I have been very blessed this summer to have traveled quite a bit! In fact, I started this blog at the beginning of the summer and thus far it has been mostly travel related! As much as I would love to have a travel blog, this was not intentional and needless to say, our lifestyle would not support it! As summer comes to an end though, so will my travels! I have shared about Universal Orlando, Daytona Beach, and of course all about the Keys- especially the upper Keys! As summer 2021 winds down, my final travel related entry for now will be about the St. Pete/Tampa area which I visited as part of my friend’s bachelorette party!
My friend Jenny and I have known each other since we were 16 years old! We met in high school and had more in common than just our first name! We also have the same middle name, Marie, and we were born 3 days apart from each other! We met in high school and I used to drive her home from school. We also did the whole sorority thing together at FIU- although in the end she was definitely more into it than I was! After close to 20 years of friendship, I am so excited that her moment is here!
The St. Pete/Tampa area was chosen for the festivities! We rented a cute house via Airbnb in St. Pete. It was perfect for the amount of girls and we were able to decorate it nicely for the bride to be!
We checked in on a Friday afternoon and the first activity on the list was a pedal pub! If you don’t know what a pedal pub is, it’s a giant bicycle where everyone pedals around as a group and you drink as you pedal. You visit different bars as you do this. I had never done it before and I have to say that it was a blast! We booked ours with PedalPub St. Pete. Our guide was hilarious and it gave us a chance to see the quirky downtown part of St. Pete.
We went to several bars but two definitely stood out to me! One of them was Dog Bar. This is a bar, and it’s full of dogs! It even has a playground area for the dogs with plastic kiddie pools filled with water! I would love to come back here with Peter! To be honest, I would love to take the kids too but unfortunately, it is 21 and over. According to our pedal pub guide, not just any dog can come in. There actually is a membership since they want all the dogs to have their vaccines up to date. If you are a fellow dog lover and in the St. Pete area, I highly recommend visiting!
The other bar I really enjoyed was one of the gay bars! Unfortunately, I did not catch the name of it! We actually were only able to be in there for a few minutes because it was almost time to return to our pedal pub, however, the few minutes we were there were eventful! There was a stage for dancers and the dancing was pretty risqué if you know what I mean! It was a fun time and I wish we would have been able to spend more time there!
According to our guide, the open container laws in St. Pete are very strict so you absolutely cannot drink when you step off the giant bicycle. As a result, when the tour is about to end they make you stop and chug your drink! Other things to know for a pedal pub is to dress comfortably since you will be peddling, and on this particular pedal pub, you need to bring your own drinks and they do not allow hard liquor or glass. Also, we ran a little late and were fortunate there was not another tour after us, however, had there been another tour, we would have been charged a late fee.
After this we had dinner reservations at Ulele. It was good and i’d describe it as a chill place. I learned the next day they are known for their oysters. I am not a fan of oysters so I did not have any but some of the girls did!
The next day we had booked a Cabana at Tampa’s WTR pool party. It is located at the pool at the Godfrey hotel. We booked one of the East Cabana’s for $200 and we had to spend a minimum of $500- which for a bachelorette party with 7 girls isn’t too hard! It was hot out so the Cabana, which came with fans, was definitely convenient! The pool party is somewhat like a Vegas style pool party, but more laid back. I have not been to a Vegas pool party since I was 21 years old, however, I remember at some of them the girls had heels on and full blown hair and make up fake lashes and all! Personally I don’t care to get so dressed up to go to the pool. At WTR you had the DJ, the fun music and the party vibe, however, a cute bathing suit, normal cover-up and flat sandals were totally acceptable!
We had buckets of High Noon seltzers and ordered a couple of bottles of Rosé. When you order bottles they do a whole show of it which was quite fun!
If you are celebrating a bachelor or bachelorette party in the area, I think this is a great option! I think it would also be fun for people in their early 20s who are single and want to party. I would say the WTR pool party was one of the highlights of the weekend!
We couldn’t come to Tampa without doing dinner at Bern’s Steakhouse!
I had actually never been! The decor is dark and kind of spooky in my opinion. The food was good. One of the main things to do at Bern’s is the tour of the wine cellar. Unfortunately, they are not doing tours at this time due to COVID so we did not have an opportunity to try this. We did get to go to the dessert room upstairs after dinner!
To conclude our trip, we had brunch reservations for Sunday morning before heading back to Miami. One of the girls did some research and came across a place called The Library. This was a wonderful pick! It does happen to be located somewhat within the John Hopkins Children’s Hospital, but do not be fooled by this! You actually only need to step into the hospital if you need to use the restroom and even then you only step into a lobby. It is called the library because the restaurant is within a library. There are old books everywhere and even when you are given your bill it is put inside a book. What is cool is that people put notes in the books. The food was delicious! We ordered two cinnamon rolls for the table and I had the breakfast burrito. They also have a hibiscus mimosa which I recommend.
Seating at the bar- Hibiscus Mimosas Pictured 
Seating at our table 
Breakfast Burrito
I had really only ever been to Tampa before to visit Bush Gardens and I actually have not been since I graduated 8th Grade! This was a great opportunity to get to know the St. Pete/Tampa area! Now the countdown is on for my friend Jenny’s wedding!
With this I conclude my summer 2021 travels! I had a wonderful summer and I feel very blessed to have seen so much of the state of Florida and visited cities I had never been to. On that note though, I am looking forward to working on some content that is not travel related and that is more about daily life and my interests! Stay tuned!
Thanks for visiting!
-Jenny