Around Tampa

My friend Sheldon, my unexpected host for the surprise week of immobility, is a real foodie. Early on in the week, when it appeared that there would be a few guests in town for just a few days, Sheldon had arranged a few dinners at suitably foodie places.

The first evening, Sheldon, Gretchyn, Scott, and I went out to Mise en Place. It's one of the finest meals I've ever had, forget about just this trip. The menu rotates frequently, so I don't think I can recommend something you should get. I can recommend that you go there and be adventurous, though. I had the pate in banana mole, just to give you an idea of what you're in for. The following night, now with Aaron Forsythe, we visited Bern's Steakhouse, evidently the premier such place in Tampa. It certainly earns its reputation. The steak itself was quite good by high-end steakhouse standards, but the really memorable parts of the evening were the tour of the wine cellar, consisting of literally hundreds of thousands of bottles, followed by desert and coffee in the special desert rooms. I kid you not.

But after those first couple nights I was quite glad to drop out of 'being entertained' mode and drop happily and comfortably into 'hanging out' mode. Aaron left on Sunday, followed by Scott on Monday. The three of us remaining enjoyed a relatively quiet time of some nights staying in, some nights going out simply. A great deal of relaxation was had all around, especially with the pool and the spa in the back patio.

I'm telling you, there are things that can be quite nice about Florida.

Early in the week I started to walk around the general area a bit. Tampa isn't the type of town where people live in the city and have a vibrant downtown and what not. It's more of a gated community and shopping center kind of scene. At least in this part of town. The communities are built new here. A good job has been done to incorporate the natural surroundings into the neighborhoods. For example, there are numerous ponds and wetlands amongst the houses. Wildlife is all over, like these herons. Plus cranes and ibises. They have 'missing pet' problems here as well, which are probably attributable to alligators.

It's a state crime to disturb alligators, as the signs around the neighborhood point out. But I think that if they really meant that, they wouldn't have built the elementary school right across the street from this particular pond! I was hoping to get a glimpse of one of the little fellows, as I figure that photography isn't all that disturbing. Unfortunately, I never caught sight of one. I did make a count of the household cats every day. No worries on that front.

A small perk is that there's a brand new LA Fitness just about a mile down the street. I got in my first real workout since I left Seattle. Felt like three weeks had gone by, too.

Through the wonder that is Facebook, I have slowly but surely over the last year or two been renewing acquaintances with friends from many years ago, as have so many other people. I had mostly fallen out of contact with even my closest friends from high school. On this unexpected visit, I got a real, offline benefit from this phenomenon. One of my high school teachers, of whom I was particularly fond, had retired to the environs of St. Petersburg with her husband a few years ago. Diane Skyes taught art as well as a class called 'Senior English' which was a kind of college prep humanities class combining art, history, and literature. That class in particular is one of the more defining moments in my education and probably had the greatest impact on my decision to study anthropology in college.

Diane and David were kind enough to come all the way out to Tampa to pick me up and go with me for lunch in St. Pete, followed by a visit to the Dali museum. That is certainly a visit I recommend. It's a quite manageable sized collection, about 2-3 hours to enjoy nicely. It has some very early examples of his art, including some impressionist and cubist things he did when he was a teenager and learning his craft. Who knew? Plus, of course, a wide selection of his surrealist work and even some of the glasswork he did from the 60s through the 80s.

Florida at it's best...at it's most characteristic...is done up in pastels of pink and turquoise and yellow. Only this state can pull this off, I think. The colors bake and sparkle in the sun, and it all feels right. In any other environment I would find it gaudy. I think seeing my old art teacher put me in a suitable mind to contemplate this.

Throughout the week, I heard back from Vic the mechanic several times. The news hasn't been great, but hasn't been disastrous. The delivery of the new engine got pushed back a day to Friday. Thursday I heard I also needed a new flywheel, but that it wouldn't cause any more time delay. As I type this Thursday night, I remain guardedly hopeful that I'll be on the road again in less than 24 hours.

I've learned something the progress of this trip from the stay. I write better when I have hours of uninterrupted time to just contemplate and consider. Not even actively, mind you. What I would call passive thinking. The kind of thing you do when you're on the road for long stretches, with no television or swimming pool or dinner plans to distract you. I'm eager to get moving again. I imagined this update being done earlier, but I just couldn't muster up the framework to do it. Determination of the quality and entertainment value once I did get around to it is left as an exercise to the reader.

I'm also starting to actually miss my home. I think the little taste of sedentary life here has made me pine for my own walls and my own stuff. It is indeed to time to move on.