Traveling Again: Tampa

For someone in my position (young with no money and no real job) I do a significant amount of traveling. Sometimes, it's purely for fun, like when I went to Tokyo, or various trips to Austin. Sometimes it's for school, like the trip to Tampa, a recent trip to San Diego, and a trip to pre-Ike Galveston back in April. I like traveling, for the most part.

This trip to Tampa was a little unique, in that I was traveling by myself. I am attending a conference on women and addiction.

On my first night, I ate alone in an Italian restaurant that had only one other table of customers. I recognize that to some of you who have small children, eating alone in a restaurant probably sounds pretty good, but when you're 27 and single, eating alone makes you feel like you should get a lot of cats, start wearing a bathrobe, and basically let the world know that you have given up. The food was pretty good, although my first choice would have been the sushi restaurant next door that was inexplicably closed on a Monday night.

Tampa Bay didn't sound that impressive, but I had forgotten that it is actually the home of an NFL team, an MLB team, AND an NHL team. As it turns out, the hockey arena is right across the street from where my conference was being held. Sadly, the first game of the preseason is not until Saturday. Had I thought about it when I booked my tickets, I might have tried to stay longer, just to go to an NHL game. Oh well. Here's a shot of the arena:

Instead of going to a hockey game, I finally saw Dark Knight. I try really hard not to do things on trips that I can do in Lubbock, so I paid extra money to watch it in the IMAX theater. A couple of things:

a) The movie was pretty disturbing, especially on the giant screen with the amazing sound.

b) It wasn't as disturbing as I was preparing myself for. Which was a little disturbing in and of itself. Maybe my life has hardened me to deeply disturbed people.

c) The movie was more disturbing because there were only about 5 other people in the theater with me, and when it was all over, I had to walk back to my car in downtown Tampa Bay in the twilight. So, yes, the thought did go through my head that the Joker might be waiting around the corner for me. Also, I have recurring dreams about gators, which are supposedly wandering around Florida. So I was relieved to find my car.

But I stopped to look at a lizard, and also to take another picture of the outside of St. Pete's Times Forum, where the Lightning Bolts play.

On my second night in Tampa, I went back to the sushi restaurant, hoping it would be open. I recently skimmed the book Stuff White People Like: A Definitive Guide to the Unique Taste of Millions, by Christian Lander. He writes as if he is explaining white Americans to people who are not white Americans, and he talks extensively about white Americans' obsessions with Japan, from Japanese women to Japan to sushi. He points out that Americans love to go to Japan so they can come back to America and talk about how much better Japanese food is in Japan. I'm trying not to be guilty of that. That said, I was pretty impressed by Yoko's Japanese Restaurant in Tampa Bay.

First of all, to get there, I drove along the coast at dusk, which was gorgeous. Then, when I got to the restaurant, all the servers were dressed in yukata and (I kid you not) flip flops with socks. Not tabi, but cotton socks with a separation between the toes. They gave me a hot, damp towel to wipe my hands with, just like in Japan. They did not have inari sushi, but, unlike the place I go to in Lubbock, at least the waitress at Yoko's knew what it was. The food I ordered was good, and, for dessert, I had tempura ice cream. It wasn't mochi, but it was pretty good.

Yes, it was also covered with whipped cream and chocolate syrup. I'm pretty lucky my heart didn't stop right there.

The rest of the trip was a quest to find a t-shirt that said Tampa Bay Lightning Bolts on it. Since AAMFT in Austin two years ago, I have collected college t-shirts from various places I have visited. In two years, I have gathered 10 shirts. And while every store I went to had t-shirts from various Florida colleges (some of which I have mixed feelings about), I decided I needed to get a Lightning Bolts shirt, as I'm rarely in cities with professional hockey teams.

Did you know the Tampa Bay Lightning Bolts won the Stanley Cup in 2004? No? Well, I'm pretty sure no one in Tampa Bay knows that either. I searched Target and Wal-Mart, and while they had college apparel, Buccaneer stuff, and Ray stuff (formerly Devil Ray stuff), I couldn't find one Lightning Bolts anything at either place.

I did, however, find a random Syracuse jersey in Target.


So, of course, I couldn't give up. I am my father's daughter, after all.


I went to a store in the mall and found a very limited supply of Lightning Bolts shirts, including a child's shirt that was on clearance that looked like it would fit me.

And, yes, there are three DIFFERENT styles of UT shirts. In Florida. Apparently, Floridians' appreciation of football extends far and wide. I'm not sure why they even have a hockey team.

To reward myself for my awesome find, I went to Waffle House.

I have wanted to eat at Waffle House since I was in Georgia interviewing a couple of years ago, and Tracy and Elliot wanted to take me there. The way Tracy described it, it was a little white trash, and all the employees were constantly yelling at each other. It sounded like the kind of thing I would enjoy exploring with them. At the last minute, they decided to take me somewhere else. In Tracy's words, "The food's pretty greasy, and we always feel kind of gross afterward." I appreciated that they were looking out for me, but it sparked in me a desire to see the place.

They are all over the South. Ironically, however, they are not in Lubbock. I'm not sure why-did Waffle House think Lubbock was an undesirable location, or does Lubbock think Waffle House is an undesirable franchise? Both alternatives are pretty appalling. There are some in Texas, and Stephanie, Layne, and I have had some discussions about visiting one, but we haven't yet. There's a weird dichotomy about Tampa: in some ways, it looks like Southern California, but, at the same time, it is definitely south of the Mason-Dixon line. Waffle House sort of proves that.

I was not disappointed. I had a lite waffle with strawberries and whipped cream. Yes, I recognize that putting whipped cream and strawberries undoes any good having a lite waffle would do, but I was celebrating. I began to wonder about the employees in Waffle House: how did they choose to work at Waffle House? How long had they been there? What were their lives like outside of Waffle House? I'm pretty sure I have never thought that much about people who have waited on me at a restaurant, but one of the employees changed into scrubs at the end of her shift, and it got me thinking. She was clearly going to school to do something in the medical field. It was kind of inspiring.

My favorite thing about Waffle House was its jukebox. There were songs I recognized. However, there were a lot of other songs about, well, Waffle House. Songs like, "Waffle House Stomp," and "There are Raisins in My Toast."

I didn't take any pictures of the inside of Waffle House because

a) I was afraid they would think I was from the board of health.

b) I didn't want to take a closer look at the place where I had just eaten lunch.

I really enjoyed Tampa. There aren't a lot of other places I have been where you can take a drive overlooking the waterfront, catch a hockey game, and eat at a Southern institution without leaving the city limits.

I was tagged!

My friend Ami came up with her own tag and tagged me. Posting this saves me from having to come up with something else to post.



Divulging Tag!

1. Briefly describe something stupid that you've done:


Recently, I was on a train going from Kyoto to Tokyo, and I had to go to the bathroom, but forgot to lock the door, and someone walked in on me. Even in a foreign country where no one knew me, it was pretty scarring.


2. Name something brilliant that you've done lately:


A couple of days ago, I got a craving for tonkatsu (deep fried pork cutlet). Asian food in Lubbock is sub-par anyway. We have a couple of Hibachi steakhouse/sushi restaurants in the city, but that's about it. So I knew if I was going to satisfy this craving, I would have to figure out how to make it myself. So I did. I bought the panko and the tonkatsu sauce (thank goodness for the one pan-Asian market in Lubbock). It wasn't perfect, but it did the job.


3. Write a paragraph out of your journal from five or ten or fifteen years ago, closest to today's date. Feel free to change names to protect your dignity:



Five years ago, I was on my mission. I couldn't find my journal from this exact date, but I found this quote from my companion about an elder in our mission that I thought was particularly good. At some point in my mission, people started living and dying by the Color Code Test, so that's what this is in reference to:



"Then I talked to Elder Stevens*, and he said Elder Davidson* was a blue-yellow. I totally can't date him now!" *Names changed to protect the innocent.


4. What is something you love about yourself (don't worry, no one will think you're bragging):

I love my name. It's only 8 letters long, but people seem to remember it. It alternates consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel-consonant, vowel-consonant-vowel, which I think rolls off the tongue nicely. And even though the name Megan is common for people in my age group, I've met very few people with the last name (except for the guy on Heroes).

5. Name a useless talent that you have:

I used to be able to walk on the knuckles of my feet when I was little. I can't do it anymore (I just checked).

6. Tell a short experience that makes you laugh:

The other day, Lubbock got 6.5 inches of rain (a city record) and my friend Erin was driving around the mall parking lot when a huge wake from a truck tore the license plate off the front of her car. So she rolled up her pant legs, put her galoshes on, and waded out to find it. The pictures were awesome!

7. Tag whomever, if you want:

Anybody who reads my blog (all 3 of you, besides Mel and Ami).

Come Back To Texas

It's the name of a Bowling for Soup song.

I recognize that I have two half-way done posts from my last week in Tokyo. I will finish them at some point, when my life settles down a little bit. In the meantime, I have been visiting sights closer to home.

After spending almost a month away from home, what did I decide to do with my Labor Day weekend? I went to Austin again. Austin is slowly working its magic on me, it seems. In fact, the whole weekend was sort of an education on Texas, which I will explain as the post progresses.

Labor Day weekend coincided with the home openers of several college football teams, including the school I currently attend, Texas Tech, and my alma mater, BYU. However, the home opener I went to was the University of Texas, which I have never attended but somehow own two shirts from. Layne decided he wanted to go to the opening game in the newly-renovated Darrell K. Royal Memorial Stadium, when they would retire Vince Young's jersey, and he invited everyone he could find to come along. I apologize at this point to Ami, if you are reading this, knowing how you feel about UT. What can I say? I am a follower.

Eight of us left for Austin on Friday night. We stopped at Chuy's when we got there, close to midnight. This is one of the restaurants I ate at two years ago with the BYU MFT crew when we were in Austin for AAMFT. It's pretty good Tex-Mex food, and the decor is very Austin. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of it.

The next morning, we canoed around Town Lake, which is pretty much in the city limits of Austin. Much like the river trip, I was expecting to get wet, so I did not bring my camera.

Here's a shot of Amanda, Jenny Jo, and Melanie putting sunblock on each other before we got in the water.

We took to canoes and a kayak onto the lake. The highlight of the canoe trip was when we (Stephanie, Amanda, and I) decided to race Layne, Mike, and Melanie in their canoe. We were keeping pace with them pretty well until Layne reached over the side and splashed us. We were livid. Stephanie attempted to splash him back, and, in the process, shifted the weight of the canoe such that it flipped over. Luckily, there were no casualties. I had money in the pocket of my jacket that got wet, but that was about it. It was actually pretty funny.

After showering and changing at the hotel, we headed to the football game.

A word about football in Texas: It's a big deal. I mean, I grew up thinking football was a sport. Down here, it's pretty much a religion. And the mecca of Texas football is Darrell K. Royal Memorial Stadium, where the University of Texas Longhorns play. Over 98,000 disciples made a pilgrimage there that night.

I also understand a little more about Texas pride. I heard "Deep in the Heart of Texas" no less than four times during the game. The marching band unfurled the Texas state flag before the game. We were treated to a montage of photos on Texas state history. Even Layne thought it was excessive, and he thinks everything about the University of Texas is awesome.

And, admittedly, the football team was pretty awesome. They beat Florida Atlantic University (I had never heard of them either) 52-10. Here's a shot of Stephanie, Amanda, and me during the game, from our seats three rows from the top.

Just in case you're wondering, none of us went to UT.

Of course, the most fabulous part of the game was this:



In case you can't tell, that's Matthew McConaughey on the Jumbo-Tron, wearing a shirt, no less. Behind him is Camila Alves and their son, Levi. It was pretty hot and humid in Austin, so there was a part of me that was happy we were so far away from him. 'Cause he doesn't wear deodorant.

The game ended, and we made our second trip to Kerbey Lane Cafe. Kerbey Lane is a restaurant chain in Austin that has AMAZING blueberry pancakes. Plus, they're open around the clock, which is not something you can say about many restaurants. In Lubbock, only IHOP comes to mind.

On Sunday, we went to church, and had lunch at a restaurant called Hula Hut. The food was something like Mexican with infusions of Hawaiian (i.e. mangoes and pineapples).

After lunch, we decided to go to Enchanted Rock, which, as it turns out is about an hour from Austin. Having grown up in a valley, and having spent six years living along the Wasatch front, this big boulder was not as enchanting as I was hoping it would be:

It's about .6 miles from the base to the summit. It cost six bucks to enter. That's a dollar for every tenth of a mile. Unfortunately, after the arduous hike, we had to drive to Gruene (home of Texas' oldest dance hall) for a concert. Layne's y chromosomes kicked in, and he refused to ask for directions. We found it in time for the concert, but just barely. And by the time I got there, I had to go to the bathroom really badly.



Above is a shot of the bathroom stall in the Gruene Concert Hall. It refuses to rotate, so you'll have to flip your monitors to look at it. I include it because the door was two feet above the ground, and I was pretty self-conscious about what people could see.

The concert was Charlie Robison, who, according to Layne and Stephanie, is about as famous a regional artist as you can be without being nationally known.

From left to right: Amanda, Stephanie, Layne, and me in the Gruene Dance Hall.

We hit the Jack in the Box drive-thru, where we had some debate about whether or not you can consider a taco from Jack in the Box a real taco. This was also the historical site of the only full meal (a sourdough Jack) I consumed during the entire Austin experience. I was ridiculed a lot for that.

The next morning, we hit Kerbey Lane again for brunch before we headed back to Lubbock.

Below is a shot of Layne and I at Kerbey Lane. One of us had migas with rice and beans, and a short stack of strawberry pancakes. One of us had just a short stack of strawberry pancakes that went unfinished. Guess who.

If you look carefully, you can see them on my plate.

The epilogue to this trip is that I am now thinking about other cool things in Texas that I should see while I live here. I plan to do several more posts about things I see in Texas, and things I love about Texas.