Ybor City

The Sunday after the ACC Championship game, we checked out of our Extended Stay Hotel room around 9 a.m. and made our way to Ybor City, a historic district with Cuban flair near downtown Tampa.


Though the streets were quiet, and many shops and restaurants were closed, we stumbled upon Sula's Deli, an inviting little coffee and sandwich shop on Ybor's main drag where patrons can enjoy hot coffee and a variety of Cuban sandwiches relatively early on a Sunday morning.

After a very filling breakfast (brunch?) of sandwiches and coffee (their "small" coffee is 16 oz. and the large is a whopping 32 oz.!), we strolled along the quiet main street. The neighborhood is characterized by charming, old brick storefronts containing mostly Cuban cigar lounges (still closed when we were there - around 10 a.m. Sunday morning), beach-themed bars, "British" pubs, and nightclubs (a few of the bars were just opening as we walked by; the clubs had probably closed just a few hours ago).


The Columbia Restaurant building featured beautiful tile-work and Spanish-style architecture:


It is a bit difficult to see in the photo below, but the only patron of SunTrust this morning was a chicken who, alarmed at our approach, scurried into the nearby bushes.

ACC Championship Game: Tampa, Florida

We set out Saturday morning for Tampa, Florida, where Georgia Tech would be playing Clemson for the ACC Championship game. My newfound state of football fandom was at its peak this weekend, and it was accompanied by that peculiar mental state wherein a fan will view a 7- to 8-hour drive as a perfectly reasonable distance to travel to see one's beloved sports team (or band - we did the same thing when we found out The Killers were playing in Ljubljana, Slovenia, while we were living in Germany).

Before the game began, I realized my apathy towards all things football-related had given way to a growing dislike of the fans of the opposing team. This, I feel, was not entirely without cause. As we made our way through the masses of orange and purple (there was a distinctly stronger Clemson presence, it seemed, in the crowds and the tailgaters surrounding the stadium), we were often confronted by groups of men in orange sweatshirts making a concerted effort not to move out of the way as we tried to pass them on the side walk. On more than one occasion, we had to endure their rather obnoxious country music blaring out of some loudspeakers next to their tailgate parties. Furthermore, when we discovered that the pre-game live entertainment was James Otto, ACC's spokes-singer (see the truly awful ACC-sponsored video below), we couldn't help but notice that the majority of people actually crowding around the stage and acting like they were enjoying the thoroughly mediocre performance were Clemson fans.



Meanwhile, those of us from the ATL were standing around wishing we were listening to Young Jeezy perform one of the team's signature songs for this season, "Put On":

Sure, the majority of Georgia Tech fans are either middle-aged and WASP-ish or college-aged and geeky, but there is a certain level of bad-assness about hailing from Atlanta that removes the need for excessive attempts at "presence" or intimidation. That's just not how we roll.

So at some point in the game - I am not exactly sure when - I just knew in my heart that Georgia Tech was going to win. There was something about that outcome that seemed like it was in line with the proper Order of Things.

And we did. And all was well with the world.