Thursday, April 30, 2015

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.

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

U*Le*Le

I loved the restaurant we went to and it had such a beautiful story behind it. It was such a labor of love for the family that opened it. So much thought went into every bit of planning and trying to make it 'green'.

It seems in Tampa history, some 70 years or so before John Smith and Pocahontas, Ulele (the Tocabaga Chief's daughter) felt pity for some Spaniards and threw herself onto one of them so that her father would spare his life. The restaurant is named after the princess (and so are the nearby springs) and outside the building is this bronze statue that tells the story of how she saved the Spanish explorer from her people.

After an eight million dollar renovation the 1906 Water Works Building was transformed into the oldest restaurant in Tampa that we got the pleasure of eating at. The thought behind Ulele seems to be keeping all the ingredients organic and fresh from local family owned and independent companies. I really love when a modern convenience (like eating out) aims to keep the families in business and cares about you as a patron as much as the money (at least in illusion).
The menu is native-inspired using ingredients when they are available just like their ancestors did.  It kind of blew my mind how some of the ingredients are so casually listed: frog legs, alligator, quail, boar, venison, duck. Before doing my research I though it was like lox in New York and just what they eat here but it was more about using what is available. I have to say they make some delicious food. I enjoyed alligator hush puppies, charbroiled oysters, and duck bacon ice cream. I didn't know duck bacon was a thing either but it was tasty.

The coolest part of dinner was finding Cliff's wine namesake. We flew all the way across the country to discover that just a few hours south of us in our home state is a winery with his name. We would have had a glass but they were out so we'll have to obtain some when we get back home.