A1A, Beachfront Avenue

So every 3 months while I've been here, I've had to leave the country to renew my visa. Toursit visas only last for 90 days. After the first three months I went to Nicaragua. While mom and dad were here, we talked about the possibility of me travelling to Florida to visit my sister for my second visa leave. I can't imagine WHY they would be more comfortable having me in Florida for the weekend rather than somewhere in Panama...! I decided this could be a really great opportunity too, since I realize my money situation will be quite lacking for a while after my return to the States in June, so I'm not sure when else I would have been able to travel down to see Meg and where she's living while going to grad school at FAU. So the ticket was bought, and this past weekend I travelled north on a pleasant 2 1/2 hour direct flight to Fort Lauderdale.

I got in on Thursday evening, with TJ and Megan waiting for me at the airport. After heading back to their place in Boca Raton, we (ok ok, TJ) made a great dinner and headed to a hookah bar for a bit to catch up. It was a great, relaxing way to bring in the weekend! Friday Meg and Teej had work and school, leaving me to entertain myself for a few hours. This was just fine with me, because there was a bike in my posession and a coffee shop VERY close! One thing I had been missing dearly while in Costa Rica was my tendency to find myself at a coffee shop on Saturday mornings with a drink and newspaper in hand. That reunion was glorious! I even tried to workout after the coffee shop on a treadmill at the house. I quickly decided that being on vacation also meant laying on the futon would win over running in place. Laziness 1, Fitness 0.

That evening for dinner the three of us headed to a restaurant called Dada for some amazing food and mojitos. Can you say 12 flavors?! I got a real feel for who lives in this part of Florida, and lets just say it's not the same people that live in San Jose. After dinner, I was in for a surprise in the form of an introduction to the highway that Vanilla Ice brought so much attention to in his one and only hit... A1A, BEACHFRONT AVENUE! I'm pretty sure we fit the bill for who he was describing in that song. White wannabe rappers, right? Nighttime photos by a sign didn't work out so well. A later attempt during daylight ended much more successfully.

That evening we headed to a drag show at a bar called Lips... with Chocolata doing a mean version of Single Ladies and Charity hosting the event, it was bound to be a blowout.

Me being in town didn't mean Meg could take a break from schoolwork, so we spent a few hours each day going to a coffee shop and having a fancy drink, reading and wandering. This was more than acceptable in my book. TJ was able to do a little more tour guiding for me, bringing me to a nature center where we watched shark feedings and around shopping areas. On Saturday afternoon, the three of us went on a boat tour down the Inter Coastal, a great little treat thanks to mom and dad. These houses sure are something else - one had 6 kitchens. SIX. What do you need that for? Mind boggling. One climactic event on the trip was seeing a manatee pop up out of the water for a bit. Sadly (and I mean nearly shedding tears), Megan missed seeing it. Lucky for them, I managed to win a raffle for 2 free tickets for another tour. Better luck then, sista.

We grabbed a quick bit of greasy food (think vaca here, people) before heading to a 'hybrid' dog store. In real people world, mixed dogs are mutts. In Boca Raton world, they're considered hybrids. Call them what you will, they were still adorable and needing a home. I was this close to bringing one home... but then oh what's that? They're 1600 DOLLARS?! Lady... this is a MUTT... do you realize that? Sorry pup, maybe you'd have better luck at the Humane Society. That night we decided to take a break from our non-stop ways and watch a movie back at their place.

Sunday began with our regular 'go to the coffee shop so Meg can be a student for a couple hours' routine. We went to a really nice area called Mizner Park, parked it at a Starbucks, and I wandered around the strips of stores for a while.

That afternoon we went to a place called Gumbo Limbo, where they have a lot of sea turtles and fish and lobsters and all sorts of other things that you wonder if they should be in the wild instead of this little tank. Hello, didn't we learn anything from the killer whale incident? I guess not all whales are like Willy. But it was a great time and here's a little astonishing tidbit of information I learned: a disposable diaper taked 450 years to disintegrate. Cloth diapers, people! That evening we went to a park near Meg and TJ's house to grill. Steaks for them, veggie burgers for me (not bad!) and some potatoes and cole slaw. Add a dash of Mad Libs for some old fashioned, immature humor. Just because we got older doesn't mean we grew up. It was a great evening and a GREAT weekend!

Monday morning I headed to the airport to fly back to San Jose. It was very hard - more than I expected! I decided it's probably a good thing I never went back to Minnesota during my time here, because if leaving Florida was as hard as it was, I can't imagine what leaving MN would have been like. But now I'm back, in the flow and ready for the next adventures that I'm planning! Stay tuned as you wish for my sporatic and rambling posts.