(Month 11 wrap up coming soon!)
# 5 – Go to an Island
I traveled to South Florida this Thanksgiving to spend it with my friends Simona and Drew and their kiddos.
It was about 25 degrees the morning I left Chicago and my winter constitution wasn’t quite ready for the 75-80 degree air that greeted me when I walked out of the terminal in Fort Lauderdale. And I was clearly overdressed, but that is a tricky weather transition, dudes. I did my best.
I was happy to feel the warm air and marvel at the palm trees
My first night in town, after dinner, Simona and I headed to see ‘Catching Fire’ at their local movie theater. What I learned about going to the movies in Florida is that movies start late and that the audience shows up even later. And also, there was this guy who interrupted our popcorn/candy purchase moment to complain that he had ordered a ‘Double Dog’ but had been given 2 single dogs. And as I write this I am realizing that he did not return to the counter with the offending dogs probably because he already ate them. And he was not phased when the young man behind the counter became visibly upset at this complaint and totally couldn’t handle it so he stormed off, maybe in tears, but definitely with steamy ears and me and Simona were all like, “WHAT ABOUT OUR POPCORN/CANDY??” as I gave the suspicious hot dog complainer the side eye.
(the movie was awesome. go see it.)
THEN we went to an island. And on our way there I knew that Simona was becoming a true South Floridian because she wanted to turn on the heat and her seat warmer and I was still sweating from the totally warm night.
There is a part of Delray Beach, FL that runs along the A1A and sits on the ocean. It is on a piece of land that does not connect (aside from bridges) to the mainland. Though I could not find a single place where this was referred to as an island – it totally is.
The bartender at Boston’s on the Beach made us a couple of Seabreeze cocktails and we sat outside enjoying the warm ocean air on a November night. We crossed the street and ducked through this pitch black pathway to get to the beach and were momentarily scared by a guy who called out “Hey girls” into the darkness behind us. We sat on beach chairs and listened to the waves and the semi-hippy kids who were probably home from college break and were playing guitars and dancing and were young and terrible at all of it – except the being young part. Just like we’d been at that age.
And Simona said, “I can’t believe I live here.” In that really great, happy and awed way we can sometimes get when things are going right in our lives.
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Stay tuned for Part 2 where we will find Erin and Simona (and three little kiddos) sitting at a pool…
