Exploring Tampa

Today was a relaxed day for my group in Tampa, but it was a treat because we have averaged about five hours sleep per night in which it was nice to sleep in today. I woke up around 9:30am and ate breakfast at our hotel. After eating breakfast, my group participated in a video conference with Dr. DeWitt today around 10:30am. The chat went great in which we discussed our experiences in Tampa and our schedule of today. Once the group chat ended, we were pondering what to do today. Therefore, our group came to the conclusion that we wanted to explore Downtown Tampa, and interview the protesters in downtown Tampa and the GOP convention. We arrived in downtown Tampa around noon, and ate lunch at a delicious local café. After lunch, we went on the prowl to find out where the protesters are in Tampa. We walked around for about an hour, and we did not find any protesters. So, we decided to ask the people who would know where they were gathering: the Tampa Police. They were very friendly, and happily pointed us in the direction in which the protesters were camping at. They also told us that the protesters were calling the camp ground, “Romneyville”. We walked about two miles to this place, and we knew we were getting close to this camp because I could literally smell it from a mile away. It smelled horrible, but it was an interesting experience walking through the camp and seeing the different groups of protesters. After we walked through the protest camp, we drove back to the hotel to relax for about two hours. We left the hotel around 4:00pm to drop Kyle off to go to the forum, and the rest of us headed to the Politico Nightly Lounge. We enjoyed ourselves at Politico for about two hours, and we went to Columbia Restaurant for Sara’s 21st birthday in which the food was delicious! After dinner, I’m calling it an early night because we have many events tomorrow, and I am excited to be attending the convention in the forum tomorrow night! Follow me on Twitter at cduvall2 for the live updates at tomorrow night’s session!