Good Morning, Tampa

Sunrise from my balcony over Tampa

I experienced sunset in Los Angeles followed by sunrise in Tampa. I'm not sure what plane I was on flying to LAX, but it was so small! It made such terrible clanking noises whenever the pilots moved the wings or made changes to the jets I was just sure it was going to break apart in the air.

I'm not very big, and yet I felt so cramped in my seat I literally gave myself a pain in my neck. I was so excited to get on a 737 for the flight to Florida. You don't realize how great some amenities are until you don't have them. Thank you whoever designed the 737, you are a genius in my world.

Florida is like nothing I've experienced before.

Tampa is bigger and older than I expected, beautiful in its own right, but so different. I realize that after traveling to San Antonio I compare every city to it. San Antonio just seems so big, and new, and most importantly so efficient.

I've never been around marshland like what is here in Florida. I'm used to the green of trees, but not from so many palm trees and plants I don't think I've ever seen in real life.

Back home we are in one of the worst droughts I can remember and here there is just so much water all over the ground. There's a smell, not bad, but different from the pine, mountains, or farm smells I'm used to.

People have always told me the humidity hits you as soon as you walk outside and it does indeed punch you hard enough that you have no question as to where you are. However, I like it. It's one of the first times I've been in heat (anything over 70 is too hot in my world) that didn't make me want to crawl out of my skin and cry. The downside: heat rash seems so much easier to get in this weather.