A1A from St. Augustine is a mix of pain and pleasure, pleasure in that there are long stretches with little development right along the shore, but painful in that there are even longer stretches right through the heart of beach towns with all their t-shirt and fast food entities, not our cup of scenery. Of interest was passing Patrick Air Force Base, a long and skinny base right on the barrier island, home to C-10, Warthogs, and other big-money aircraft.
Weather wasn't in our favor. By the time we pulled over for the night and booked a cheap-o hotel right on Ormond Beach, we'd spent most of the day in the rain. The hotel turned out to be awful, as was our "Mexican" restaurant meal. (There's lots to be said for getting one's dinner in a grocery store salad bar.) Lesson learned: cheap hotels right on the beach are really, really bad places to stay.
Our next day's drive to Boca Raton was a mix of on and off A1A, as the road was again so slow due to residential and commercial development in spots, and the day featured heavy rainstorms. Boca was our destination in order to see Howard and Bev, along with friend Edyta and her family, but it was also where we learned that South Florida is a hellishly expensive place to stay this time of year.
We spend two hours in a Starbuck parking lot trying to find any hotel in the area for less than $200/night, finally giving up and settling on a Super 8 in a very iffy area. We moved outta that place the next morning because the WiFi was nonworking, only to move to a Patel-owned non-name inn for about $150/night. Grin and bear it. We definitely learned on this trip about how much money we save when we stay with friends.
Spent some time walking on a Boca Raton beach and saw my first-ever Man O'War. The color was incredible.
I just like this photo of Allen not getting his pants sandy before we meet Howard and Bev.
Our family had driven from Des Moines in order to tour and ultimately to board a Caribbean cruise ship in Fort Lauderdale. We met at a sports bar Thursday night in order to watch a Maryland/Iowa game (sorry, Iowa).
Perhaps the culinary height of the evening was the mile-high ice cream pie. Between the four of us, we managed to polish it all off. #BigSurprise
Friday brought a day of shopping, looking for a hat for Allen, me just poking around in the high-end stores that seem to dominate Boca Raton's shopping malls. Neither of us got a thing, but I had fun walking past the Chanel, Gucci, Prada, etc. areas in Saks, Neiman-Marcus, and the like. I was the worst-dressed woman I saw, and I did try to clean up for the day.
That night brought a get-together with our friends Edyta, her mom Renata, and son Alec. Edyta is the ex-love of Allen's childhood friend, Tom. When Tom and Edyta were living together, we visited several times and Edyta and I have remained great friends on Facebook. Her mom speaks no English (family is Polish) but she and Allen have always had a great fondness for each other. Alex seems pleased to serve as constant translator. His older sister Sonja, 16, is living in Poland for the semester with her dad. We missed her.
Alex has always referred to Allen as "Uncle Allen," and it took little time for him to resume their friendship where they last left off.
Alec has always had a bearded lizard as a pet in the terrarium in his bedroom.
Out to dinner, oysters ordered as a special treat for Alec.
No comments:
Post a Comment