Florida Vacation

What a fantastic past week has been. We left on Thursday early morning and by 10am were in Fort Lauderdale. Art picked us up and the first thing handed to us upon arrival was a cold beer. That's what vacation with friends is all about.

Staying at Everglade House, on the 16th floor, the view from which is amazing. I'm sure Chris and Maya took pictures. I was just enjoying the vacation and almost didn't touch the camera at all. Both of our balconies faced the water. That's right. We saw few cargo ships (one Chiquita), and several cruise ships.

On Friday, while girls were harry pottering the world in Orlando, the boys went to the beach and encountered a ton of lightning. Many times it was a flickering lightning where it would strike 5+ times at the same place in few seconds.
The clouds were getting heavy and dark so we eventually gathered our stuff and went inside. There wasn't too much sun in first few days but that didn't bother me at all.
In the evening, we went to Le Tub and had some burgers, voted one of best in US by GQ Magazine. We defeated the burgers and were stuffed until the next day. The seafood salad there barely had any salad and was mostly just seafood. Awesome dish.

Our Saturday was filled with Airboat rides at Gatorpark. We saw some wildlife of birds, gators, turtles, and a bunch of water and grass. Tons of fun.

At the souvenir shop I even found a great gift for my sister's 13th birthday. It was a metal sign with a frog on in and an old advertisement for voice restoration.

Went out to a non-irish bar/grille for some Mahi-Mahi and other seafood goodness for dinner. Michelle had to pick between two non-seafood dishes. One day she'll understand the power of yummy fish!

Saturday Michelle relatives invited us for some food and company, it was a pleasant and relaxing afternoon. In the evening I cooked chicken, corn, sweet potato for dinner. Everyone approved and even Art ate some sweet potatoes, though he doesn't like it in general.

On Monday, we went Snorkeling at Key Largo. Art went scoobadiving, while we were busy unsuspectingly burning our backs while floating in the ocean. It was a great experience, I wish I bought a water camera, but it slipped my mind until we were on the way. it was a relaxing activity, though I was a little nervous at first.

We took up another two hour drive to see Key West - the most southern-point in United States. The drive was enjoyable. Ocean on one side, and Gulf of Mexico on the other side. I was just trying to stay in the moment and appreciate the situation and the company of people in the car. Whenever there is a pleasant situation in my life, especially involving other people, I try to take a minute and appreciate where I am and who I am surrounded by.

But nothing goes smoothly as expected, right? At Big Pine West, about 30miles away from our destination we got a flat tire. All adventures have ups and downs. Chris was all over changing the tire, but unfortunately the last bolt was screwed in too hard so we weren't able to tackle it without AAA. Getting mosquito bitten and talking to state troopers while waiting for our service did put a dent on our timeline. We couldn't go faster than 55mph. But we weren't going to give up because of a flat tire.  

We arrived at Key West at 11pm and were home at FLL by 4am. Again, we were debating on which seafood place to have dinner at. Michelle ordered key lime pie, which was all right.  Tons of people use bikes at Key West, since the place is even smaller than Greenwich CT. Wish we were there a little earlier and had time and energy to explore the town. There is always next time.

We made some baked goods before the flight home. The aerial view of Florida - real nice! We have these ideas about what our state looks like and what other states are all about, but until I saw it from the airplane - the swamps and farms - I just assumed Florida is coast and people.
I keep finding assumptions based on nothing in my world view. Good thing I at least try to 'fix' them with personal experience.

The vacation was a blast, I burned my back a little and got few souvenirs and post cards. Hanging out with two recent grads put things into perspective. Where am I now and where will I be one year from now?
I will be 25.