Another beautiful day in Tampa! Eleanor and I had needed to catch up on some work today, but by afternoon we were able to relax a bit and enjoy the nice weather. At 6:30, we met up with Barry and Susan for a special night out at a local sushi restaurant.

Susan and Barry in Barry’s Miata. Click for larger version

First of course, we had to give Susan a quick tour of the Airstream. Like nearly everyone, she was a bit curious about how we live. But a tour of an Airstream takes only a few minutes if you don’t get into rivethead talk, and besides, we were hungry.

Now, the special thing about tonight was that Susan speaks Japanese and knows what the heck everything on the menu is. She goes out to this place every week or two. We sat back and let her order. And of course, since she did it in Japanese, we had no idea what was coming.

Only half of the feast! Click for larger.

But we weren’t worried. We like to try new things and it was all great. Salad, miso soup, squid, sushi, tempura, yellowtail “shoulder”, two types of tofu, rice … yum …. It was a great dinner.

We tried to get some dessert at the Panera Bread nearby but they closed at 9. We actually ended up at Border’s bookstore, huddled in the corner among some books slurping coffees and iced chai. I regaled Barry and Susan with tales of towing through the desert, the redwoods, and a couple of tight car washes. They tolerated me for quite a while before we all called it a night. It was what I hope will be the first of a lot of lovely warm evenings in Tampa.