Our trip from Ocala to Tampa included a stop en route to the new Yuengling brewery in Tampa. Yuengling started in Pottstown, PA and is the oldest brewery in the U. S. This is the only location outside of Pennsylvania. During the tour we learned that, with this location, they will be opening up new markets. This may mean that we no longer have to "import" it to Louisiana for our kids.
We stayed at Lazy Days RV park and our activities included a bus tour of Tampa, Ybor City (the Cuban area of Tampa famous for cigar factories dating back to 1905) and Tarpon Springs which is a Greek community that began as a sponge diving area. The visit to Tarpon Springs included a sponge diving demonstration and it was interesting to learn that the equipment that the diver wears is heavier than the diver himself to keep him down on the ocean floor. Our Greek dinner at Demitri's was wonderful. The flaming appetizer is cheese and it was great.
On our last night in Tampa, we had a social with strawberry shortcake and some car racing pretending that the drivers were at Daytona. The strawberries were from Plant City (a town outside of Tampa) where most of the country's winter strawberry crop comes from. Several of our guests made it to the annual Strawberry Festival but of us got rained out.
THE YUENGLING BREWERY TOUR
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| STILL OWNED AND OPERATED BY THE YUENGLING FAMILY |
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| FLORIDA MEDAL WINNERS |
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| THE YUENGLING SHOWCASE |
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| HEY PAT I THINK DICK PARKED IN THE WRONG SPACE |
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| DAYS END |
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FORMER PLANT HOTEL NOW UNIVERSITY OF TAMPA
NOTE THE ORIGINAL ALUMINUM CUPOLAS FROM EARLY 1900'S |
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SPONGE BOAT AND DIVER TOUR TARPON SPRINGS |
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| THE DIVER |
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| JIM & HARRIET & THE DIVER |
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| BRENDA & THE DIVER |
DINNER AT DEMETRI'S AT TARPON SPRINGS
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| HAPPY DINERS |
NIGHT AT DAYTONA
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| OK MONTE START YOUR ENGINES |
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| COME ON TRIPLE THREES |
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| OH OH WHO WON |
