RNC - Part 2

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday buses took us from our hotel in Safety Harbor to downtown Tampa to the Republican National Convention, which was held at the Tampa Bay Times Forum.  The convention experience was everything we imagined and more.  We would leave our hotel at 5 p.m. and not get back to the hotel until between 12:30 and 1:30 a.m.  With 50 states worth of delegates and alternate delegates, and guests (yes, I was a guest), it takes a while to get everyone on the right bus and back to their hotel.  The actual convention evening would end around 11:30 p.m.  With Russ being an alternate delegate, his seat location was on the first tier up from the convention floor, which actually gave a better view of the speakers and performers than where the Tennessee delegates sat.  The visitors’ seats were up in the nosebleed section, so Russ let me have his alternate delegate seat the last two nights.  It was absolutely PERFECT.  So proud of Russ for making this trip possible.  

 

So I’ll share a few pictures, but first let me just summarize some of the speakers we heard. I think our favorites were Ann and Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Mia Love, Mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, and former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. Others we liked were Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire; Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey; Senator-to-be Ted Cruz of Texas; former Democratic congressman Artur Davis of Virginia; Gov. Luis Fortuño of Puerto Rico; Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina; Gov. Susana Martinez of New Mexico; Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia; Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky; Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio; and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin. Whew. That was one long list. And then there were Ted and Pat Oparowsky, who shared a very personal story of how their Bishop, Mitt Romney, helped them when their 14 year old son was dying of cancer.  Sister Finlayson also shared her family’s story of dealing with crisis when Mitt Romney was their Bishop.  I looked around to see tears running down the faces of many.  It was very touching and we’ll remember their stories always.  It was so exciting to be there to feel the excitement of the whole event. Yes, if you saw me on TV, I was the one dancing in the isle during the musical numbers.

 



Proudly wearing our orange tie and scarf for the great state of Tennessee



Tennessee's best ever alternate delegate - Russ!

Shout out for Utah.

Mitt Romney speaking

Marco Rubio speaking

Look closely and you can see Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan on stage with some of their family members.



Balloons ready to be dropped.

SIDE STORY:  A story was written up in the National Journal about a different kind of party for delegates from Utah.  Merit Medical CEO, Fred Lampropoulos (of Utah) spent $10,000 on towels, toothbrushes and soap from the local Costco in Tampa to be distributed to storm victims and packaged by the Utah convention delegation.  To quote from the article: “Word of the project spread through the congregation at the Mormon church in Tampa, where Utah delegates met fellow church members from Hawaii and Arizona at Sunday services.  The goods will be distributed by the LDS Humanitarian Services, the church’s disaster network.”   I was so touched by this story.  While some people fretted about Hurricane Isaac and wondered how it would affect the convention, the Mormons went to work and put together kits to give to those who would soon find themselves without power or in short supplies of the basics. They used the day we couldn’t travel to the convention center or hold meetings there to help those who would need it very soon as Hurricane Isaac moved towards Louisiana.

 

Republican Convention -- Part 1

It’s impossible to pack all the FUN we had at the Republican National Convention in just one blog post, so I’ll take two. This first one is dedicated to the things we did “away” from the convention center.  The RNC put us up in a beautiful hotel, Safety Harbor Resort and Spa. It’s located right on the Tampa Bay, about 20 minutes from downtown Tampa.  It was perfect in every way.  Most of our meals were provided and included guest speakers and “surprise” guest speakers.  We drove to Tampa—took us 10 hours.  We drove right towards Hurricane Isaac, but then it avoided impact with Tampa and headed west.  We just had strong winds and rain. Although we drove to Tampa, buses were provided to get us everywhere we needed to go. So we walked around the beautiful little city of Safety Harbor, enjoying cupcakes and ice cream, but then took the bus to attend outings away from the hotel and to attend the actual convention.  It was all good!  If we had a bucket list, which we don’t, attending the RNC would be on it. So here's some pictures of our time in Safety Harbor.  We honestly loved every minute of it.

It took us 10 hours to drive to Tampa - well worth the drive.

Registering - yes, that's an elephant ice sculpture - Russ is ready

Love our hotel room!

Russ with Rep. Ryan Haynes, who Russ was an alternate for

Registration Room

Hurricane Isaac blew on past us.

The city of Safety Harbor renamed their Main Street for the week we were there.

I'm so proud of my husband.  He deserved this special opportunity to attend the RNC!

Surprise speaker Frank Luntz of Fox News was one of my favorite speakers - he brought these two paintings with him.

Luntz gave this one of Pres. Reagan to Chris Devaney, TN Republican Party Chairman; the other was auctioned right there.

Ready for one of many wonderful meals that were provided for us. This was a breakfast on our first day.



Appetizer for dinner in the Barnoff Theater

I practice taking a pix of myself.  :)

Our dinner group at the Barnoff Theater

Desserts were oh so good.

TN Governor Haslam posed with me.



                

Craig Romney surprised us at brunch one morning.



Stay tune for Part 2 of the RNC -- coming soon!