Tampa

NBK Design 2015 August Collection
NBK Design Easy Peasy Luggage Tags #3
NBK Design RoadTrip
Designed by Soco: Sunkissed Mini Kit
Designed by Soco/Sahin Designs: Wanderlust Elements

Florida. Just the name invokes thoughts of sunshine and beaches. I was born in Florida and lived the first 22 years of my life here. I moved away for many years, but apparently, I was meant to return. In 2013, I settled in Tampa, just two hours north of where I grew up. Tampa is an amazing city! It’s the home of the Tampa Bay Bucs, the Tampa Lightning and the Tampa Rays.
There’s always some game or another going on. But my favorite event in Tampa is Gasparilla! “Land, ho! Set sail for Tampa!” shouts the legendary pirate Jose Gaspar as his band of buccaneers sail across the Hillsborough Bay and return to the City of Tampa. On the last Saturday of January, the only fully-rigged pirate ship in the world, the Jose Gasparilla, emerges at the south end of Hillsborough Bay followed by hundreds if not thousands of boats. The vibrant Gasparilla Flotilla then makes its way across Hillsborough Bay and into Seddon Channel (between Davis Island & Harbour Island) and the Gasparilla Invasion has begun! In this annual re-enactment of Tampa’s "historic" pirate invasion, the Gasparilla Flotilla – led by the Jose Gasparilla filled to the crow’s nest with swashbuckling pirates – creates a spectacular sight. When the Jose Gasparilla docks at the Tampa Convention Center, the Mayor of Tampa surrenders the Key to the City to the Captain of Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla. With the Key to the City in hand, the Krewe celebrates their victory in a Parade of Pirates down Bayshore Boulevard with 24 hours of crazy, drunken madness.