We landed in Tampa this afternoon on a trip to both visit my grandmother and allow Eric to give a talk at Eckerd College (our alma mater) on Wednesday. We picked gram up for an early dinner around 5 and whisked her off to Bella Brava in downtown St. Pete. We really enjoyed ourselves the last time, so we figured it would be a great place to take her. Thankfully there was a parking spot right in front, so it was easy to get gram out of the car, into her wheelchair, and in the door.
All of our dinner’s were tasty—a margherita pizza for gram, gorgonzola gnocci for Eric, and lobster ravioli for me. We completely filled ourselves up with the fried dough dessert topped with caramelized pears and vanilla gelato. We washed all of this down with the only Riesling they had, Royal Rheingau, which was light and nicely priced.
Unfortunately it’s become more difficult to talk with gram because she tends to fixate on certain things and she repeats herself often. She is much better in person (opposed to over the phone) when we can steer the conversation to the current situation, and after all, she is 88 years old. We had a lovely dinner despite this (of course) and plan on visiting with her a few more times before we head home on Thursday.