On Sunday, November 2nd, we flew out of Salt Lake City to Tampa, Florida. The purpose of the trip was to visit with Derek and LeEllen and to enjoy some warmer weather. The weather was perfect as were the hosts. We were treated like royalty and the food was terrific! They made us feel so at home and comfortable. Thanks Derek and LeEllen for such a great time!!

On Monday Derek and LeEllen took off work and we drove over to Orlando and spent the day at Epcot. The weather was perfect and we had a great time. They had a food and wine festival going on and each country had a kiosk set up with sample size servings of native foods ($4.00 a serving) and we tried several. We have to get more of the pepperberry prawns from New Zealand!!! For lunch we ate at the Italian Resturant there and the food was great. I think the favorite ride was "Soarin". We stayed for the fireworks and lazer show, that night, and were really happy that we did, even though it had been a long day.

On Tuesday Tana and I got to sleep in since Derek and LeEllen went to work for half a day. After they got home we drove over to Tampa to the Cuban neighborhood of Ybor City for the afternoon. It felt like we were in Cuba with the architecture and everyone speaking with an accent. There were several shops that made hand rolled cigars, which was facinating to watch being made. Yew those are bras on the balcony! I'm not sure what they are doing there, maybe advertising, but what?This Cuban fellow was reading the newspaper so we checked to see what the news was and found out that Obama had won the election. We walked around the area and could smell the Cuban coffee being roasted. We had lunch at a Cuban resturant. I had a very good Cuban sandwhich. Tana didn't think much of her chicken noodle soup but managed to survive on the salad.

On Wednesday Tana and I drove back over to Orlando and attended the Orlando Temple. It is beautiful, as they all are. There were only seven in the session we attended but it was nice to be there. Our original plan was to go on over to the Kennedy Space Center and Cocoa Beach but we ran out of time.

Thursday we drove over to St. Pete and then up the coastal islands to Clear Water. The beaches on the Gulf of Mexico were very clean and the sand was white and powdery. We were able to find some shells, even some sand dollars, but they didn't survive the trip home.

Our evenings were spent visiting with Derek and LeEllen and eating great food. Derek is coming out for Thanksgiving and I am concerned that he will starve to death with our cooking :) They sure have a nice home in a great neighborhood. We were always greeted by Tabitha (the cat) who seemed to like us. Again, thanks Derek and LeEllen, we couldn't have felt more welcome!!