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Tony And Debbie’s Florida Vacation – Part Six

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Part 6 of our holiday in Florida sees me injured while Ice Skating, doing a Belly Flop on the ice, and then continuing with a stormy week in Hollywood.  If you haven’t read the previous articles in this series, you might enjoy starting at the beginning HERE.

A Belly Flop On The Ice

On Tuesday of the second week I took the girls to Pines Ice Arena in Pembroke Pines, since they enjoy learning to skate, and hadn’t been there since I last took them 18 months ago.

We had a good time, until my eldest challenged me to a race, and seconds later I was headed flat on the ice in what can only be described as a belly flop!   Being in my 50’s and overweight, putting my arms out did little to soften my fall, and as a result 2 weeks later I am still very sore with bruised ribs and pulled stomach muscles. 

It’s hard to sleep at night because I can only lie on my side, and so I get woken up by a sore/numb shoulder and arm, which causes me to struggle to sit up, twist around and lie on the other side.   I still cannot pie on my front or back even after 2 weeks, it’s that painful.

I guess next time I take them skating I will have learned my lesson, and therefore absolutely no racing.  If they are skating better on their own too by then, I might just let them do more while I sit and watch.

Dragonflies

Swarms of Dragonflies over Hollywood Beach in FloridaWe took the next few days quietly, since I was hurting, and the girls spent lots of time in the pool while I tried to walk around in it, but found lifting my arms up too painful to allow me to swim unfortunately.

It stormed a lot the next couple of days as well, and before the rain on several days the sky was filled with thousands of dragonflies.  It was quite amazing to watch, and if you click on the picture here and look at the sky, those are not specks of dirt that you can see, it’s dragonflies.

A beautiful Dragonfly that posed for me at Hollywood Beach in FloridaFortunately they rarely came close to us, and we aren’t scared of them either, but if you were then it might not be too pleasant.  I did manage to capture one that was perched on a wall, which I posted to Fine Art America.  I wonder if I will get any sales?

Thunder And The Smurfs

One day we took the girls to one of our favourite places to eat, Sweet Tomatoes, and then since it was set to rain again, to see the Smurfs movie.

We opted to not see the 3D version, since neither of them really enjoy that, but managed to get good seats at the back of the theatre and settled down to watch the film.

About halfway through we could hear what sounded like thunder, and although I thought at first it was sound coming through from one of the other 17 theatres in the location, we soon found out that it wasn’t, as we began to hear the rain pounding on the roof.

Then, as so often happens in Florida, the power went out, and we all sat in virtual darkness for about 20 minutes until they could get everything back to normal.  During this time we were making noises, sound effects, singing the Smurf song, and others in the audience were repeating it, so it was quite funny really, and the time passed quickly.

I wouldn’t say the movie was great, but it wasn’t awful either, kind of cute really.

The Last Night And A Full Moon

Full Moon over Hollywood Beach in FloridaIt’s funny isn’t it how the first part of a holiday goes slowly, and then as time goes on the days just whiz past.  So before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye to the girls and to fly home to the UK.

My youngest decided to go home to her Mom on Friday night, as she was feeling homesick, but my eldest stayed with us and helped us to pack on the Saturday morning.

Friday night there was a full moon, and we went for a walk along the broadwalk at Hollywood Beach as the sun was setting to catch a glimpse, but there were thick clouds along the horizon and it was clear that the moon would have to rise quite a lot before anyone could see it.

However, about an hour later I was able to catch some good pictures of the full moon as it rose through the palm trees.

Goodbye Hollywood Beach

Debbie and the girls at Hollywood Beach in FloridaAll too soon it came time for my ex to pick up my eldest, and for us to give the girls hugs and kisses and say goodbye. 

Then time to complete the packing, loading of the car, and to leisurely drive to the airport in Miami, return the car, and wait for the flight home.

With my ribs being sore, having to try and lift the bags in and out of the condo, the car, and a shuttle bus, then into the overhead bins on the plane, I was really hurting.

It was actually for once not so bad trying to spend the night sitting half upright instead of trying to lie down, but after landing at Heathrow airport, and lugging the bags on and off another shuttle and into the car, I was about all in.

I had to grip the steering wheel all the way home to try and take some pressure off my ribs, but fortunately with it being Sunday morning the traffic was light, and the journey took just over an hour.

Once home, a quick check to make sure everything was ok, then off to bed for a couple of hours, to try and catch up on a bit of sleep, and to prepare for the reality of going back to work the following morning.

Well that is the story of our trip to Florida.  I hope you enjoyed it, and if so any Shares/Tweets or a Google|+1 would be much appreciated.

 

Our Christmas Trip Is Finally Coming Together

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If you are a subscriber to our blog or a regular reader, you will know that whan I moved back to the UK from Florida at the end of July, I had to leave my two daughters behind (with their Mom), and since I am missing them terribly, like all Dads do, we decided to try and spend Christmas in Florida to I can at least see them for a week.

The problem with going to Florida over Christmas though is that this is high season, the time when flights and accommodation are at their highest prices, and also at their scarcest.

In the wintertime, South Florida is full of people from the East Coast of the USA and Canada, the “snowbirds” as they are known.   Some snowbirds spend a good three months in Florida to escape the bitterly cold winters up north, while others just visit for one or two weeks.  If you go to the beaches in South Florida over the Christmas period and look at the licence plates of the cars, at least 2/3rds of them if not more are from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and in the Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale area too from Quebec and Toronto.   Just listen to the conversations on the people on the beach too, and the all too familiar Hispanic voices are replaced by New York twangs and even more so by Canadian French.

Last week after much searching for a decent route at a decent price, we bit the bullet and purchased our flights.  The price was high, but not as much as we could have ended up paying.  It was actually cheaper than it cost to get Debbie over to Florida for Christmas two years ago, but we also don’t have direct flights, which I hope is not going to be a problem.   When taking a multi-leg flight, you need to allow for delays in schedule, and inbound to the USA as well for delays in immigration, where Debbie has already had issues, her last trip to Miami resulting in her being stuck in immigration for 15 hours!   But hopefully we will be ok this time, since we have a 3 hour layover in Raleigh/Durham before catching our flight down to Miami, and I also now have my USA Passport, which ought to help.

Last night we also bit the bullet and booked a place to stay.  It’s not a luxurious hotel or resort, it’s a typical family owned motel on Hollywood Beach, and although it cost a lot it will hopefully work out best for us.   The few reviews that we managed to find for the motel sounded more good than bad.  There is no pool or hot tub, it’s above several restaurants so it could be noisy at night, but it is right on the boardwalk and we will be able to eat and walk along the beach at night, instead of being stuck in a hotel away from the beach in the evenings.

There really were not many choices for hotels unfortunately, since prices are sky high, and most places are already fully booked.  Left are the hotels close to the airport in Fort Lauderdale, those on the interstate, and some high and low end places that are either too expensive or in a bad neighborhood.  Of the three places on the beach, one was $250 a night, way out of our price range, a second was $100 a night but in the middle of being renovated and with some horrible reviews.  The place we picked was about the only choice.

My biggest fear is that because we don’t land in Miami until 9:30pm on Christmas Eve, is that everything will be closed, and it will be 11pm at the earliest before we get to where we are staying.  Since few places open in Florida on Christmas Day, we could end up without any essentials like bread, milk, juice etc for a day.  However staying right on the beach, there ought to be some shops and restaurants open at least.  It’s going to be a different Christmas with no turkey and trimmings I am sure, but hopefully a good one.   Getting up on Christmas Day is going to be tough, since by the time we get to bed it will already be 5am UK time or later!  Probably a good day to just spend relaxing on the beach or the terrace.

Now we need to find a good deal on a rental car, which I hope is easier to sort out.  There appear to be plenty of choices at least from all the car rental companies, but even that is expensive.  I must remember to use my AAA (equivalent of AA/RAC in the UK) discount to save some money, but since we will be taking the girls out we need to have transport.  

I doubt that we will be spending many days on the beach, but at least we will be right there in the evenings, plenty of opportunities for walking, either on the boardwalk (promenade) or along the waters edge.

So wish us luck!  Hopefully the flights, immigration process, accommodation and weather all work in our favour.  Will post updates and photos later, also a video or two maybe…

The Lost Posts

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lost postsNo I haven’t physically lost anything, but this is about all the posts that I have wanted to write this month, but just haven’t had the time or energy to get around to.

I am frustrated that my last post was about taking my girls to the park on the 3rd July, which is now almost 3 weeks ago, and so much has happened in my life since then!  

I really did want to write about my first 4th July as an American Citizen, which involved taking the girls to the water park,  and other than that pretty much spending the rest of the day on my own, but sometimes a break is a good thing.

Driving into work I wanted to write about the different country songs that I was listening to (the other morning shows here in South Florida suck) and my feelings about them and what has been discussed on the radio.   Tuesday morning the odometer on my car clocked past the 145,000 mile mark, and thankfully it’s still running.  I had feared that either the tires or the suspension or something else unexpected was going to happen before I leave for England next week.

I wanted to write about Debbie becoming a Grandma, which happened on Monday.   Her daughter and husband have been trying for so long to have a baby, and now finally their dream has come true.

 I wanted to write about my struggles to pack my personal effects up ready to head back to the UK, my battle against my habit of procrastinating, causing me to have to be up packing until after midnight for so many nights.   My trying to organize my personal effects in a storage unit when it’s 90+ degrees and incredibly humid, my fears that I would run out of time to have everything ready to ship.

There are so many things I would have loved to blog about in detail, but the exhaustion and number of things I had to take care of just left me brain dead day after day, week after week, but ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!  Today I felt that I had to post, even if it’s just about the LOST POSTS…

Phew It’s A Heatwave

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heatwave in south florida with record temperatures in fort lauderdaleThings almost went into a meltdown yesterday in South Florida where temperatures hit an all time high in Fort Lauderdale (see report from the Sun-Sentinel) where it reached 100 degrees at the airport, with a heat index of 111.

There wasn’t much breeze all day, it was really hot, sticky and uncomfortable.   When I left work and got into the car, the temperature showed 108!   Driving for a few miles it dropped to 98, but then as I headed south down I95 towards Fort Lauderdale it rose again to 100.   Since the air conditioning isn’t working in the car the fan was just blowing hot air and almost sand-blasting my face.

I got home and Tim, my landlord had left the sauna on, so being hot and sticky I headed down to the pool, had a good sauna, and did 30 lengths in the pool.  I felt much better after that, especially since some clouds came over and a light breeze got up, making it feel a lot more comfortable.  It really did feel good cooling off in the pool after an hour long drive home from work.

Later in the evening, Tim and I decided to take our evening walk around the golf course, as we do most evenings, and as soon as you opened the door to the condo the heat hit you, phew!   It seemed like the temperatures just weren’t going to drop, but fortunately as we headed out onto the fairways and away from the houses and trees, a nice breeze got up from the west, a sign of weather changes, and it did cool us down somewhat.  There was also some nice heat lightning out west, no clouds or rain, just bright flashes in the sky.

I woke up this morning and wondered why it was still dark.  One thing you learn about the tropics, is that when you get a spell of extremely hot weather, it usually causes the gods to get angry, and this morning they definitely got out of bed on the wrong side.  

It was pouring with rain just before I had to go out to the car, but I was lucky and it stopped for 10 minutes so I could get out and start my drive.  The car needed filling up before I headed up the highway to work,  and I didn’t want to do this last night in 100 degree temperatures, but this morning with the rain, the traffic was heavy, and then I found my local gas station was closed, so I had to drive to another one.   While there I could clearly see the skies over the coast to the east, and they were as black as ink.  I knew that my drive north up I95 was not going to be a pleasant one.

I got onto the highway, and it wasn’t more than a minute or two before the lighter rain turned into a monsoo0n, with traffic slowing down to 25 mph as the road soon started to flood and a lot of vehicles were having trouble staying on the road.   Fortunately my Toyota Avalon grips the road really well, and also has great visibility, so I get rather frustrated at all these people who can’t see a thing.

By the time I got to Boynton Beach, which is a few miles north of Boca Raton, the rain was so heavy that it was pounding on the roof of the car, it was just like a monsoon!   It definitely got a good power wash today!   The drive was so slow, but about 10 miles further on the skies brightened up a bit and I managed to escape the storm.

Amazingly enough, everyone actually had their lights on this morning, which is a miracle for South Florida!  Quite a few even had their hazard lights on to warn drivers behind them, which is also rare.  Maybe there were a lot of  ”out of state” drivers on the highway today…

But I got to work in one piece, only 5 minutes late, and it was a cool 75 degrees compared to the heat of yesterday, so quite comfortable by comparison.

My First Day Back At Work

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Today was my first day back at work after three months of being unemployed.

So naturally I was rather nervous, as most of us are when starting a new job, and as is typical for me, every new job I have takes me to somewhere I don’t know.  This one is no different, at Juno Beach, just north of West Palm Beach in South Florida.

It’s a 45 mile drive to work, and as I had to be there by 9:30am to meet my new boss, I thought I had better leave by 7:45am in case the traffic was heavy.   Well as it turns out, pretty much nobody went to work by the look of it, so the roads were fairly empty, and I got there by 8:50am!   I still had to wait until 9:45am for my boss to arrive, as he had to go to the other office first, so by the time introductions had been done in the department and I had got my security card etc, it was time for lunch.

My boss was busy, so I took a walk out, a chance to call Debbie, and also my Son, both in England.   The office is in a small strip mall, and across the road is a park.  The other side of the park is the Ocean Drive, and beyond that the beach!   There was a wooden walkway with steps leading down to the beach, so I stood there to make my phone calls and took advantage of the nice breeze that was blowing, it was great to not feel as sticky as I had just 1/4 mile inland.

The afternoon went well, with me getting into the systems and looking at a few programs, and then the drive home was fairly uneventful, getting home at 6:30pm.

I thought as I had been sticky, it would be a good idea to put the sauna on, and with luck someone had already used it, so it was still pretty warm.  Nice to only need 15 minutes to warm it up instead of almost an hour!   I had a good sauna, did 30 lengths in the pool and then back up my well trodden six flights of stairs to the condo, by which time it was close to 8pm.

I was ravenous by this time, having only had grapefruit juice and a banana before I left this morning, and just water and two cups of green tea all day.  I didn’t care to go out to eat, I preferred to explore a bit and make my phone calls instead.  Starving I was, but I didn’t want to overdo things as it was late, so I just made a cheese and tomato sandwich with some German Black Bread (Pepperidge Farm, really good) and peeled and sliced 3 carrots and had those with some ranch dressing.  Yumm…  Followed by a Raspberry Fat Free Yoghurt.  That hit the spot, and wasn’t too heavy either.   Now if I can do the same tomorrow, I ought to lose a couple of pounds for sure…

Watched a bit of tv, nothing much on though.  Caught up on my email, tried to print a couple of documents, but the ink was low on the printer, need to redo those at work tomorrow.  And now, last thing before bed, to catch up on Tagfoot.

So now I am winding down, and about ready for that trip to the Land Of Nod.   Catch you tomorrow… zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…