December 18-21, 2021 - Boat Regatta, Dining Light Repair, and the Henry B. Plant Museum

On Saturday we went over to Celina's park to watch the boat regatta. We drove up to the clubhouse and carried chairs down to the canal to watch. The boats lined up and took off through the canals. There were only fifteen boats so the whole thing was over in just six minutes - less time than it took for us to get here. Here are a couple of pictures. It was darker outside than the pictures reflect.  I liked the one with the full moon in the background.

It seems that there isn't a day when using the RV that there isn't a needed repair or project. When we purchased Marge she had a light fixture over the dining table which made no sense. (I didn't take a picture of it.) It was a nice-looking fixture but had a glass bowl on the bottom which threw all the light upwards. This didn't do much for illuminating the dining table. I purchased a new fixture with two shades facing down. It was better but I wanted to convert the bulbs to LED. I purchased little LED bulbs that fit in the fixture but the amount of light they threw down was pathetic.  This picture shows the problem. You can see all the light going out to the ceiling and walls and not on the table.

Last year I decided to replace the wimpy LED bulbs with under the cabinet puck lights. I had installed a set of these under the cabinets over the sink and they threw light down, where you needed it. They are not cheap, about $11.00 each. LED lights are supposed to last thousands of hours but that has not been my experience with 12-volt LED lights. Our RV is only used part-time and the dining table light is only on a couple hours a day at most. Nonetheless, one of the puck lights went out last week so I ordered a replacement. 

To install the puck lights in this fixture last year I had to fabricate a way of mounting the puck lights in the inverted glass shades. I made a wooden ring that I could screw the puck light to and then siliconed the wooden rings to the fixture. Here is a picture up close of one.

Next is a picture I took of the fixture ready to be re-installed. I was smart enough when I took it down to put a piece of tape on the side which had the bad puck light so I knew which puck to replace once I disconnected the fixture. (In my hast I often forget such simple things.)

Here is a picture of the light reinstalled which, hopefully, will last more than a year or two. You can see that it throws all the light on to the table, unlike the little LED bulbs. Kelly has her Christmas tablecloth on, which is one of the few Christmas decorations we have.

Yesterday we toured the Henry B. Plant Museum in Tampa, Florida. Kelly thought it was a Victorian House to tour. Not so. It is a huge building that originally was the Tampa Hotel built by Henry B. Plant in 1893 at a cost of $3,000,000 and with the skills of five hundred workers over a period of three years. 

Plant owned railroads and steamships and was worth about $30,000,000 at the time. He wanted to bring tourism to Florida so he built hotels near his railroads all over Florida. The Tampa Bay Hotel was the grandest and only one other such hotel survives. Many famous people stayed here until it closed in 1930. The hotel building itself still exists, but the casino, boathouse, and gardens are all gone. The City of Tampa bought the building in 1930 for $105,000 and made it into a museum. It is now part of the University of Florida-Tampa and serves as the Administration Building. Here are a few pictures of the outside. You cannot get it in one picture. It is about two blocks long.

As you enter the main lobby there are long halls going in each direction. Here is a picture of the lobby

Here are pictures of the first floor hall decorated for Christmas going in each direction.

One of the rooms off the main hall is the "Writing Room". Almost everything back then was communicated by written letter. I think this room would be the "business center" we find today off the lobby in modern hotels where computers are available for guest use.

The hotel was four stories and had 500 guest rooms. The higher you went up the cheaper the rooms. Here is a picture of the elevator, which is thought to be the first in Tampa. The inside was all covered with carved Cuban mahogany. Gorgeous.

Here is a picture of the second floor hall. I'm sure back in the day all the wood was stained oak, not painted.

The guest rooms and many other areas of the hotel are now used as offices by the University.

The hotel had a huge ballroom which was used much like a convention center would be today. Unfortunately, it was locked so we couldn't see it. We were able to walk further down the hall to "Fletchers Lounge". It was just that, a lounge that held 500 people. It was impressive with a domed ceiling. Here are a couple of pictures. Today it is used as a conference center.

The choice bedrooms in the hotel were located in the minaret towers. Here is a picture of one. In addition to a bedroom, it had a sitting room/library, and a bathroom. The windows were eleven feet tall and opened from top and bottom for ventilation. 

Needless to say, the building was quite impressive with a lot of history on display. 

One of the interesting things I learned was that in the 1890s to pass the time upper class women made many things with paper. Here is a picture of a dress made completely out of paper. It took four months to make it.

Here is a picture of the three of us in front of the hall Christmas Tree to prove we were there. 

The tour made for a very enjoyable morning. After completing the tour we headed to "4th Street Shrimp Store" in St. Pete's for lunch. It was fabulous. We will definitely go back. Today I take Celina to the airport, she is flying home for the holidays.