My wife wanted to take the boys to the Tampa Zoo, but I had some travel arrangements I needed to make so I stayed back in the hotel with my brother in law who also had to work.
Before I got into my travel tasks I took a jog along the beach path to see where things were. I had found a mini-golf place nearby in one direction and found more of the downtown area in the other direction. We’d have to explore the downtown for dinner and maybe do mini-golf the next day with the kids. Going for a jog is a great way to explore a new area!
Changing Plans
When we were in the airport coming down to Tampa, I had gotten an email from a squash tournament organizer that there was an opening for Tomatico if he wanted to play in it.
If you don’t know what squash is, it’s an indoor racket sport that’s played in a small room and you can bounce the balls off the walls. The rubber ball is about the size of a ping pong ball but doesn’t bounce very much at all. It’s fairly popular around the world but in the US it’s mostly popular on the coasts, but particularly in the northeast.
Over the winter our family joined a local gym in order to keep everyone occupied since there wouldn’t be nearly as many winter activities available. The gym had squash courts and since I had played recreationally in college we gave it a try. We found quickly that Tomatico had some natural skills. He was beating me a month into playing. That was 6 months ago and these days he just toys with me when we play. I’m not good enough!
He had been bugging us about playing in a tournament and I had found one in Westchester County, not far form NYC the weekend we were scheduled to return from Tampa. It was effectively “on the way.”
Since he was going to play in that tournament, there was a fair amount of impact on our existing plans.
Updated Hotel Plans
Originally we were planning to spend the night in a hotel near LaGuardia after returning from Tampa. That would be too far away from the tournament to easily stay there.
As has happened many times before for us, the easiest solution was to split up. The plan would be that my wife and youngest to stay with my brother in law in the city in his apartment while Tomatico and I would find a hotel closer to the tournament and drive there. After the tournament we’d pick them up before heading home.
I booked two nights (Friday and Saturday) using Hyatt points in Greenwich which was still 30 minutes from the tournament. Once the draw (schedule) came out for the tournament, I realized the 2 day tournament was only going to be one day and would be complete by mid afternoon on Saturday. This changed plans again because we would only need one night in a hotel as we could drive home to Boston after his matches were done.
Tomatico had also expressed a desire to try to find a place to practice before the tournament, too. The gym we were members at is a chain and we have access to most other gyms within the chain. I found the gym in Westchester had squash courts and I called to make sure I could get access to it.
I ended up finding a hotel close to the gym that was a Marriott and used one of my wife’s free night certificates to book that night. Well, I used the app to book the room, but I didn’t book it correctly and booked it using points instead of the free night certificate. It was not a good value for the points so I called the customer service line and got an extremely helpful agent that was able to quickly switch it from points to the free night certificate.
The agent also called the hotel directly for me to add my name to the reservation so I would be able to check in since my wife wasn’t going to be with us.
Airline Tickets
We had a hotel and could get access to the gym, but with the flights as scheduled, we would not get into Newark until 7:30 at night. That would put us at the hotel late at night, having to get up early the next morning to get to the tournament without any time to practice. That was not setting Tomatico up for success in his first tournament.
I looked into getting an alternative flight for just the two of us to return to Newark earlier in the day and found a few options. I called JetBlue about canceling just Tomatico and my tickets while leaving my wife’s and my youngest’s ticket untouched.
The tickets we had were on points and had cost only 6K points each. The tickets I was looking at cost 16K points each so they were a lot more expensive if I had to cancel and rebook. The rest of the family wanted to stay and enjoy the beach for the day and spending an extra 40K points to deny them that wasn’t a good option.
I called up JetBlue to see if I could cancel just the two people on the existing ticket. I waited on hold for over an hour and the agent unfortunately told me I couldn’t cancel just two people on the ticket without cancelling everything and rebooking. Ugh, that wouldn’t work. I confirmed that if I left the itinerary unchanged and the two of us just didn’t take the flight there wouldn’t be any repercussions other than forfeiting the points. They confirmed that was fine and I’d just lose the points. That wasn’t ideal but it was something we could manage so I left the ticket as is and booked another noon flight on JetBlue to Newark for Tomatico and myself.
Sunny Afternoon
For lunch my brother in law and I went back to “We the Pizza” for some more yummy slices. My wife had been sending me pictures of the boys at the Zoo all morning. Apparently there are rides that they really enjoyed.
They were getting their share of sun as well and my wife brought them back to the room mid-afternoon. They needed a break so they watched a movie while I was on the phone making some of the travel plans described above.
Dinner in Town
We took the walk into town as dinner time approached and my brother in law was able to finish up his work for the day. The hotel suite we had was great because he could work in peace in the living room area while we could watch tv or relax in the separate bedroom.
It was a 5 minute walk to get to the downtown. There are lots of shops and restaurants. We checked out a few menus and found a restaurant that specializes in tacos. They were just okay. They looked and sounded more interesting than they tasted according to the family.
Next door was an ice cream place called appropriately Ice & Cream. They described several quite interesting flavors and we tried. One was pineapple sherbet which I sampled, but it didn’t taste much like pineapple or really anything so I went with Fresh Strawberry. It was disappointing as it just had some frozen strawberries and some jam-like substance in it. My youngest didn’t like his chocolate chip (though I thought it was fine). My wife loved her dairy free chocolate swirl but the rest of the family didn’t like theirs much. Better for the waistline, I guess!
The Sunset!
This was the first really clear evening we had at sunset. The others had been rainy or overcast so we walked on the beach as the sun set. It was pretty and lots of people set up their cameras to get the perfect shot.
Tomatico and I wanted to get to the gym before it got too late so we headed back to the hotel ourselves, keeping an eye on the sunset as we walked. When the sun finally went below the horizon we heard several people clapping. I thought that was an odd reaction but as long as they were happy. The show happens every night and it’s free!
Back at the hotel we made our way to the gym for another workout. I had worked out in the morning so I wasn’t planning to do too much. Tomatico worked on some balance exercises again and some more lunges, though I passed on the lunges. I was too sore from the morning run!
In the gym, we each did some time on the cardio machines. I went to the Peloton to do another short ride while he worked on the elliptical to burn some of those calories off.
Back in the room we were quick to get ready for bed and get some well deserved sleep. The next day would be our last full day and my brother in law had taken the day off so he could join us in the vacation fun!
Tomatico Travels 
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