Traveler's Joy is an online honeymoon registry. Simply set up an account, and Traveler's Joy will provide you with a registry page to share your honeymoon travel plans with your wedding guests. Friends and family visit your page and use their credit card to give a gift toward part or all of your trip. Collect your gifts at anytime by requesting a bank check or transfer. It's the best of both worlds: your guests can easily give you a special wedding gift and you receive what you really want — the honeymoon of your dreams.
The memories from your honeymoon will remain long after housewares and other gifts have gone out of style. Give your guests the chance to contribute to that unique experience.
Gasparilla sounds like an exotic drink...or perhaps even a rare, tropical flower. But, as any Tampa resident can attest, "Gasparilla" means boats, pirates, parades, merriment and more. It means January is here, and the city's illustrious festival celebration is, once again, about to begin.
The number of ships that fell prey to Gasparilla and his buccaneers during later years is not known, but he continued to ravage Florida waters until December 1821. Deciding it was time to retire from pirate life, Gaspar had just convinced his crew to split up their accumulated fortune, disband and live out their lives in peace and luxury. But the sight of a merchant ship sailing northwestwardly toward Orleans was all too inviting for the greedy adventure-seekers. One last thrill, and they would end their careers in grand style – Gaspar and company could not resist, and so set out to pillage the seemingly unassuming merchantman. Closing in on their prey, the pirates realized, to their chagrin, they had chosen a United States Navy warship in disguise for their final folly. And final it was. A bloody battle ensued, leaving Gasparilla's flagship burning to ruin. As the story goes, just as the commanding officer of the U.S.S. Enterprise was boarding the defeated ship, Gasparilla seized a heavy chain, wrapped it around his waist and neck and leaped into the water, brandishing his sword in a final gesture of defiance as he sank into the sea.
Gasparilla..the extravaganza. When Jose Gaspar died, he supposedly left an untold fortune in buried treasure somewhere along the Florida coast. Though that treasure has never been discovered, the story of the swashbuckling Gasparilla was unearthed and his memory revived in 1904 when Tampa's social and civic leaders adopted the pirate as patron rogue of their city-wide celebration. Miss Louise Frances Dodge, society editor of the Tampa Tribune, was planning the city's first May festival. At the suggestion of George W. Hardee, then with the federal government in Tampa, she decided to develop a theme for the affair based on the legend of Gasparilla.
The first invasion was so successful and well-received by the people of Tampa that a city-wide demand was voiced to make the Mystic Krewe organization permanent and to replicate the carnival each year.
In 1954 the Krewe commissioned the building of the world's only fully rigged pirate ship to be built in modern times. Named the Jose Gasparilla, the ship is a replica of a West Indiaman used in the 18th century. She is constructed of steel at 165' long by 35' across the beam, with 3 steel masts standing 100' tall. During the year she is usually docked at the Tarpon Weigh Station on Bayshore Blvd. for the public's viewing pleasure. In the past, Gasparilla has been celebrated on the second Monday in February.
