I never thought it would be possible. I'm a Maine girl with a Minnesota education, born and raised and dependent on seasons for my happiness. Cool summer breezes that keep me from needing Air Conditioning to sleep. Winters with enough snow to drown an elephant, but that make tearing down Comp Hill and Narrow Gauge possible. And plenty of rainy, fluctuating seasons in between. And being in Sarasota last week didn't make me too keen on spending any more time in Florida, with the outstanding amount of wealthy retirees and passionate (and wealthy) golf families.
But then we got to Weston, the Jewish retirement capital of the world and neighbor to Fort Lauderdale, not historically known as my most favorite place in the world. But today, on my day off, we spent the day exploring, discovering an amazing outlet mall with really nice places like Lacoste and BCBG and then (after going to the beach we lounged on every day on the swimming training trip in Fort Lauderdale) moved south to the Miami area. We got some Cuban food and guanábana juice for lunch, which we shared with a very nice Dominican man who we discovered eating by himself. Then we drove around areas full of Cuban and every other type of international food opportunity you could imagine. It's hot, the architecture is decidedly Spanish/Latin American, and there are people of every single walk of life and from every place you could imagine. Oh, and did I mention there's a great beach and that our new friend told us there are 20 blocks in Downtown Miami with 300 bars and clubs?
We got ice cream at the famous Jaxson's Ice Cream Parlor ($4 for one scoop, but they make it all right there and they can't understand when you order Coffee Fudge that you wanted it for the coffee -- I ended up with fudge, lost in translation. In our hotel parking lot we have a Peruvian restaurant, a Colombian restaurant where we grabbed cookies and sweet bread (pan dulce) tonight before watching Harry Potter, an Argentine restaurant, a Mexican restaurant, and a bar called Flanigan's. It's an exciting place and the course we're working on this week is really exciting. It was home to a tour event (Honda Classic) and we have the same course for the qualifier and tournament, which will really cut down on our setup and breakdown duties. And did I mention we've only been here for two days and have already had two storm delays?
It's an exciting place, beautiful cars, close to incredible amounts of culture and beaches, and there are even places where you can spend $80 to take a one-day cruise to The Bahamas with a breakfast buffet, a dinner buffet, and 4 hours in The Bahamas. Randi and I were planning on doing this today, but had to help the team and get the oil changed on our truck, Ox. It's okay, that let me buy two skirts that I have no real need for at J. Crew to pretend to replace the clothes that were lost at the Ritz-Carlton Members Golf Club last week. Ergh. Updates should be a little better this week, but for now, enjoy the post I wrote while on my Delta flight last week and the tidbits here.
(this was written on Saturday when I had the day off and the internet was broken)
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