The Florida Thread • Page 15

it's been a long while since i last posted here, so a few months ago, my parents and i did the touristy thing and drove down to key west for a weekend trip. it's so pretty but my god, the drive once you leave miami is not worth going to key west more than once.

 

Lived in Florida nearly my whole life and still haven’t gone to the keys. The drive to Miami is boring enough from Daytona.

 

i have been down to fort lauderdale and miami for concerts enough to know that the drive is shit. add whenever US1 comes to a standstill after miami traffic is bullshit.

 

I just did the drive to see Pup in Fort Lauderdale a few days ago. I just really love The Culture Room.

 

Miami to the Keys is like purgatory

 

Only been to the Keys once but we took the ferry from Naples which I appreciated because I'd heard so many horror stories about the drive from Miami.

 

Captured this gem while my wife drove us up to Halloween Horror Nights yesterday afternoon.

 

Culture Room is great, but occasionally too cramped for my liking and I hate their parking situation. Revolution is okay, nothing to really write home about. I'm heading to the Bayfront Amphitheatre next month for Bastille.

 

I’ve only been to The Culture Room three times. Years ago for The Civil Wars. Last year for Pale Waves, and this past week for PUP. I just wanted to see PUP in a small venue one more time.

 

it's strange how many people i've seen drive like that

 

Culture room is rad

 

Just park at the target across the street

 

This is what I always did

 

Looking for suggestions for stuff to do around Tampa/Sarasota.

 

Hang out with me, obviously

but in seriousness what do you like to do? I don’t know you super well sorry haha

 

As someone who lives in Sarasota, you're much better off staying in Tampa/St. Pete unless you're just coming for Siesta Key Beach haha. Dunno what exactly you are looking for but the Dali Museum is really cool and St. Pete has a nice downtown area with lots of bars and live music venues. Ybor City (historic neighborhood in Tampa) also has a very cool (most Cuban) food tour that I would recommend. Tampa's Riverwalk is also a nice way to chill out at night.

 

We are down to try out anything. I'm going with my girlfriend and she seemed pretty set on the area. Not sure why, as she had zero suggestions lol.

This helps a bunch. I think she mostly wanted to get to the beach there. We definitely want to try out the food and dancing. We took some salsa/bachata lessons, so we plan on doing a bad job of that. lol

 

If the beach is her main thing, Siesta Key is definitely beautiful, but it also gets extremely crowded and its hard to find close parking/have personal space sometimes. A lot of locals go to Anna Maria Island in Bradenton (between Sarasota and Tampa) which is basically just as beautiful and has more of a quaint, home-y feel.

 

Yeah I honestly don’t know less crowded beaches anymore hah Clearwater beach is the one by my house and is always insanely crowded because it’s one of the more famous ones

Downtown st pete has a bunch of cool murals, and bars and stuff and also the Dali museum and the holocaust museum (of course not a ‘fun’ thing, but it’s supposed to be one of the better ones in the country so). Also the chihuly museum is cool if you’re into that.

Downtown Tampa has the new sparkmans wharf which is pretty cool, other than that (most of) Tampa’s boring IMO lol but touristy stuff includes the yuengling brewery, riverwalk, Busch gardens, ybor for bars and clubs hmmmm

closer by me is downtown Dunedin which has a few cool breweries and is near the water as well


any food you had in mind?

 

As others have said, definitely go to Ybor.

if you’re set on going to Sarasota, the area around Marina Jacks on Bayfront Drive is beautiful and I always like walking along the bay there where all the rich people keep their sailboats. There’s also Marie Selby’s Botanical Garden close by.

There’s a lot of good restaurants in that area and closer to Main Street. I just went to Tsunami Sushi the other day and they do hibachi style grilling, sushi rolls, noodle bowls and stuff that are really good.

You may also want to hit up Ringling’s. The place is huge and has a solid collection of art from different periods and of different mediums, as well as having a museum dedicated to the Ringling Bros Circus.

 

On top of all the other things mentioned, if you’re into beer/breweries I would recommend St. Pete. There are more than you could hit in one sitting within walking distance of each other downtown and the surrounding areas.

 

I’m currently in Jax. Sup?