Lunch at Florida's Oldest Restaurant

March 12, 2012: We drove across the Sunshine Skyway Bridge to Tampa for lunch at Florida's oldest restaurant, the Columbia Restaurant, in the Ybor City neighborhood which was the 19th century center for cigar manufacturing.

The very Spanish interior features tiles with a Don Quixote theme:












Here is the house sangria, table water and the house mojito with a piece of sugar cane:
The bread was fabulous--warm with a crisp crust and any airy interior. The "Original '1905' Salad", tossed by the waiter at your table, has iceberg lettuce, julienne of ham and Swiss cheese, olives, diced tomatoes, lots of grated Romano and a very garlicky Caesar-like dressing:

David had the snapper "Adelita" with hearts of palm, artichoke hearts and sun-dried tomatoes; Bill had Salteado de puerco:

Escape to Florida

March 10: 2012: We flew to Sarasota for a long weekend on Anna Maria Island.

We walked through the art in the park. The most interesting exhibit were the birds from the Wildlife Education & Rehabilitation Center, Inc.

The tiny owls were incredible:












The other highlight was the Cajun band:
















We went to the beach to see the sun set:

Movie Premier of BIG MIRACLE

January 25, 2012:  Through Telos we were invited to the world premier of the movie BIG MIRACLE starring Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski.  The movie was about Operation Breakthrough, an international effort in 1988 to free gray whales trapped in pack ice in the Beaufort Sea off Point Barrow, Alaska.  The event was in the AMC Loews Georgetown on K Street underneath the Whitehurst Freeway and the after party was at the Sequoia Restaurant overlooking the Potomac in the nearby Washington Harbour development.

Before the film, Bonnie Carroll spoke.  She worked in the Bush White House and was involved in saving the whales.  In the movie, she was played by Vinessa Shaw.

Ken Kwapis, the director, also spoke.


















This was the queue for the after party:

 These were the gift bags:

The invitation said to dress Alaska casual chic?

 We spied Drew Barrymore in the crowd below: