Florida with Gramma

So there were two schools in Florida I was considering, the University of Tampa and New College.

Everyone knows I'm terrible at making decisions, so off to Florida I went with my gramma to see what the other side of Florida is like.

(I've only ever been to the Stuart/West Palm Beach/Boca Raton areas before)

It ended up being more of a vacation than anything and it was nice to see gramma relaxed and enjoying herself.  It was the first time she had ever been on a plane and her first time in Florida.  

We visited some long lost relatives in the Orlando area while we were there, went to the zoo in Tampa, and enjoyed the chilly spring beaches.

We stayed in Tampa since that was where we flew in anyways, and although our hotel was in a fairly crappy area it was still a hop skip and jump to all the highways we needed to take so that was good.

 And we had this little "garbage pond" outside of our window.

The University of Tampa...

Gramma's first trip to the ocean ever! (at Clearwater Beach)

The sand was sooooo white.

 This was our little friend who kept dive-bombing us and stealing our candy.

The Tampa Lowery Zoo...I took literally thousands of pictures, I'm not sifting through them all, so this is what you get :p

The irony of my shirt...my Utica Zoo shirt that I just tie-dyed not too long ago.

Then it was off to Sarasota to visit New College..I was very disappointed that this was the only Banyan Tree I saw the whole time we were in Florida, there are so many more on the other side.

To the beach after a little rain! (Ana Maria Island)

Dolphin!

Rays! I was really annoyed at myself for not bringing my longer lens.

Our Henna Tattoos :)

All in all the trip was really fun and it was nice to have a little one-on-one time with gramma, it's been a long time since we've been able to have that.

Hopefully this will be the start to a new tradition and she will travel with me other places in the future!