Since I don't have cable and work evenings, there aren't any shows I can get religiously hooked on. I keep myself busy at the library, as you all know, and have gotten hooked on two series: The Tudors and Friends. I ended the first season of Friends today and began the second season of the Tudors. The shows are complete opposite. It's nice to have that diversity. Friends ended on a sad note for those who may recall. Rachel went to the airport to meet Ross when coming back from China... I guess I'll have to start season 2 to find out what happens.
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I liked Cat Power from the Juno CD so much I actually took some time today to look up her other work. Her voice is very soulful. Rather than me trying to craft a review terribly, here's the song played in Juno for your enjoyment. When I'm watching a movie, I rarely ever can recall the music played in it. But I figure if it was a movie I liked, the music was probably pretty good. So I picked up the Juno soundtrack at the library and popped it in the CD player in my car. The first song wasn't great so I skipped it, same with the second. Turns out I skipped through the whole CD in about 15 minutes. I only let one song play all the way through: Cat Power singing Sea of Love.
Goodbye tropical wonderfulness. It's been real. This picture was taken Tuesday morning at sunrise from the balcony of our resort. All-around, it was an amazing trip. Lucas and I had never spent that much time together in a row; We handled it pretty well. As we checked out of the resort, the woman said, "Thanks for staying with us Mrs. Wardenburg." Had to let that one sink in a bit. Hopefully I can get use to that idea in the next seven months.
Our flight was originally departing FTL at 5:30 p.m.. However, with Isaac getting closer we decided to jump on an earlier flight. We left at 11:45 a.m. instead. The wind was sure blowing and rain was coming down in sheets on and off again. Although Ft. Lauderdale wasn't in the cone of the storm, local meteorologists say you can feel the storm's effects 100 miles away. A tornado watch was also in effect. Gratefully, our flight went smoothly taking us to sunny Houston, Texas for a layover. That was also my first time in Texas. I know it's only the airport, but it still counts. Hello Des Moines. Hello reality. Tropical Storm Isaac. You just couldn't wait another two days to make your way to South Florida. Luckily, the weather only got bad late Friday night. Saturday we stayed in the resort most of the day. It was rainy and extremely windy. We ventured out to drive around the multi-million-dollar homes, go downtown FTL, get some souvenirs and eat sushi. Las Olas is the trendy, hip strip in this city. It's about three miles long with a ton of shops and restaurants. We ate at Sushi Rock, a place recommended by our snorkeling captain. We ordered the reggae, spyder, and dynamite. One of them had conch which was both of our first times eating that. It was mixed with crab so it tasted great to me. I was surprised the sushi was similarly priced to sushi in Des Moines. The rolls cost $9, $9, and $12. We walked away just full enough. Oh, we also got a $5 edamame appetizer. Yum! I just can't get enough sushi.
Sushi Rock could seat maybe 40 people. There was a line of folks waiting to get in the whole time we were there. Airboat rides are pretty darn cool. I went on one near Orlando, Fla. back in 2007 with my family. Lucas had never been and I wanted to do it again. After looking at a couple different companies that offer the rides, we decided to go big. We booked a 10-hour safari eco-tour from the Atlantic Coast through the Everglades to the Gulf Coast. It cost $150 per person, but it was really worth it. We both sound like guides ourselves repeating back all the details we soaked up from our guide Jason. There were just 10 of us in a small van spending some quality time with mother nature.
I won't bore you here with all the fascinating things we learned. I'll keep it short, we saw several alligators, enjoyed alligator bites (which taste like chewy moist chicken), saw dolphins swimming, looked for manatees (though to no avail), got to ride on an airboat through the glades, and later ride a big pontoon-type boat out into the Gulf of Mexico. If you're outdoorsy and love nature, this is a must. The company is Everglades Day Safari. Ask for the guide Jason. After taking a little nap, we headed out to the dueling piano bar Soprano's just outside our resort. It was a ton of fun, but reminded me how many of those typical classic songs I really don't like ie. Jack and Diane, Don't Stop Believing, etc... I actually originally wanted to vacation in Miami. However, that didn't pan out so Ft. Lauderdale it was. But that doesn't mean we still couldn't visit Miami. Wednesday we jumped in the car and made the 45 minute drive down the so called "scenic" highway A1A. On a map, it looks like it's right along the coast. It's not until you're driving down it you realize there is a massive row of hotels and condos between the highway and the coast. The only scenery is man-made concrete 40 some stories high.
We got into the South Beach neighborhood of Miami Beach which is its own city. I thought it was all just Miami. Lots of shops and restaurants and bars line Collins, Ocean, and Lincoln - the main streets in South Beach. We parked and headed out to see all the beautiful people Miami had to offer on the beach. Well, maybe 10:00 a.m. was too early because Lucas and I were definitely the best looking people there. As we sit, taking in the fresh air and glow of the sun, Lucas asks if this is a topless beach. I said I wasn't sure. He noted that a woman was topless. Sure enough I look over and a woman walking through the water down the beach was topless letting her man-made scenery hang, yes hang, out. She did a few squats and picked her knees up higher while walking leading me to believe this was her workout. Wow, why didn't I think of that before? That would have been real intense training for Tough Mudder. Next stop, Key Largo. We got there just in time for lunch. We were starved after about 1.5 hours in the car. We ate at a place called Snapper's on the south side of the island overlooking the water. Lucas loved his coconut-crusted breaded Mahi sandwich, while I could have passed on my seafood burrito. I took a risk getting it; It did not pay off. I ate as much as I could and pushed and picked at it until I couldn't anymore. After lunch, we headed to the John Pennekemp state park. They offer snorkeling, scuba diving, and kayak and canoe rentals there. We chose to kayak. It was so peaceful gliding across the calm waters encircled by mangrove trees. It was secluded, just us. Lucas did most of the rowing which made it even more enjoyable for me. Apparently Key Largo is the scuba capitol of the world... we missed out on that chance. If you plan to go, I'd put that on the list of To Do's. I'm blessed enough to say I've been on quite a few vacations in my day. Almost every place my family has gone we bring up going snorkeling, and every time we've ruled it out for this reason or that reason. Well, this time I finally did it. Tuesday morning Lucas and I headed out to the nearby marina and joined about 35 other people in a snorkeling adventure. We weaved through the waterways in Ft. Lauderdale, which is called the Venice of America because of all the canals, passing multi-million-dollar homes and yachts. FTL is also considered the yacht capital. It's sick how many boats we saw. Our captain told us it costs on average $8 per foot per day to dock your boat in FTL. The average yacht is 87 feet. That's like $800 just to park your boat for one day. Insane.
We cruised along for about 45 minutes before reaching a reef out in the Atlantic Ocean. We got a mask, snorkel, and life vest and were tossed overboard. OK, no one really threw us. The reef was cool, but I was underwhelmed. I expected it to be more vibrant in color and for us to be closer to it. It was about 20 feet underwater so we couldn't swim through it like I've seen in commercials for tropical places. We snapped a bunch of pictures with an underwater camera. I'm excited to see how those turn out. I need to get them developed at the store - how 2003. Regardless, it was well worth the $35 per person to do it. We decided not to rush ourselves on Monday morning. We woke up, had a bite to eat and headed down to the beach. We knew we wanted to do a few things on this trip - one of them being: relax. Neither of us had been on a vacation in over a year so we were really wanted to soak this up. We'd also never spent 7 days straight together... alone.
For dinner, we went to a beach-side restaurant just a few blocks down from the resort called Bubba Gump's Shrimp. It was a totally play off Forest Gump. The shrimp was amazing, so were their hush puppies. We got a couple fruity adult beverages and enjoyed the warm evening air on the patio of the restaurant. I would definitely recommend this place the next time you find yourself in FTL. |