For Wednesday and Thursday night I stayed at Gram's Place (for a little bit about the place see the pictures and their captions).

I arrived around 7 on Wednesday night at Gram's Place and met a few people. Jake - a 22 year old New Zealander travelling before he begins work. Mike - A 58 year old Floridian (or is it Floridite, perhaps just Floridan?) who had just undergone open heart surgery and was seeking employment in Tampa. John - a 50 something going to school to get his big rig license to become a driver.

The first night was spent cooking some dinner and just hanging out and learning about these interesting people. Jake and I agreed that we would go to the beach in Clearwater tomorrow.

The next morning we went to Clearwater and before going to the beach we stopped at the house that I lived for a year in (I was in pre-school at the time). It was cool to see the house that I had lived in before and the pool that I swam in as a kid (I think I may have learned how to swim there... Parents, can I get a confirmation on that?). It was a very brief stop and then to the beach.

We went to Clearwater beach it was a nice white sand beach that Jake and I spent some time throwing the frisbee around, hanging out, and talking. Jake is done with all of his requirements for school and is graduating this May with a degree in Industrial Design. A lot of the skills he has learned are very similar to the ones that my work at KCI was leading me towards (such as Designing for Manufacturability). It was a good day at the beach and I even learned a little bit about New Zealand.

After the beach we headed back into Tampa. We realized that we had each gotten too much sun, I'm afraid Jake got the worse end of that deal though. Because of the Winter/Summer schedule in New Zealand Jake is just coming out of his 2nd Winter and really hasn't had any beach time. That evening we just hung around the hostel and got a chance to learn from John all the happenings of the past two weeks. Apparently there has been a lot of drama happening in that house since the death of the previous owner. It was an early night because I am trying to get moving early so I can go Kayaking on the Silver River.

Friday morning I had a little later start that planned but hit the road close to 8:45. The plan is to Kayak in Ocala and then head up to Gainesville to spend the weekend.