Taping of "The Best Damn Sports Show"

We walked into Centro Ybor to view
a live taping of a sports show. Centro
Ybor is an old cigar factory that
was converted to an outdoor shopping/entertainment center about
10 years ago. www.centroybor.com .

In the middle of Centro Ybor we see the set for the Best Damn Sports
Show Period. The show airs Monday-Friday at 11pm ET on the Regional
Fox Sports Net Affiliates. The show can best be described as a Late Night
Talk show with a sports theme. www.msn.foxsports.com/bestdamn .

Here are more photos from the "The Best Damn Sports Show'

The top two photos show the mini football field as part of the set for the
show. Notice, in the 2nd photo, how the field protrudes into the street
almost to the Trolley tracks.

The show was great with many current and former NFL Stars. On this show
the guest stars were: Buccaneers QB Jeff Garcia, Giants great Phil Simms
(shown in the 3rd photo and 4th photos down, respectively with the Hooters
Girls). Other guests on the show included: Michael Strahan and Antonio
Pierce, both with last year's champions the New York Giants. Eddie George,
the former Tennessee Titan and Dallas Cowboy. The mayor of Tampa, Pam
Iorio, even dropped by to say hello.

NFL Experience and Raymond James Stadium

Here are some pictures from the NFL Experience held on the south side of Raymond James Stadium the site of Super Bowl XLIII.

The top photo is a map of the stadium area.

The bottom photo is a look at the South End of the stadium. Unfortunately
it started to rain shortly after this and I have no other pictures from inside
the NFL Experience. The NFL Experience is a fan-oriented theme park
which simulates the life of pro-football. For information go to
www.nfl.com/superbowl/nflexperience .

Flying MCO-MDW, Friday January 23rd

The top photo has a good overhead shot of the Tampa Bay area as we turn to
the north. On this cool morning, much of Florida was clear and by clicking on
this picture you can see a lot of the this West Central Florida metro area, (and
our hometown!). Next week is a big week for Tampa Bay as it is the host of
Superbowl XLIII, as the Pittsburgh Steelers take on the Arizona Cardinals.
For those of you looking to come down and take in the festivities, check out:
www.tampabaysuperbowl.com . For those of you visiting looking for some
good local Tampa spots, check out our other blog: www.foodsoftampa.blogspot.com .




The next photo is an overhead of Spring Hill, FL. As the Tampa Bay area
continues to grow, New Port Richey, Port Richey and Spring Hill have seen
as the Bay area continues its growth northward.




Finally, we get a good view of Atlanta Hartsfield/Jackson Airport, through the
clouds, as we approach the sprawling Atlanta Metro Area.

As we continue toward Chicago, we see the west side of Downtown
Atlanta, in the top photo. Notice the Georgia Dome in the bottom half of the
picture, (click on for greater detail) www.gadome.com .


The second photo is Dobbin Air Base and Marietta, GA, a large edge-city
NW of Atlanta


The next airport we see, (in the third photo) is Cobb County Airport. If you follow the runway towards the bottom of the page, across the highway from
the airport is the Town Center at Cobb. www.towncenteratcobb.com .


The bottom photo is suburban NW Indiana on our approach into MDW.
Unfortunately, it was pretty much cloudy from the Georgia/Tennessee
border on.

Flying MDW-SLC, Friday

Most of this flight is uneventful, as our routing just takes us over Mid-
America. However, as we approach the Salt Lake Basin, we get a good view
of the Inversion fog rolling in. The Inversion is a winter phenomenon wher the snow and ice on the valley floor evaporates and the air is trapped in the valley by the mountains on each side. The water from the Great Salt Lake also goes
through the condensation process adding to the Inversion. We actually had to make 2 attempts to land due to the denseness of the fog.

Flying SLC-BOI, Friday

As we did the final leg of our day, the combination of the Inversion fog as well as the darkness of
night did not allow for pictures

Flying BOI-SEA Saturday January 24th

Unlike last week when Seattle was blanketed by a thick-layer of fog, today the view was pretty good and I was able to take a few good photos. Our approach
took us to the north over Seattle before turning back to the south to land at SEA. In this photo, you get a view of the lights of Tacoma as we begin our turn
north. According to Wikipedia, Tacoma, long the industrial city, has experienced
a significant "Downtown Reneissance". www.tacoma.com .

As we continue North we see top to bottom:

-Seattle-Tacoma Airport, under a blanket of fog. www.portseattle.org/seatac

-The tony suburb of Mercer Island

-The bottom 2 photos offer a great overhead view of greater Seattle. Click
on the photofor a closer view.

We fly over Bellevue as we turn left to fly west on our approach.
Bellevue is a booming edge city on the east side of Lake Washington.
With a thriving business, shopping environment, as well as many down-
town housing projects built or under way, Bellevue is abustling place.
www.ci.bellevue.wa.us .

If you look at the center of the 3rd photo down; Bellevue Square is labeled, as well as Lincoln Place to the left, www.bellevuecollection.com .
This makes up the bulk of the downtown shopping district. In between, the large building is leased primarily by Microsoft. For a closer look, click on the
photo.

The picture in the bottom photo is the Evergreen Floating Bridge connecting
Seattle with the suburbs on the East Side.

As we make our 2nd left for the downwind leg to Sea-Tac we pass top
to bottom:

-University of Washington campus with Husky Stadium in the lower left
corner. www.washington.edu .

- The Seattle Center, featuring the Space Needle and the colorful building
to the right, the Experience Music Project.
www.spaceneedle.com and www.empsfm.org .

- Downtown Seattle and the seaport where you will find Pikes Place
Market. This is a great place to buy fresh Pacific seafood, produce or just
people watch. www.pikeplacemarket.org . Two of my favorite places to get
fresh seafood are The Athenian Inn, (in the market itself). The scene in
"Sleepless in Seattle" where Rob Reiner and Tom Hanks are eating at the
bar is filmed there. Another place, on the north side across from the market
is Emmitt Watson's Oyster Bar. Unfortunately neither resturaunt has a web-
site, but plenty information is available via a web search.

Continuing on Final Descent we pass, (from top to bottom):

-Qwest Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks www.seahawks.com .

-Safeco Field, (with the roof closed), where the Mariners play ball
www.mariners.mlb.com .

-The Port of Seattle

-Boeing Field, home of the Museum of Flight www.museumofflight.org .