Tampa, Florida 2005-2007
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Tampa was our home for two and a half years. We rented a small house in Deer Park, just minutes from the University, where Dan went to his “Commissioned Nursing Program”. On his (very little) spare time, Dan became quite the fisherman. He did everything from wading in the mangroves to deep-sea fishing and brought home delicious dinners of amongst others Redfish, Mahi Mahi and even a Sailfish once. |
Jennifer attended Williams IB (International Baccalaureate) Middle Magnet School, which in the spring of -06, became the first IB Middle School in Tampa. In the end of 8th grade, she received an honor roll student trophy. For 9th grade she applied and got in to both Tampa Bay Tech and King IB, and opted to spend her last semester in Florida at King IB High. During one year she took drama classes at The Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, and later she joined Sports + Field's Youth Sports Club.
Chris went to Lee Elementary of Technology/World Studies. Lee is the oldest school in the area, built 1906, and on the 7th of April, 2006 they celebrated their 100th birthday. Christopher spent his final semester in Florida at Stewart Middle Magnet School, where they have a great aerospace science program, and had a visit by James Earl Jones a few years back. For one season Chris played tennis at HCC, and then he also played sports at the Youth Sport's Club. Both kids took Swedish as a second language classes through Sofia Distans.
During the summer of 2006 Jennifer and Christopher spent a wonderful week of camp at Sea World, learning about the ocean and its habitants. Summer of 2007 they spent a week at Adventure Island, learning about water conservation, and protecting the environment. We also spent a wonderful week each summer at the timeshare in Key Largo, where we swam, fished, parasailed and took daytrips to Key West. The summer of 2007 we stayed an extra couple of days in Key West and took a boat out to the Dry Tortugas to snorkel at the reefs.
On the way to Texas for the last few months of school, we stayed overnight at the French Quarters, New Orleans, where we ate good food and listened to jazz. A few months before leaving for our next duty station, Hawaii, we invested in land in Port Charlotte. We had our closing on May 14th and are now the proud owners of waterfront property where we are planning to build a custom house and spend our retirement years.
The 2005 Hurricane season set a new record by recording no less than 30 Tropical Storms and Hurricanes. It is the first time ever the storms had to be named by letters from the Greek alphabet. (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon and Zeta)