Category: Great Places

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Episode 32 – Where to Watch The World Cup in Tampa Bay

Episode 32 - Where To Watch The World Cup In Tampa Bay.

Alexa,
play Great Things Tampa Bay

Show Notes

Want to know where to watch the world cup in Tampa Bay? I give you a ton of suggestions in episode 32!

Transcript at the bottom of the page!

Where to watch the World Cup

Tampa

London Heights Pub
Dubliner
MacDinton’s
Glory Days
Dunderbaks

Brandon

O’Brians
Glory Days

St Pete

The Galley
Macdinton’s
Horse & Jockey
Old Northeast Tavern
Gloriy Days
Jack’s London Grill

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Transcript

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Category Episode Great Places Location Tampa

Episode 31 – Goat Yoga, music by The Young Something

Episode 31 - Goat Yoga, music by The Young Something

Alexa,
play Great Things Tampa Bay

Show Notes

You might have heard rumors about Goat Yoga… well we went and did the thing!

My wife and I got our downward dog on and our bleeting hearts melted at  Grady Goat Yoga in Thonotosassa!  You’ll need to book weeks out in advance, it’s very therapeutic and yes the goats jump all over you without prompting.

Music this episode by The Young Something!

Transcript at the bottom of the page!

Grady Goat Yoga

Grady Goat Yoga in Thonotosassa!

12551 Franklin Rd, Thonotosassa, FL 33592

Currently they are booking at least a month out.

Proceeds go to the Grady Goat Foundation, a children’s foundation for kids with disabilities.

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Doppleganger

There are roughly 7 people in the world that look exactly like you.  You have a 9% chance of running into them.

 

The young Somethings

Music by The Young Something – Wrong With Me

The Young Something is fronted by Alex Bonyata and Bella Beyer. Based in St. Petersburg, Florida, they started performing and writing together when they met at the Grammy Museum’s Music Revolution Project in 2015. Since then they have expanded to a full band, and have been busy traveling and performing throughout the Southeast.

Their unique sound and musical prowess has led them to play alongside acts such as Foreigner, Andy Grammer, Toby Keith, and Ringo Starr. Recently, they recorded their premier EP as The Young Something in Nashville and released it on Valentines Day of 2018.

While Alex’s main instrument is guitar, he is well versed in many instruments and directs the production aspect of the band. Alongside Bella’s unique vocal qualities and style, they create a dynamic and rich sonic palette. Throughout their debut EP, you’ll find driving guitars, lush synths, and a pounding rhythm section complemented by atmospheric vocal samples and vivid lyricism.

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Transcript

Hey everybody. This is Kyle Sasser, “Great Things Tampa Bay” and this is Episode three one, 31 of “Great Things Tampa Bay.” And what do we talk about today? We are talking about goats, but not just goats on the side of the road, we are talking about goat yoga. So two four-letter words that you probably never anticipating being paired together. That has turned into something that’s kinda sweeping the nation here so let’s just dive in.

So my wife loves goats and not like she likes watching goat videos like she really, really likes goats. You know, she kinda gets squealy when she sees them and, you know, she wants a farm with a bunch of animals and stuff like that. Little tough to do in our current position over in St. Petersburg but, you know, it’s a dream down the road.

So anyway, I… It was actually someone affiliated with one of my previous episodes. So in Episode 19, I interviewed Markets for Makers and then one of the people affiliated with Markets for Makers reached out to me and, you know, I started following their blog and that sort of things. They gave me a mention for a Dog Bar, which was Episode 21. So the Market for Makers’ episode was 19. So, if you’re interested in markets, listen to that one. If you got a dog, listen to Episode 21, that’s the Dog Bar episode.

So anyway, sorry. That was a very long way to get around to this. So she wrote a post on “Best places to do things in St. Petersburg.” One of them was dog bar and then I was reading the blog post and then below that, she mentioned goat yoga and I was like, “Oh, well. My wife likes goats.” So I did a little bit of research. Apparently, there’s one or two of these around, they are very booked up. Usually, you have to book them out like a month in advance.

And yeah, I mean, I say goat yoga and I feel like that kind of paints the picture in your mind. So you go to a farm and you do some yoga and there’s goats there, baby goats. And what happens is as, you know, as you’re leaning over and getting into your yoga positions, the goats jump all over you. And, yeah. Not a lot of, I mean, some yoga gets done, not a lot but, you know, lots of goat petting also goes on.

So we actually went to Grady Goat Yoga which is based up in Zephyrhills. Not Zephyrhills, Sorry. Thonotosassa. So basically takes Interstate 75, you know what I mean, it’s all just kinda out there. It’s kinda close to Lake Thonotosassa, if you know where that’s at. So the name is Grady Goat Yoga and what they actually do, they’re actually a charity foundation. And they had a goat that was born blind and with, you know, some other issues and, you know, they kinda touched their heart a little bit so they started, you know, doing yoga to raise money for children’s charities that are also have similar issues to this goat whose name was Grady.

So basically you show up there, and like I said you have to book with at least a month out at least. And you show up and, you know, you get your mat situated. They got some quilts kinda covering up the fences so the goats don’t go crazy and all that stuff. And then, you know they kinda let the goats out and the goats do goat things. They, you know, these little baby goats, they come out, they jump around, you know, they’re very active, to begin with. And then you start doing yoga. So, you know, you get into your position, your downward dogs. Basically, as soon as they see a section of body that is any sort of not even level surface but just something that they could kind of plant their little baby hooves into, they basically jump there. So my wife, right off the bat, kind of leaned forward a bit and yeah, baby goat just jump right up on her shoulders. It was really cute.

And, you know, there’s some goat poop involved, just, you know, they’re babies they just kinda do what they do. But it’s not bad, it’s really dry and pebbly and they do have helpers there with a towel and a squirt bottle to clean off everything. But like I said, you know, it’s goat yoga, a little bit more focus on the goats than the yoga. That was basically, it’s about probably an hour or so of like actual yoga stuff. You can hang out and play with the goats. The owner actually brought a…like less than 24-hour old baby goat out to let everyone hold and absolutely cute. And they also make goat cheese which is good and very affordable. They got some T-Shirts and for those of you that know that I have a sweet tooth, they also make goat fudge which was very, very good. I mean, I can’t say that I’ve ever had a bad fudge but this one was actually a very good fudge.

So, yes. So that’s, I mean, what more can you say? It’s goat yoga. it’s not the only goat yoga around, you know, naturally because it’s the one I did that, you know, I have familiar with it and just by default, it’s kinda my personal favorite. I’ve seen stories written up in New York City and various other areas around where like this is kind of, you know, a new fun thing to do. I guess it’s kinda like fidget spinners but with goats and yoga mats.

And we are going to be putting on a goat yoga event. I don’t have a date booked, but it should be within the next two months. So, when you hear this and you’re interested, go to the website, greatthingstb.com and go to our event section and we’re gonna have a goat yoga event. And you’re welcome to come. I’d love for you to come out, hang out, play with some goats. You can meet me, my wife should be there because I don’t know if you’re remembered but she loves goats.

So yeah, I mean, what more can I say? It’s baby goats and yoga and a lot of fun. There wasn’t one person that left with a frown. Everyone, you know, you kinda know what you’re getting and it absolutely delivered and yeah, a very satisfying experience. And I think also that, you know, the people that this would not appeal to, you know, the name just kinda gets that across like, “Hey, you know, I’m not terribly interested in that.” You know, it’s goats. You know, if you don’t like goats, you’re probably not gonna like goat yoga. But if you do like goats, boy, do I have a place for you.

And now, segment two, your facts. There are roughly seven people in the world who look exactly like you and you have a 9% chance that you’ll run into one of them in your lifetime.

All right. So that wraps up this episode of “Great Things Tampa Bay,” goat yoga. So, once again go to our website greatthingstb.com and we will have goat events as well as other events. We do other things besides goats. I’m also 39-year Tampa Bay native and also a licensed realtor. So if you’re looking for your own great place here in Tampa, I would love to help you find it and you can reach out to me for real estate related matters by going to the website greatthingstb.com and across the top there, you’ll find a link there for it.

So playing us out today is The Young Something’s Wrong With Me and this was a pretty good song when I popped up on my playlist. So I do get a lot of submissions for music. I can tell you, I do screen it all, I don’t just throw up whatever somebody sends me. I do have some requirements. So I do like a wide range of music from bluegrass to, you know, hip-hop to newer EDM stuff. And I like it all and I’m happy to feature them all.

My two requirements more so is that the song structure has to be good, the singing or playing needs to be mostly held together. You know, like a, you know, it’s, I mean, sometimes I make exceptions if it’s especially interesting in other ways but, you know, if you can’t carry a tune, you know, just… I know I don’t really wanna listen to it so I’m assuming my listeners don’t either. And the production value has to be acceptable. I’ve gotten some submissions where like I just, I can’t hear the person. Because the, you know, the drum track or whatever is too loud and just in the background, you’re just hearing like [inaudible 00:09:25]. Yeah, not fun to listen to.

But The Young Something here, they’re pretty good. And I like the song, got a few other ones from them that we’ll play in later episodes. If you would like some more information on Grady Goat Yoga or The Young Something, I am putting links in the show notes, so just look the details here.

Thanks for tuning in. And once again this is The Young Something’s Wrong With Me.

[00:09:53]
[music]
[00:13:30]

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Category Episode Further Afield Great Places Location Tampa

Episode 23 – Florida State Fair vs Florida Strawberry Festival

Episode 23 - Florida Strawberry Festival vs Florida State Fair

Alexa,
play Great Things Tampa Bay

Show Notes

Strawberry Shortcake or Cracker Country?  Are you more about a small town with big hearts or the largess of the city (3 Scooter Rides!)  In this episode I hand down the verdict on which is better, The Florida State Fair or The Florida Strawberry Festival…. and it just might surprise you!

Florida State Fair February 8 – 19

Florida Strawberry Festival March 1-11

Transcript at the bottom of this page!

Fair and Strawberry Festival Info

Florida State Fair February 8 – 19

4800 US Hwy. 301 North, Tampa, FL 33610

 

Florida Strawberry Festival March 1-11

303 N Lemon St, Plant City, FL 33563

Concert Schedule

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GoatFacts

The structure of a goat’s eye allows him/her/kids the ability to have 330 degrees of vision.  This means they can see almost all the way around themselves except their backs!

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Transcript

Welcome to Great Things Tampa Bay, the podcast about great eats, great places, and great people in the Greater Tampa Bay area. I’m your host Kyle Sasser, a Tampa Bay native, and realtor. This is episode 23, and this is a Florida Strawberry Festival versus the Florida State Fair. Thanks for giving us your time. I know there’s a lot of things vying for your attention: social media, internet, friends, family, work, and I appreciate you choosing to spend your time listening to me and this podcast. I promise I will do my best to bring you something awesome.

I also want to let you know that we now have express feeds which means that if you’re only interested in our food reviews, just do a search for Great Bites Tampa Bay. If you want more of our interviews with interesting movers and shakers in the area, just look for the feed, Great People Tampa Bay. And for things to do in the area, shops or other events, just do a search for Great Places Tampa Bay. These feeds are listed on our website, greatthingstb.com under the heading Express Fields up at the top there.

I’m a nearly 40-year native of the area, and I definitely have my opinion, I’m sure most people do, which festival or fair they prefer, the Florida Strawberry Festival which is out in Plant City or the Florida State Fair? Both of these events are pretty massive for each location, taking up a substantial acreage in the festival grounds. So they do all have kind of similar amenities. You know, they all have a Midway with rides, of course. They all have exhibits, and they all have crafts and then a bunch of carnival barkers out there barking their wares, selling spiralizers and Cutco knives and all sorts of great things. But even though there’s a lot of similarities, there is a little bit of difference and people will defend their fair or festival to the death.

So without further ado, let’s dive into it. And so the Florida State Fair this year is February 8th through 19th. So basically, I’m recording this on the 7th so it actually starts tomorrow and I drive by it relatively frequently. I saw them putting the fair rides together and all that good stuff, getting everything good to go. So the Florida State Fair, I would say their primary focus is more of kind of Florida overall. They have their own little section there called Cracker Country where they have some old-timey Florida living, like the old cabin and how things used to be.

The Midway, I feel, is a little larger than the Strawberry Festival. A lot of duplicate rides. And they also have the agriculture section where people are showing pigs and cows and all that good stuff. Pretty similar. I don’t know if this is just me personally, but the Florida State Fair always felt a little dustier, is the only way I can describe it. I don’t know if it’s just something with the soil there. It feels a little dustier. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to a Renaissance Fair, but just whenever you get home, there’s just dust and dirt everywhere. And don’t get me wrong. I mean, the Florida Strawberry Festival definitely goes the same way, but the Florida State Fair, I don’t know if it’s just because it’s bigger or just the way it’s set up but it always feels a little dustier.

So the main difference, I would say, between the Florida State Fair and the Florida Strawberry Festival, and if there’s any doubt, I do have a preference for the Florida Strawberry Festival. It might have been because I was born and raised in Dover, Florida there, so where the dinosaurs are on the side of Interstate 4. That was where I grew up. So very familiar with Plant City and the farmers there. And actually, we have a farmer interview episode coming up a little bit closer to the Strawberry Festival.

So I’m not going to try to play fair on this at all. I definitely like the Florida Strawberry Festival better. The primary difference to me, the Florida Strawberry Festival does feel a little bit more small-town, a little bit more low-key. They definitely…like I said, they all have kind of the same major keys, but the difference of…I would say that the Florida Strawberry Festival does have a little bit or has much better concerts and shows. They definitely have a knack for getting large country music acts there which is not necessarily my cup of tea. I can’t really say I get terribly excited about Big & Rich or anything like that, but if that is your thing, the Florida Strawberry Festival is definitely the way to go.

So the Florida State Fair is February 8th through the 19th, and then after that, they kind of transitioned over to Florida and they started setting up there…excuse me, to the Florida Strawberry Festival, and start setting up there. The Florida Strawberry Festival this year is between March 1st and 11th, and that is to coincide with the primary picking season for strawberries which we go into a little bit more on the interview with Fancy Farms. Mr. Bob McDowell was kind enough to sit down with me and give a nice long interview on the ins and outs of strawberry farming. It’s very interesting, learned a bunch of things there. So yeah.

So March 1st through 11th, looks like there’s quite a bit of interesting things going on at the Florida State…i’s not the Florida State Fair, the Florida Strawberry Festival. So like I said, the aforementioned Big & Rich is gonna be there. Oak Ridge Boys, Reba McEntire is gonna be there. Trace Adkins, Charlie Pride, Earth, Wind & Fire, Sawyer Brown, Babyface, and Brad Paisley. So if any of those kind of piques your interests, be sure to head on out to the Florida Strawberry Festival to check those out. Also, pick up some lovely delicious strawberry shortcake.

Funny enough, I grew up next to a strawberry farm, and really don’t like strawberries that much which is relatively humorous but there you go. I think it was one of those things. They were plenty and abundant when I was a kid and can’t say I got sick of them because I never really ate them. The only strawberries I really liked, and this is probably blasphemous to a lot of you, but the McDonald’s strawberry milkshakes. So if you ask me where the best strawberries are from, I would have to say Parksdale because I grew up next to them and Fancy Farms because they were kind enough to do an interview with me which we will be releasing in a couple weeks. Other than that, I couldn’t…I don’t like them that much. So yeah.

So Florida State Fair versus Florida Strawberry Festival. If you think that the Florida State Fair is the better show in town, I would love to hear why. Please send me an email. Go to the website, greatthingstb.com. Go to the Contact Us page and send us the reason why because I’ve never…with the exception of the fact that the Florida State Fair is located closer to a larger population. I mean, there’s only so many people in Plant City and Brandon and Lakeland that’ll make it to. So I know most people from Tampa or St. Pete, they’re pretty much gonna stop there at the State Fair versus the Florida Strawberry Festival.

If you’ve only been going to one and you’ve never been to the other, I do recommend kind of switching it up and see what all the fuss is about. Maybe you’ll like the other one better, who knows? But I know for myself, I’ve been to both many times and got to say Florida Strawberry Festival always comes out on top. So anyway, thanks for listening. If you disagree or agree, send me a message. I’d love to hear from you.

So who wants to know a fun fact about goats? So here’s a fun fact. So goats, their pupils are actually horizontal and almost perfectly rectangular. And what this does, this actually gives the goats a field of vision equating to about 330 degrees. So if you kind of put a compass on top of your head and all that. So 360 degrees would be that you could see completely all the way around you which would be crazy, but 330 degrees which is the goat’s field of view means they can see virtually everything except for their own backs without turning their head. And as you can imagine, this does give them some tremendous chances to not be eaten by all the scary predators out there. So there you go, a little bit of a goat fact for you.

So I want to thank you for sharing Great Things Tampa Bay with your friends and family. You can share us by going to our website and that’s greatthingstb.com. There you’ll find share buttons on nearly every page. You can share us on Twitter, Facebook, all that good stuff. If you are looking for your own great place in Tampa Bay, I’m also a licensed realtor specializing in deep knowledge of Hillsborough and Pinellas County. So if you wanna talk real estate, you can give me a call at 727-300-2111, or you can send me an email at kyle@sassergroup.com. That’s kyle@sassergroup.com, and I’d be more than happy to help you find your next home here in Tampa Bay.

I also need your feedback. I need you to tell me where we should be going and what we should be eating and who we should be talking to. So please go to our website, greatthingstb.com, and you can hit either the Contact Us link at the top or the Get Social links also at the top. If you want to be a cool guy or a cool girl, you can call our voicemail number, which is 727-440-4455 and leave us a message. I’d love to hear from you.

So thanks for listening, and I’ll see you next time. And oh, by the way, if you don’t want to miss the next episode, please subscribe to us on iTunes or Google Play. That’ll guarantee that you get the next episode delivered straight to your mobile device of choice. Thank you so much, and I’ll talk to you next time.

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Category Episode Further Afield Great Places Location

Episode 22 – TreeUmph Adventure Park

Episode 22 - TreeUmph Adventure Park

Alexa,
play Great Things Tampa Bay

Show Notes

In this episode, we share listener and reader suggestions for all the great things to go and see during the holiday season.  Christmas Light Displays galore!

Transcript at the bottom of this page!

TreeUmph!

TreeUmph Website

To enter the contest, just tag the friend you want to take to TreeUmph on our Instagram or Facebook Post!

TreeUmph Contest – InstaGram

TreeUmph Contest – Facebook

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St Petersburg, Russia

It’s entirely possible a Russian was born in St. Petersburg, went to school in Petrograd, got married in Leningrad and died in St. Petersburg without ever having moved.

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Transcript

Hey everybody, it’s Kyle Sasser here and wanted to take a real quick moment before the show today to let you know that we are actually giving away two tickets to the topic of today’s show, TreeUmph. They were kind enough to send me two tickets for my listeners. If you would like to enter this contest, all you need to do…there’s a link in the show notes for this episode or you can find the episode post on Instagram or Facebook, and basically just tag your friend who you would like to take with you to TreeUmph. It’s a really good time, it’s a lot of fun, and I think you’ll really enjoy it. So thank you.

Welcome to Great Things Tampa Bay, the podcast about great eats, great places, and great people in the Greater Tampa Bay area. I’m your host Kyle Sasser, a Tamp Bay native and realtor. This is the Great Places feed of the Great Things Tampa Bay podcast where you will only hear episodes related to parks, stores, events, shows, and things to do about town. In our main podcast, which you’ll find under Great Things Tampa Bay, in addition to these chats about entertainment and events we also cover great eateries and delicious grub, as well as interview some of the great people, movers, and shakers in the area. You can find our main feed at GreatThingsTB.com. That’s G-R-E-A-T-T-H-I-N-G-S-T-B.com or you can subscribe to us on iTunes or Google Play just by doing a search for Great Things Tampa Bay. Thank you and enjoy.

So this is episode 22. We’re going to be talking about TreeUmph down in Bradenton. It was a little bit off of my radar for a while. I was actually introduced to this by a friend of mine, Mike. Thank you for introducing me to TreeUmph. We actually went for his birthday so…This was a little while ago so it’s a little delayed for a happy birthday public announcement but there you go. Happy birthday, Mike. So there’s actually two TreeUmph locations. One is I would still call it the Tampa Bay area, the one down in Bradenton. They have another one up in Brooksville that they’ve been working to open. I believe it should be open now. It had a little damage from Hurricane Irma that delayed its opening but I believe they’re open now.

The one Bradenton, though, is on State Road 70. Basically you get on interstate, you head…Interstate 75 and you head south past Ellenton, over the Manatee River and all that stuff. Get off at State Road 70 and head east and then, you know, you’ll see it down there a little ways. It’s a pretty cool place. It’s very active but it’s good for people of all ages and skills. All the way down from children all the way up to seniors. They do have varying degrees of difficulty so you should be able to match something up with your skill set and physical fitness. It’s basically sort of, like, the American Ninja Warrior things if you’ve seen that show, so yeah. It starts off easier, though. Rope swings and crawling through tunnels and stuff like that. You can basically call it an obstacle course. The cool thing is the majority of the course is set elevated, up in the trees. So they climbed up there and strung these steel cables up in the tops of these pine trees so the whole course is basically off the ground.

If you’ve done zip lining or anything like that it’s very similar. One cool thing, though, is unlike most of the zip lining tours I’ve been on you don’t actually have a guide that goes with you and is constantly hooking you and unhooking you. They have a safety system there. It guarantees that you’re always hooked into that wire so there’s, you know, no possibility of you falling off and breaking your neck. So that does allow you to move at your own pace and struggle with your own struggles, so to speak, and then they have a guide on the ground who, kind of, monitors an entire section of the course there. And if you do get into trouble, you know, you just kind of holler out to them and they will come up there and rescue you. We actually watched a couple rescues and sometimes they can hook legs around you and just, kind of, drag you to the next base there. Sometimes they actually do, like, a full rig with the ropes to lower you down safely to the ground.

Everyone there was really professional. They just want everybody to have a good time and if you go I’m sure you will have a good time. Like I said, it does start off pretty easy. Of course they have cargo nets. They have one where you swing over to the cargo net and then you have to, kind of, climb up the cargo net. So, you know, fun stuff like that and then they have the summit. Whenever you pull in the parking lot that is basically the highest section of the course. It’s tough. You have to want a challenge if you’re going to go up there. The cargo nets where you’re, kind of, switching back and forth was tough but there’s another section where you basically have these little wood blocks that, kind of, look like pencil erasers with a rope through the middle of them. They’re offset so it’s, like, one on the left and then a little further down there’s one on the right. I think you’re supposed to just, kind of, grab it with your hand and just, kind of, upper body strength your way across it. That is not my forte so I think I actually stepped on one of the little eraser blocks of wood and then instantly, you know, tried to hold and make that move. It completely fell apart on me and basically I was just dangling from my wires and just, kind of, drug myself across. It was not graceful in the least but I did finish it. I got to ring the bell so yippee for me and also after that I’ve hit the gym because it was a little embarrassing.

But, again, you don’t have to do all of the different levels. There’s places where you can cut off of the course. So if you’re looking ahead and you’re like “Eh, you know, I don’t know if I can swing that one” you can always bail. One of the last things they have there is they have a 650 foot zip line. They strung a really tall tower that they had actually built. You have to climb this tower up, ride the zip line down there. It’s a lot of fun. We were there, like, four hours. It’s, honestly, a better part of a day. You can run it as many times as you like, you know, on your pass. We’re going to put the link and the information for them on the show notes so take a look, but it’s TreeUmph. T-R-E-E-U-M-P-H. They’re pretty awesome. I can’t wait to go back.

So here’s a little interesting fact about sister city to Saint Petersburg and that’s Saint Petersburg, Russia and it’s frequent name changes. So Saint Petersburg name changed so frequently that it was entirely possible for a Russian to be born in Saint Petersburg back in the early 1900s, go to school in Petrograd, get married in Leningrad, and then die in Saint Petersburg without ever having moved at all.

So I want to thank you for sharing Great Things Tampa Bay with your friends and family. You can share us by going to our website GreatThingsTB.com. There you’ll find “Share It” buttons on nearly every page. You can share us on Twitter, Facebook, all that good stuff. If you are looking for your own great place in Tampa Bay I am also a licensed realtor specializing in deep knowledge of Hillsborough and Pinellas county. So if you want to talk real estate you can give me a call at 727-300-2111 or you can send me an email at Kyle@sassergroup.com. That’s K-Y-L-E S-A-S-S-E-R-G-R-O-U-P.com and I’d be more than happy to help you find your next home here in Tamp Bay. I also need your feedback. I need you to tell me where we should be going and what we should be eating and who we should be talking to, so please go to our website GreatThingsTB.com. You can hit either the contact us link at the top or the get social links also at the top. If you want to be a cool guy or cool girl you can call our voicemail number, which is 727-440-4455 and leave us a message. I’d love to hear from you.

So thanks for listening and I’ll see you next time. And, oh, by the way, if you don’t want to miss the next episode please subscribe to us on iTunes or Google Play. That will guarantee that you get the next episode delivered straight to your mobile device of choice. Thank you so much and I’ll talk to you next time.

Categories
Category Episode Great Places Location St Pete

Episode 21 – DogBar, The Furriest, Funnest Place Around

Processed with VSCO with c3 preset

Episode 21 - DogBar, The Furriest, Funnest Place Around

Alexa,
play Great Things Tampa Bay

Show Notes

In episode 21 you’ll hear about DogBar, the funnest and furriest place around.  No dog required!

The unique and uplifting atmosphere of DogBar is unrivaled in the Tampa Bay Area.  Mixing an enclosed dog park, adult beverages, and fully vetted and certified canine membership, Dogbar rocks and is certainly a Great Things in Tampa Bay.

Transcript at the bottom of this page!

DogBar

dogbarstpete.com

2300 Central Ave St. Petersburg FL 33712

  • All pooches must check in first.
  • Multiple adults can accompany a Dog Member.
  • No dog required.
  • Great place to see a bunch of breeds.
  • Sorry, no children.

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Flow Like Water

Water is now the most consumed beverage in the United States!  Way to go you  healthy people!

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Transcript

Hello everybody, this is Kyle Sasser here at Great Things Tampa Bay. This is episode 21, Dog Bar. I do have to admit upfront every time I say “Dog Bar,” I almost sing it. Well there’s probably like five of you that remember this, but so on “Liquid Television” they had a little segment that they would do, a little skit, and they’d call it Dog Boy, and they would sing it. Dog boy. So every time I say “Dog Boy,” that’s how I want to say it. But I promise you I will not subject you to that. Again this episode is Dog Bar. This is one of my wife and I favorite places, and Bijou’s [SP] as well. Bijou is our one-year-old chocolate Pomeranian. She is a complete pain in the ass, but gotta love your dog.

So Dog Bar, it’s basically what it sounds like. It is a bar with dogs. So pretty interesting setup. It’s located over on Central Avenue, here in St. Petersburg. Next to where Taco Bus used to be before they closed down, across the street from, there’s like a pub cade I guess you could call it, it’s like a place that serves beer and also has like video games inside of it which is pretty cool. I definitely need to go check that out for a future episode. But today we’re talking about Dog Bar.

They have 3,000 square feet under cover. They do serve adult beverages, thus the bar part of Dog Bar. And then it’s basically a dog park. They have both on leash and off leash areas. Everyone tends to congregate in the off leash area. And it sounds like it might get a little crazy, but they do actually fully vet all of the dogs that come in there. So they make sure everyone’s gotten their shots. They make sure everyone’s well behaved. They actually have staff that patrols the park area, make sure the dogs keep it in line. Any problem pooches are asked not to return.

There is a membership at the Dog Bar. You know, just can’t let any hound off the street in there. So, you know, you do actually have to go in and apply for the dog and kind of meet the criteria there. But it’s a really cool place and, you know, they have pools there, they have ramps for the dogs to run up and down. It’s not a place you go and like throw the ball with the dog, you basically just sit there and watch your dog run around with a whole bunch of other dogs, from the very large to the very small. There’s been the Burmese water dogs all the way down to our Pomeranian and even smaller than that, you know, like little Chihuahuas and all that stuff, but they all get along very, very well and run around and have a great time. They’ll definitely crack you up. I had two dogs just jump on my…like not my dog, just somebody else’s dog just climbed up and jumped on my lap, and that’s where he hung out, you know, about 10 minutes or so. So, it’s a good time. They do full liquors. They have TVs there if you want to go watch the game. It’s a really popular place on the weekends. The pedal pubs also stop there so, you know, it can get pretty lively. During the week it’s a little quieter, not quite as many dogs there. So it might be a good place to start. They do have separate areas for smaller dogs or puppies, just, you know, can kind of ease them into it, you don’t want to throw them out there with the Great Danes to start with. You stay about a hour, hour and a half, but the great thing is when you leave, your dog is dead tired, and will just sleep through whatever remains of the day.

So that is at 2300 Central Avenue over here in St. Petersburg. And again that’s next to where the old Taco Bus used to be before they closed down. I actually liked it so much that I did do a interview with the owner, Fred. Very nice guy. So we’re going to be featuring that on one of our upcoming interview episodes, so keep your ears open for that. They do have one requirement, with no kids or small children. And that’s just kind of for the safety of everybody. For the dogs, as well as the for the children. But definitely, it’s an awesome time. I know the…it’s actually kind of unique here in the area, I did hear they were trying to build one over in Tampa, but I think that’s still in progress. It’s a very cool place, very cool place. So check it out, Dog Bar, Central Avenue.

Here’s a little good news from America’s Health. Water has become the most popular and favorite drink among America’s yet again. The average American currently drinks around 58 gallons of water a year, but as you can imagine, soda, or pop, or however you want to refer to it, I know me being from the south we just usually call it Coke, overall. But soda was the most popular drink for 20 years, with consumption peaking in 1998 at 54 gallons a year. And in that same year, 1998, Americans drank just 42 gallons of water a year. So that increased from 42 gallons of water a year to 58 gallons of water a year. This mainly chalked up to the increase in bottled water and also America’s just being a little bit more health conscious than we have been in previous years. But it’s not all roses and sunshine for the bottling company. Selling water is definitely a lot less profitable then soda. Most people don’t know this, but Coke Cola, they really just deliver the syrup to the local bottlers, and the local bottlers are the ones responsible for putting the water in there and, you know, mixing it up and then getting it, you know, on the shelves of your local stores. Yeah, so keep up the good work, America. I feel like we’re a little less fat because of that. But it does bring up a question, what could be the next most popular beverage in America? So if you have any ideas, if you think maybe it’s Red Bull energy drinks, maybe Gatorade. There was a period of time where I had two or three Gatorades a day. If you have some additional ideas, just reach out to us on the Great Things Tampa Bay discussion group. I’d love to hear your ideas.

So I want to thank you for sharing Great Things Tampa Bay with your friends and family. You can share us by going to our website, greatthingstb.com. There you’ll find share buttons on nearly every page. You can share us on Twitter, Facebook, all that good stuff. If you are looking for your own great place in Tampa Bay, I’m also a licensed realtor, specializing in deep knowledge of Hillsborough and Pinellas County. So if you want to talk real estate, you can give me a call at 727-300-2111, or you can send me an email at kyle@sassergroup.com, that’s kylesassergroup.com. And I’d be more than happy to help you find your next home here in Tampa Bay.

I also need your feedback. I need you to tell me where we should be going, and what we should be eating, and who we should be talking to. So please go to our website, greatthingstb.com, or you can hit either the “Contact Us” link at the top, or the “Get Social Links” also at the top. If you want to be a cool guy or a cool girl, you can call our voicemail number which is 727-440-4455 and leave us a message. I’d love to hear from you. So thanks for listening and I’ll see you next time. And oh, by the way, if you don’t want to miss the next episode, please subscribe to us on iTunes or Google Play. That’ll guarantee that you get the next episode delivered straight to your mobile device of choice. Thank you so much and I’ll talk to you next time.

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Category Clearwater Episode Further Afield Great Places Location St Pete Tampa

Episode 20 – A Very Special Christmas Special

Episode 20 - A Very Special Christmas Special

Alexa,
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Show Notes

In this episode, we share listener and reader suggestions for all the great things to go and see during the holiday season.  Christmas Light Displays galore!

Transcript at the bottom of this page!

Holiday Events and Things To Do

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Nearly destitute towards the end of his life, Grant was saved by Mark Twain when he purchased the rights to his memoirs on the condition that Grant gets to keep all of the royalties.

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Transcript

Welcome to “Great Things Tampa Bay,” the podcast about great eats, great places and great people in the greater Tampa Bay area. I’m your host Kyle Sasser, a Tampa Bay native and realtor. This is the great places feed of the “Great Things Tampa Bay” podcast, where you will only hear episodes related to parks, stores, events, shows, and things to do about town. In our main podcast which you’ll find under Great Things Tampa Bay, in addition to these chats about entertainment and events, we also cover great eateries and delicious grub, as well as interviews from the great people, movers and shakers in the area.

You can find our main feed at greatthingstb.com, that’s greatthingstb.com, or you can subscribe to us on iTunes or Google Play just by doing a search for “Great Things Tampa Bay.” Thank you and enjoy.

This is Episode 20 and gonna bring you a little holiday cheer this episode. Basically, I just wanna cover a bunch of the great holiday things to do around the Tampa Bay area. We’re gonna be covering from St. Petersburg all the way over to Plant City, so stay tuned. You will probably find something that you didn’t know about and you can take the folks, the families, or the loved one out there, bring a little holiday cheer in your life. I did actually put this question out to the public, so all of these things were recommended by either listeners, or people in the Facebook group, or on the Tampa or St. Petersburg subreddits, so I would like to thank all of you all for your submissions.

I definitely couldn’t have done this episode without you. There’s just way too much stuff out there to know about. So without further ado, I figure we’ll start in my current hometown of St. Petersburg, Florida. Just wanna start off with the Illuminated Bike Parade, which caught us out on the way downtown yesterday. We were sitting there waiting for 10 minutes, while this massive procession of bikes just continue to go past us. They had lights on the handlebars, and, you know, in the wheels, those were the cool ones.

I didn’t see any of the big, old, like 1920s bikes that stand, like, 10 feet tall off the ground, but, you know, maybe next year. Maybe next year. So, yes, it’s the Illuminated Bike Parade. That was kinda new, but as I saw yesterday, it’s very popular. The Illuminated Boat Parade, which is also over here in St. Petersburg had a lot of recommendations. The Jingle Bell Run, people really like that one as well. There’s also a Santa Parade and lots of botanical gardens and things like that that set up Christmas light displays.

MetLamb13, he loves the Florida Botanical Gardens up off of Walsigham up in Largo. Had quite a few recommendations for that one. I see that one’s supposed to be beautiful. Personally, I’ve never been up there to see it, but I did hear from a few people saying that it was a pretty good thing to go check out. Very cool.

[Inaudible 00:03:15], another Reddit user, he likes to go to the Christmas tree lighting in downtown St. Petersburg with his family. He says that it’s a little hokey. There’s a school kids who sing horribly on the stage, and, you know, the old mayor gets up there and makes a speech. But for him that really rings in Christmas season for him. He also says that the American Stage does a great…It’s a wonderful live radio play. American Stage is kind of a local theater troupe. They have a space downtown St. Petersburg here across from the bus stop where the old bus depot used to be.

Also another user, they love walking around Largo Central Park. Says they have crazy good light displays. Also leads into the lights of Lake Park States, which, yes, I had multiple people tell me about that. It’s also featured in the newspaper. Apparently, a sight to behold, so Abbie and I are definitely gonna be making it up there to check that out this year. Christmasdisplay.org, it goes by quite a few names. If you’ve dined at any of the local spots over here in St. Petersburg, you might have seen this little flyer. I’m gonna loop around onto that one a little bit later, but it’s pretty bananas.

That kind of covers Pinellas County stuff. Moving over to Tampa. [Inaudible 00:04:26] Mall has a pretty big display, a synchronized light show that a user on the Tama subreddit likes to go to. He likes get a drink from the Starbucks there, and people watch with the families, wait for the show to start, and then, you know, grab some food from Noble Crust. Always a good time. I’m definitely a fan of Noble Crust. Tampa Theater is also currently closed for restoration, but they are doing free holiday movies in Curtis Hixon Park in downtown Tampa. So maybe cool just to, kind of, hang out there and, you know, catch a holiday movie.

Me, personally, over in Tampa I know when I was a kid, I’m not sure if they still do this, but on Swinger Road there at U.S. 19 and a [inaudible 00:05:06] kind of between Mackintosh and Bransford Road, they used to have a pretty big light display. I’m not sure if they do that still, you know, so please don’t make the drive out there solely on my word. And also, I’m gonna be putting all of this in the show notes, so don’t fret. You know, if you wanna link for any of these or just, kind of, a reminder, just go to the website, www.greatthingstb.com, episode 20. We will have all of the links.

The Christmas display down in Driftwood over here, it’s kinda St. Petersburg, but a little bit south of St. Pete. So this place has been featured on “HTTV,” the “Today Show.” “Today Show” actually named it as one of the top three Christmas lights displays in the U.S.A., and this is all from their website too, by the way. They’ve been featured on basically every, you know, TV channel here in the area, all sorts of magazines. And the “St. Pete Times” described it as, “A mega display. Look. Be amazed. Defies belief and description.”

So I haven’t actually seen this during the holidays, but real estate, I’m kinda all over the place and I have been by this place during the day. And, you know, you kinda look at it and you’re like… ou know, “Somebody there really likes Christmas.” But I’ve only seen a YouTube video. We’re actually gonna head down there here this week to check out the actual display when it’s all lit. I did watch a YouTube video and it’s bananas. They do have a few statistics here. The tallest Christmas tree array is 70 feet. There are four giant Christmas trees on the roof of the house. Total number of lights, including fiber optics are over 609,000. Over 700 moving and animated objects.

They have something ridiculous, like 18 trains, so to see this thing…And it has like its own section. Watching the YouTube, it had like, you know, the stuffed animal section and then like, you know, like, the 18 trains running around. Looks absolutely bonkers. The address for this place is 2709 Oakdale Street South, in St. Petersburg, Florida. Website is christmasdisplay.org. Go there, take a look. Yeah, I feel like this is definitely something that needs to be seen in person to believe. Check out the YouTube video that we will post on our shownotes. It’s bananas.

Continuing on here and wrapping up, now that christmasdisplay.org, which is on Oakdale South, St. Petersburg, I’ve also seen it listed as the Kresge Mega Light Display, I believe. “Tampa Bay Times” has it at over 10 trailer truck loads of lights. Might wanna put that one on your GPS and head down there. So they’re open the day after Thanksgiving through Tuesday, January 3rd, 2018 between 6:00 and 10:00 p.m.

Also, the Bella Garden Lane light show, which is out in Plant City, so a feel about that direction. And if you’re not aware, this features more than 35,000 lights and, you know, synchronized music and all this good stuff. Good times, so that’s 3212 Bella Garden Lane. And they have some lights from the old Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights, and they also have some decorations previously used at Disney World. And again, that’s at 3212 Bella Garden Lane. It begins at sundown December 31st according to this.

And the next one is the Wilderness Wonderland, which is up in the Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park, so that’s up north in New Port Richey out there. And that’s one where you drive through and you tune the radio there, listen to some music, drive through, look at the lights, lots of good times. If there is something here that I have missed, please let me know because I’m pretty much gonna do one of these every year.

So if you have someplace that you go every Christmas or some event that you go to, you know, maybe it’s ice skating. I know St. Pete, here they put the fake ice skating rink downtown so you can go out there and skate. They also do, you know, one for the kids where the put the snow slide up and, you know, kids can slide down. If there’s something like that that you do and you do it every year and it just kinda rings the holiday in for you, please drop me a note on the website, greatthingstb.com, and I would love to feature that next year on the 2018 Christmas Special.

Civil War General Ulysses S. Grant was nearly broke and he was in very ill health, and he was worried about leaving his wife, you know, with not enough to live on. So what he did, he wrote a memoir and, unfortunately, the only contracts he could get were only offering a 10% royalty. But luckily, S. Grant’s friend, one Mark Twain, knew how bad Grant’s financial situation was and made him an offer for his memoirs which paid an unheard of 75% royalty. And this very generous offer from Mark Twain allowed Ulysses S. Grant’s family to continue on being provided for and all that good stuff. So hats off Mark Twain. You were a pretty cool dude over all.

So I wanna thank you for sharing “Great Things Tampa Bay” with your friends and family. You can share us by going to our website, greatthingstb.com. There you’ll find a share button on nearly every page you share us on Twitter, Facebook, all that good stuff. If you’re looking for your own great place in Tampa Bay, I am also a licensed realtor specializing in deep knowledge of Hillsborough and Pinellas County. So if you wanna talk real estate, you can give me a call at 727-300-2111, or you can send me an email at kyle@sassergroup.com, that’s kyle@sassergroup.com, and I’d be more than happy to help you find your next home here in Tampa Bay.

I also need your feedback. I need you to tell me where we should be going and what we should be eating and who we should be talking to. So please go to our website, greatthingstb.com, where you can hit either the “Contact us” link at the top, or the get social links also at the top. If you wanna be a cool guy or a cool girl, you can call our voicemail number, which is 727-440-4455 and leave us a message. I’d love to hear from you.

So thanks for listening, and I’ll see you next time. And oh, by the way, if you don’t want to miss the next episode, please subscribe to us on iTunes or Google Play. That’ll guarantee that you get the next episode delivered straight to your mobile device of choice. Thank you so much, and I’ll talk to you next time.