Fun Nursery

On the way home from Miss Lillie and Miss Lulu's dance classes, we stopped by this really fun nursery.  I mean, who has such props for pictures at a nursery?  Not only did we plopped the little girls into the funny car, Melanie found several of the pink, Fall plants she was looking for, for her flower garden.  (she was going back later on without the girls to buy them) 

Lillie and Lulu's Dance



Two sweet little girls going to dance.



Little Miss Lulu and Marmie



Lady Melanie and Lulu picked me up at the Birmingham airport, Tuesday morning.  Miss Lillie was at Nursery School for the morning so we stopped at a few of my favorite stores that we don't have in Decatur.  It was a fun two day stay at Carmichael Hall which included a wonderful, relaxing dinner at " The Club" on top of the mountain, over looking down town Birmingham at dusk, with all the beautiful lights twinkling every where you looked.  I told Lady Melanie that I felt like we were the " Rich and Famous", eating the best meal that I had had in a very long time with a glass of wine to go with it.  The views were just breath taking to go along with it all.  (Thank you Kellet/Josh for letting us use your card...it was the best!!)  I got to tag along to watch the sweetest little girls enjoy their dance lessons on Wednesday morning.  What memories I had brought back to me from 29 years ago! Day in and day out at the dance studio.  All the costumes, tap, ballet, jazz and clogging shoes and competitions!  I wouldn't trade a minute of any of it.  Thank you Miss Lulu and Miss Lillie for bringing back those fun memories for me. 

Secret Shoppers at IKEA



peeking behind the curtains



Look what we found behind the curtains!!!



secret stuff we found



Christmas at IKEA!



Not only did Shell and I walk around Tampa for hours and hours but we went to IKEA and walked around for another couple of hours.  I kept telling her how the IKEA in Atlanta was so much bigger and they had a lot more neat stuff.  She kept saying that something was wrong, because the store used to be bigger.  We noticed that there were all these big, white curtains, held together with black clips.  Well, we went snooping and looked behind one of the curtains.  There it was!!!  All the stuff we were looking for...behind the curtain!  Shell grabbed one of the IKEA workers of many, walking around the store and asked why the curtains were up.  She said they were remodeling and it wouldn't be done until Nov.  When we told her I wanted a tray that we saw behind the curtain, she went back there and brought two trays out for me to pick from.  We thanked her over and over and when she left, I became the " look out person" for IKEA people and Shell slipped behind the curtain to shop.  We got so tickled because you could hear Shell's feet pitter patter on the floor when she ran around behind the curtain, looking for things that we wanted.  After Shell located several things, we decided we had better stop before our luck changed and we got caught.  We laughed over and over about our secret shopping trip to IKEA.  It will be one that we remember forever!

Characters around Tampa



Free ranging Ybor Chickens



Mayor Grecco



Nasty hand rolled cigars



Cigar rollers



HOW!



Local Cuban




Read this....right there!

 

Three silly women and one guy ignoring them. 



HELP!!!!!

 

Who knew there were so many fun things to take pictures of in down town Tampa!  Not me!  My whole life I lived in Florida and I never went to Tampa unless I had too.  When Shell was little, she thought no one actually lived in Tampa, they just worked there because that's where her Daddy worked...in a huge, tall, glass building. We moved Shell to Tampa to go to USF and she liked living over there, so she stayed.   Now she knows where all the fun places are and takes advantage of them all.    

Fun in the Vintage Shop

1960's? 

How about an $85 Fascinator



Hollywood babes?



Shell's Moulton Library Tea Party Hat!



What a FUN store!!!!

On our walk through Ybor City, we came across this really fun vintage store to play in.  Play is all we could do because everything was so dang expensive!  I remembered being in this store, years ago with my friend Karen.  (I miss her so much) She was a fun person to " play with".  We used to take all these funny pictures when we were in High School.  Oh yeah...back to Ybor City.  Too bad the hats cost so much.  Shell found several that she would like to wear to the annual "Moulton Library Mother/Daughter Tea Party" in May.  It's always the Saturday before Mother's Day and she's going to be here for them all!!

Buildings of Tampa



Ybor City





Tampa Bay Times Forum



The U. of Tampa



The Trolley Building





The Beer Can





The Children's Museum



Of all the years that Chuck worked in down town Tampa, I never walked around there as much as Shell and I did on Saturday.  Of course some of it was new, like the Curtis Hixon Park with the fountains and the Children's Museum.  It was really neat getting to see it all but I would never want to work or live in a big city.  Give me my little home town of four thousand people and my house in the middle of the woods any time. 

Trolley Rides

Cathie invited Shell and I to join her and Susan to a photo shoot in down town Tampa, on the Saturday that I was in Florida.  Not only was I glad to get to spend some time with Cathie and meet Susan, who I felt like I had known forever, but what a fun time we all had all afternoon.  We got to ride the trolleys from point to point in Tampa but we really got a lot of walking in also.  We took tons of fun photos to add to our memories.  It was really a great day!!