Still Here - Bay Life - Ybor City - Trolley - Columbia Restaurant (2024)

Day 3 at Lazydays. Everything is looking so familiar in this short time. We feel like we work here. Hello, Welcome to Lazydays! Lulu knows the routine and route by heart now. We aren’t too bored YET! We are waiting on our two fogged-up windows to be fixed. Finally, they have moved our RV into the glass shop. They took out the 2 windows and covered the holes with plastic. The costs to fix them went up from their original quoted price. They said besides our windows being very fogged over, the discoloration had actually become “baked”into the glass. I believe it. Would take more work and time to get them cleared up, thus more $$$. We aren’t happy about it but Cory told them to go ahead and just get the job down.....there goes our casino winning! The only other choice is to live with my 50 cent witch decal that I had put up on the entrance window. Cheap but not so pretty. Tonight we are staying in our RV in the glass shop work bay. Hooked up to electricity so all’s well on the home front in that regard. At least we get to watch TV....the big one

in the waiting room is still not working. Rats!

More time to kill so the plan of the day was to go back to Ybor City. We’ve been here before and enjoyed it a lot. We walked one of the main streets only to find out it wasn’t the one we were familiar with. Moved one block over and it all looked familiar...just like our time at Lazydays.....familiar. But we found a new store that caught our eye. Lulu was so excited to go in. She wasted no time posing with as much as she could. The store is called Dysfunctional Grace Art Co.....the only shop in Ybor where Death and Dysfunction dance in a graceful ballet. It was right up my alley. Lulu, for one time, actually had a leg. She was thrilled. She tried kicking it up but it didn’t move.....oh, well, at least could say she had a leg for once. It did seem a bit too long for her. We would have to change her name to Long,Tall Sally. She didn’t like that.

Moving on, we found the trolley we had been on before......missed out on the senior discount cause we were so excited

just getting our tickets. On the platform, Cory spoke to a couple from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Happens this man knew the same man that Cory did who worked at a branch of the Air Preheater company in this town. What a small world, isn’t it? Lulu got on the trolley in a flash - just like a speed demon. Had more pictures taken. The friendly couple from Oklahoma, as well as the nice couple behind them, took a liking to Miss Lulu......who wouldn’t? She’s a lovey, dovey! They asked to be photographed with her. Lulu was more than happy to oblige. She thinks of herself as a big time show-off. She’s not humble. She would have given out autographs but, you know the problem....no hands or arms. Sometimes I think she thinks she’s a famous movie star....Dream on, girlie.

Once our trolley ride ended, it was time to think about a late lunch. So many places to select from. When we arrived, we went past the famous, ORIGINAL Columbia Spanish restaurant. Founded in 1905. We have eaten in the Columbia restaurant in Celebration but this is THEE original one. It’s huge....went for blocks! Yessiree....this was where we were going

indulge ourselves once again. Once through the door, I thought: Uh-Oh. Our touristy t-shirts and shorts didn’t look classy enough against all the staff members who were wearing tuxedos. We were sooooooo underdressed....until I looked at all the rest of the customers....we were just fine if not a tad better! Lulu was unconcerned....her bows made her a fancy lady. We were seated in a beautiful dining room with a brilliant, massive, shimmering chandelier. Cory scanned the menu after Lulu read it all over. He said I could order for him since he didn’t relate to any of their offerings.....except for “Pete’s” Manhattan. He ordered that just fine. I told him we would get the items they were known for: their Cuban sandwich and their salad. We got the combo: 1/2 of each. Still the servings were huge! Couldn’t finish them. They were both very good but probably won’t be a mainstay in our diets. Our stylish waitress was named Amber.....very nice and great service. She agreed to pose with Lulu cause Lulu was carrying on so....she wanted to show her fancy self off to this other fancy lady. Before we knew it, more of the dining room staff had gathered

around Lulu ....all wanting their picture with her. Boy, did she feel like big deal. She’s getting very man handled but loving every minute of it. She has a slu*tty way about herself. I was asking Amber questions about the restaurant. She said it has 14 dining rooms. It opened in 1905.

The dining room we were seated in was the first room ever to have air conditioning in Florida. She asked if we would like a tour of this famous and fancy restaurant. SURE! She checked with someone and said he would stay and give us a tour after we checked out. Great! Eat up, Cory.....we have a tour listed on our dance card. We were talking with one of the well dressed busboys and showing him the pictures I had taken when a tall, distinguished gentleman came up to us. Obviously, he worked here so I showed him the snaps. He laughed. In a deep, velvety voice, he said he was “Cesar” and was going to give us the tour....goody! OMG.....he wasn’t just any employee of the restaurant.....he was the owner! Wow! Thank heavens that Lulu, at least, looked fancy and stylish. We started in the large

bar/dining area....this was the main and only part of the restaurant when they opened in 1905. It was more of a coffee shop then. And then we went from one dining room to another to another. The magnificence of it all is beyond words. The walls were covered with gorgeous tiles from Spain. Some of the floor tiles that came from Cuba and some from Italy. He shared unique stories about many parts of this restaurant. We met another distinguished man. He has worked here for over 50 years. He was the man (a teenage boy at the time) who put together the huge, fabulous chandelier that was in the room where we ate. Each piece came wrapped separately from an old hotel in Miami. Cesar’s father had bought it. No instructions....only a picture. What a task this fellow accomplished...over 200 prisms on this beauty. Again, so many stories and details he shared with us. He even toured us through the enormous kitchens. We ended at a photograph of his father (age 16 at the time)as a part of a band. He was a concert violinist. Cesar is standing next to his father in the picture. He was so proud

to speak of all his family members. This restaurant is and always has been family owned and operated. He said they now have 16 Columbian restaurants in Florida. Need I say, we were so impressed and honored to have been given this tour by Cesar. I wish I could record everything he talked about but this blog would have to be read over ten days if I did. I’m sure you can goggle it and get it’s history there. You’ll find it very interesting.

Made our way back to Lazydays. Our new, familiar friends are still all waiting in the waiting room....just like us. If this keeps up, we be sending Christmas cards to each other as we deepen our friendships. We looked up the Tiffin representative and asked him some questions. He had most of the answers. We attended an inservice on tow bars. It was sponsored by Blue Ox and that’s the brand we have. We have stayed busy and occupied since our arrival. From what the techs said in the glass shop, we may be leaving here on Thursday...we might....fingers crossed that we do. Poor Lulu is sad cause she has no fingers to cross. That’s

okay, Lu, it’s the thought that counts.

So, gang, stay with us. We aren’t done yet. No telling what we’ll find to do tomorrow. A wait and see scenario. Happy Trails.

MANY photos....37 of them...lots of scrolling and changing pages. Good luck!