A Photo Journal

Tampa
2023

Tampa, Florida · February 2023

YES The Answer
14 Photos
2023 February
On the Way to Tampa · February 2023

She Said Yes

This is where the whole trip turns. Somewhere over the Gulf on the way to Tampa — ostensibly just a visit to Ako's friends — Eddy asked Ako to marry him. She said yes. (The alternative would have made for a very long rest of the flight.) The ring went on at 30,000 feet, and the photo says everything words can't.

Ako and Eddy cheek to cheek on the plane, Ako holding up her hand to show the engagement ring, both beaming
Ako's hand, the ring, 30,000 feet over the Gulf — she said yes.
Citrus Park · Tampa, Florida

The Friends

The reason for the trip in the first place: Ako's friends out in Citrus Park, a green, low-slung suburb on the northwest edge of Tampa — the kind of place where a great egret stalks the edge of a backyard pond while you catch up on the porch. The first friends to hear the news, and the first to see the ring.

A sunny group selfie of Eddy, Ako and three friends in sunglasses by the water
With Ako's friends in Tampa — a newly engaged couple among old friends.
A great egret standing at the grassy edge of a pond
A great egret at the edge of the pond — Florida saying hello.
Downtown Tampa, Florida

Downtown Tampa

With the big question behind them, the two spent Valentine's wandering downtown Tampa. They stayed at Le Méridien — the beautifully restored 1905 federal courthouse, all marble corridors and Corinthian columns — and walked out into a bright Florida February. Sacred Heart Catholic Church lifted its rose window and Sacred Heart statue against a hard blue sky; the Riverwalk traced the water's edge; and somewhere along the way, a skeleton rode a marlin clean across a wall.

It closed, fittingly, with a heart-shaped dessert and a candle — their first Valentine's Day as an engaged couple.

The columned neoclassical facade of Le Meridien Tampa lit up at night
Le Méridien Tampa after dark — the 1905 federal courthouse, columns aglow.
An elegant marble-lined interior corridor with wood doors and pendant lights
Inside Le Méridien — a marble corridor that still remembers the courthouse it was.
Eddy and Ako in a close selfie in an elegant warmly-lit hotel hallway
The two of them in the hotel hallway, the night it all changed.
Eddy and Ako selfie under a thatched tiki roof by the water
Under a tiki roof by the water — Florida in February.
Video
A carved Corinthian column capital with acanthus leaves against the sky
A Corinthian capital downtown — acanthus leaves and Florida sun.
The marble facade and rose window of Sacred Heart Catholic Church against a blue sky
Sacred Heart Catholic Church — its rose window against a hard blue sky.
The Sacred Heart statue set into the church's stone tracery below the rose window
The Sacred Heart statue set into the church's stone tracery.
Public art of a skeleton riding a blue marlin mounted on a grey wall
Downtown public art — a skeleton riding a marlin across the wall.
Eddy and Ako selfie on the Tampa Riverwalk, bright water behind them
On the Tampa Riverwalk, the water bright behind them.
A heart-shaped layered dessert with raspberry sauce and a candle on a restaurant table
A heart-shaped dessert and a candle — their first Valentine's, newly engaged.

Links

The Flight Home · February 2023

Heading Home

They splurged on first class for the flight home — because some flights you want to remember, and this was the one carrying them back as a couple who'd just decided on forever.

Eddy resting his head on Ako's shoulder, both content in their first-class seats on the flight home
First class on the way home — forever, just decided.