We went to the Yuengling Brewery in Tampa for a tour this afternoon. Yuengling is "America's Oldest Brewery." It's a family owned company founded in Pottsville, PA, in 1829. Yuengling bought a Stroh's brewery in Tampa in 1999 to expand production along the east coast. Our tour guide was a local college student who was quite enthusiastic about her love for beer. She was quite lively and kept the group interested. The tour ended with samples in the hospitality center.
After the tour we drove to the nearby Lettuce Lake Park. We found it listed on Tripadvisor as the fourth most popular attraction in Tampa. It's a small park but has a variety of Florida ecosystems, a nice boardwalk and both paved and unpaved trails. As usual when we tried the unpaved trail we ended up trying to outflank flooded sections and finally giving up and going back to a paved trail. The walk along the boardwalk was most interesting, with views of Lettuce Lake, lots of cypress swamp, and the Hillsborough River.
Lettuce Lake is named for the water lettuce, an invasive species, that infests the lake and covers the surface.
We were disappointed to find that the observation tower is indefinitely closed, as we were hoping for a view of an alligator or two from a vantage point higher up. We've been in Florida for almost a month now, and we haven't seen a single alligator. We did see some kayaks gliding along through the vegetation. We saw lots of interesting and very active bugs skating around the surface of the water. We saw several lizards, some squirrels, and one large, colorful grasshopper.
We managed to get through another day today without rain.
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