Out And Stuff

I'm not nitpicking, because really, going out is going out. But seriously. C'mon Tampa Bay.

Allowing for a review:

Stop 1: Washington, DC. It's Saturday night. You could pick Alexandria if you wanted to hang with the moderately hip kids who were mostly cool in college but now just want to chill and throw back a cold one or two in a microbrewery before calling it a night at 11.30 or so. Or, you could hit up Clarendon; while not the hottest of spots, it was always lively, and you could always walk around with the knowledge that you'd run into people even less cool than yourself, likely walking a dog or two. Georgetown hardly needs mentioning; if you require your Stereotypical College Girl fix (pleated skirts, slighty-longer-than-shoulder-length hair, snobby) or want to run into people who think that by being on M Street makes them sweet, then head across the Key Bridge and prepare to navigate the city's most trafficked sidewalks. Since you're in DC proper, you could go downtown and get behind a velvet rope for one of the many swank clubs, just have fun at one of the more fun places (I love you PollyEsther's), or have an anonymously good time at the ESPN/Hard Rock corridor. And if you're feeling mightily brave, and you're looking to brag about where you went Monday at work, Adams Morgan's a good choice. It's the closest you'll get to New York, with a lot of people living densely and eating bad pizza at 2am after the bars close.

Okay, Stop 2: Raleigh, North Carolina. For being a HUGE college town, this place is insanely disappointing. There are 5 institutions of higher learning in and around NC's capital, yet the city provides little-to-nothing in the way of nightlife. No wonder everyone goes to Chapel Hill.

Finally: Tampa Bay. You might think you're getting the best of two worlds here: Downtown St. Pete and Downtown Tampa. Two downtowns! Double the possibilities for pleasure! The former, in fact, has BayWalk. And that's pretty much it. Downtown Tampa doesn't really exist so much as be; as an entity, it has no life of its own. It's too spread out. Consequently, everyone congregates in ChannelSide, which is kinda hip. But it's built as a place to come and be hip, so it ends up failing to be hip. Amazingly. I shall not bring up Ybor City, which is a sad, sad attempt to be Bourbon Street. It is not. It is downtown Mt. Clemens. But worse.

Seriously, all I'm asking for is a PollyEsthers. Or I'll have to build one myself.