee treats for some of the best soft serve ice cream!

The final couple of days we spend at Busch Gardens waterpark called Adventure Island which was on the smaller side compared to the Orlando ones but we still had fun. I even braved the drop slide!! We also went back over to Busch Gardens but this time we took Andrews brother John so we rode all the rollercoasters again with him. We also went into some more animal enclosures like the kangaroos and aviaries and finished the trip with train ride which took us to see the rhinos, zebras and giraffes. 

On the final morning we all went back out for a nice breakfast together. Baba and I got the strawberry french toast and she loved it! We finished packing up our things, said our goodbyes and promised it wouldn’t be so long before we came back next time. 

Now just for the 10 hour drive to our next stop: New Orleans!