Tampa

So after breakfast this morning, I walked to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, which also serves as an animal rescue facility. The place became world-famous as the home of Winter, the dolphin whose rescue story is told in the wonderful movie Dolphin Tale. The movie was filmed at the Aquarium and is inspired by the true story of a dolphin that was rescued after getting caught in a fishing wire. In the process, its tail was badly damaged, and eventually a custom prosthetic was made, allowing Winter to swim normally again.

Sadly, Winter passed away a couple of years ago, but it was fun to see the facility where the most famous dolphin in the world lived for over a decade, and where the movie based on it was made. I also did a behind the scenes tour which was really interesting.

After the Aquarium, it was time to head into Tampa!

In Tampa, I went to day one of 90s Con - a convention themed on the biggest pop culture events of that decade. My main reason for going was to meet the cast of Beverly Hills 90210! They have most of the main cast at the convention this weekend, and today I had the pleasure of meeting Jason Priestley (Brandon), Tori Spelling (Donna), Ian Ziering (Steve) and Jennie Garth (Kelly). I also saw Brian Austin Green (David) while waiting in line. So much fun to meet these actors that I have watched on my TV screen countless times over the past 30+ years.

Except for Tori, they all look like they haven't aged over the past 33 years. Tori looks a bit different nowadays, but she was very sweet, and she hugged me when we bonded over Ghostbusters! She also loves Denmark apparently.

Jason was also super sweet and we talked about Tru Calling, another TV show he did back in the day.

Aside from the 90210 cast, I met Danica McKellar from The Wonder Years, another one of my all time fav shows. She was also really lovely.

After the Con, I had dinner at the GenX tavern - a place themed on the 80s and 90s pop culture, so very fitting.Read more