"~ Ybor City ~" Tampa Travelogue by noidiotsplease

After an amazing walk in Hyde Park, we drove through the streets of Downtown toward Interstate 4, which would take us back to Orlando. Of course, as commonly occurs in Florida, there was a construction detour. We were rerouted, and ended up missing our first onramp to the interstate. Since I knew where the highway was in relation to where we were, it was simply then a matter of finding the next on-ramp opportunity. Of course, it was dark, we were on a small street, and the brightest sources of light were the whirling blue and red colors emanating from two parked police cars. I knew this was not the nicest of neighborhoods. Then, down the street, we saw a lighted archway. As we were heading toward the archway, it suddenly occurred to me what such an odd sight might be heralding. Sure enough, we found ourselves on the main drag through Ybor City on a Saturday night.

By day, Ybor City is an old historic Cuban district with museums and restaurants now occupy old buildings from the cigar rolling days. By night it is party central – full of drunks patronizing a wide assortment of bars and clubs. It also has a very creepy vibe, like a place where back alley opportunists are just waiting to take advantage of unsuspecting and inebriated prey. While I know it does have some fine restaurants, we had no intention of exploring the neighborhood – especially at night, and with kids in tow. So here we were in our mini-van adorned with Jesus fish on the back, crawling block-by-block through the congested thoroughfare, hoping that our little ones were not noticing the oversized, seductive silhouette of a woman being projected in a club off to our right. At least I had confidence in knowing that Ybor City of all places had to have direct access to the interstate. It did, and we left the revelry behind for a more sedate drive back to Orlando.