Treybow the Pirate

Every year the Gasparilla Pirate Festival comes to Tampa. The name of Tampa's traditional Gasparilla Carnival comes from legendary pirate Jose Gaspar, last of the Bucaneers, who terrorized the coastal waters of West Florida during the late 18th and early 19th century. When Gaspar died he supposedly left an untold fortune in buried treasure somewhere along the Florida coast. The story was unearthed and Gaspar's memory was revived in 1904, when Tampa's social and civic leaders adopted the pirate as patron rogue of a city wide celebration. Secret meetings gave birth to the first "Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla" whose 40 members planned to suprise the city with a mock pirate attack on Tampa. Masked and fully costumed, the first krewe arrived on horseback and "captured" the city during a Festival Parade. This first invasion was so successful that the city has been doing it ever since.

Gasparilla and the whole pirate frenzy in Tampa was the inspiration for Trey's pirate nursery and thus we of course had to go to the Gasparilla Children's parade this year. Along with our neighbors we decorated our strollers and the kids and headed to the parade.

Trey's decorated stroller - as you can see he is not a fan of the pirate hat.

Trey and the rest of the Elberon Krewe participating in the toddler parade.

Clearly we need to start decorating our stroller much earlier next year -
this is one of the winners from the toddler parade.

The Elberon Krewe

When the actual parade started and we were hanging out watching, Trey was a real hit with all of the parade participants and they all came up to him to give him beads.

Treybow the Pirate with some of his bead booty!