West Coast is Still the Best Coast

Even though football season can be long (and cold), this year we had a trip to Tampa to play University of South Florida.  I gladly turned this Friday night game into an extended weekend in the sun.  But then Hurricane Irma happened.  Luckily, Irma chilled out before she got to Tampa. 

For me, the week before the game was definitely filled with anxious energy because I either had four days of Florida sunshine or a cancelled trip which meant a weekend in Champaign.  Not that it's a hard choice, but if you know anything about Champaign, you'd also rather be in Tampa. 

Brian ended up staying in Tampa with me through Sunday.  Since the game was on Friday night, we had all day of Saturday to just relax.  

First, we went to one of our favorite grocery stores, Publix.  It sounds odd, but Publix makes THE BEST sub sandwiches in this entire world.  Brian introduced me to Publix on our trip to Fort Lauderdale back in May and I will never go to Florida again without eating Publix sandwiches. 

Then we ate a late breakfast in Clearwater before heading to the beach for the entire day...armed with our sandwiches, a good book, and sunscreen that we didn't use.

I did learn a lesson the hard way on this trip...I definitely should have packed gear that had NOTHING to do with Illinois football...especially when the guy you're with clearly looks like he has something to do with the football life.  The Chicago Bears were playing the Tampa Bay Bucs that same weekend so all kinds of Illinois/Chicago Bears fans had flocked to Tampa and they ALL had something to say to Brian.  

(Brian, I promise I'll go more incognito next time!)

I had been to the east coast of Florida twice before this trip to Tampa (the west coast), one trip in college and one trip with Brian.  While it's all beautiful, the east coast of Florida is a little too uppity or superficial for me.  However...that west coast life is straight up midwest living on the beach.  The people around us were definitely good eaters (if you get what I'm saying), rich rednecks there for a good time, and overall just laid back people. 

So maybe we took a bottle of Tito's with us too.  And maybe that bottle had something to do with forgetting to use the sunscreen.  And maybe it led us to a bar on the beach where we drank fruity drinks and ate everything on the menu.  Either way, the west coast of Florida definitely won me over.