Damaged luggage
The timeshare...
The flea market....
Sea turtle nest marked with a stone by the environmental guys...
The view from the balcony.....
My first impression of Florida after a little more than 30 yrs of being away from it was......Damn this place is hot! The sun is hot (and relentless). The ground is hot(and burns your feet). The air is hot( I can barely breath). Everything is hot (I've somehow stepped into a blast furnace). Thank goodness for the pool!
I didn't like the plane ride, or course. I did the obligatory drinking that I'm told all terrified flyer's do, but it didn't really magically make the whole thing a wonderful experience. It did however, make me not care so much if I die in a plane crash. I had a lot of wine before I reached that point. I also didn't really notice that my luggage was damaged either. I found that out later that night when I was unpacking. And I didn't really register that is was so incredibly humid when we were trudging from airport to nifty tram to car rental place. It was all somewhat of a pleasant blur. We stopped for Chinese food, cooler clothing (because even my summer wear was too heavy there) and some groceries on the way to the condo and took the rest of the evening to look the place over and acclimate ourselves to actually having arrived in Florida.
I did it. I flew in a plane and I wasn't killed. It didn't crash. Yipee! Now lets party! Somewhere along the way I remembered to call home and let them know I made it. I don't recall much about the conversations...remember, I had all that wine swimming in my system.
Orientation at the condo was a must for the next day. I believe they had the nerve to schedule it for 10:00am in fact. Do they not realize that after 30 yrs of raising children, grandchildren and dogs I finally have the opportunity to sleep late?? What's THAT all about?
Luckily they were like a fountain of information and gave us ideas for things we could do during the upcoming week. So I took notes; put little hash marks next to the best sounding things and waited to be released from the meeting.
That day was already scheduled for the giant flea market and we were anxious to get there. The flea market was the biggest I've ever seen and loaded with the most unusual items I've ever seen. Several bracelets and necklaces joined a selection of solar toys and handmade fish magnets along with the much sought after Chinese fans in my bag. I've been longing to return to China Town in NYC just to get more fans and here they were just staring me in the face....looking all pretty and happy that I chose them. And I was told that a hat was a must....for someone like me. That's code for wicked white girl that will burn in a flash on the beach....and they think I don't know that. So I bought two hats because they were there, I was feeling reckless, and I couldn't find any sandals in my size.
When we finally pried ourselves away from the flea market we brought our treasures home and put them all on display in order to justify the purchases and the money we had just blown with careless abandon. What were we thinking...spending money like that on our first day?! To console ourselves we took a long leisurely walk on the beach and collected all manner of shells as well as an assortment of other items that come from the sea. These were free items...we did good!
