Something Punny About Florida

If I haven’t made mention of this, take note! My Dad is the fucking best!! It’s the 29th of August and he is not on time to pick us up for the Airport, he is early!!  For some reason, Frank and I are also up early.  Coincidence?!?!  I think not.  Daddy-O has us, we are on the way to KCI and it’s EAARRLLYYYYY! Way too early to really function, and naturally I am ready to feed.  You will see the need to feed theme a lot.  We make it in plenty of time, give loves and hugs to Daddy Dearest, and hang out waiting for the plane after all the typical airport non-sense. 

Frank enjoys teasing me about how I am always getting upgrades for things.  I think it’s funny, and will even admit that it happens so often that my privileged ass expects it and will pout if it doesn’t happen when I clearly feel that it should.  The car we rented in Topeka?  Upgraded twice for $0.10, that is not an error, I meant ten cents.  As we are waiting for our plane, I get called up to the stand because...BOOM!! I am being upgraded to first class!  BAHAHAHAHAHAHA for all of you that are familiar with my hearty guffaw, that is me doing it. First class ladies and gentlemen, or should I now say peasants, as I am clearly royalty?  Turns out I am not royalty, instead I am a butthead.  I have the woman give the seat to Frank.  One of us is taking that seat, we wouldn’t want to be wasteful, would we?

The flight had nothing interesting to mention about it other than the fact that we made it safe, sound, and early to Atlanta.  Early to Atlanta is worth going into detail because early to Atlanta means Sky Club.  As much as I can complain about Delta and will, their Sky Club lounge is so worth it.  They have unlimited free food and beverage, including the best infused water EVER.  Oh, man that water is delicious.  I sometimes fantasize about it when I get very thirsty.  I know that I can do my own infused water, but there is something about someone else doing it and it being always ready and ice cold.

While enjoying ourselves in the Sky Club, drinking some wine and delicious infused water, checking our flight status, we had (yeah you guessed it) both been upgraded to Comfort Plus. BOOM! Unfortunately now boom in a not so good way.  Suddenly Delta has decided that Frank and I no longer need to sit together on this next flight.  We finish our beverages, head up to the lounge help desk and ask what’s up.  Turns out when I gave my first class upgraded seat to Frank, the woman at the gate in KC unlinked our reservation.  We went from both of us being upgraded to comfort plus to my seat changing to a middle seat and Frank being put back in steerage.  Thankfully the woman at the counter was Amazeballs AND I had a confirmation e-mail that both of our seats were complimentary upgrades.  Several minutes later and the quick drinking of another round we make our way onto the puddle jumper to Florida. 

I remember how hot it is in Florida, as I should since I lived in Palm Beach County for damn near a decade.  We were dressed for a rainy Kansas day, and off came all outer layers of garments.  Oye vay it is hot and humid in Florida and the extent of exactly how hot and humid it is, is something that can and should be blocked from one’s memory.  Seattle had thickened my blood for sure, but thankfully not so much that I didn’t acclimate immediately. 

We dropped off baggage at Frank’s family beach condo and went directly to the beach.  No need to pass go or collect $200 because we were already winning!  I got in the water, yes, I was shocked by this as well, Frank did some body surfing, and we just enjoyed a stress-free beach filled moment in time.  Dinner was at Irish Pub Meg O’Malley’s.  Fun fact, Frank’s family is incredibly musically inclined.  I don’t know if saying musically inclined indicates that one is great at music, so just in case, let me clarify that they are great at making the musics.  His mother plays in an Irish Session almost every week and they are darn good.  It’s incredible to experience.  I played a lot of instruments as a child and young adult, but never really felt like I had a solid hold on them.  They have that solid hold and skill.

Speaking of things I haven't mentioned I should probably tell you that Frank’s family is in Florida.  You wouldn’t believe how many people I became friends with in Seattle, that happen to be from Florida.  It’s staggering and I think statistically impossible but, here we are fam.  I met more people in Seattle from Florida than people I met who were from Alaska.  And that is saying something.

We continued the night to our next location to Main St. Pub.  You can’t imagine how long I have been wanting to go to this place.  Frank has a lot of stories about this particular bar, which serves a particular drink. The highly coveted and dangerously delicious Orange Crush!!  I do not use the phrase dangerous delicious just to get my word count up, I solidly mean it.  I have been hearing about this place and this drink for a long while now.  I have finally made it to mecca!! Okay, that might be a little dramatic, but I just have to set the tone for how delicious this freaking drink actually is.  It is a clementine flavored vodka, with schnapps, and squeezed to order local Florida orange juice.  It tastes like heaven on a hot night and if you are there during Happy Hour it is $3.  Pick your jaw up off the floor and go get one!!  We ended the night at Hell N' Blazes Brewing Co. where they have a beer that tastes just like mint chocolate chip ice cream.  That is my absolute favorite flavor of ice cream.  I am aggressively lactose intolerant and I will still eat it.  

Allow me to pause the story for just a while and post the rest on another post.  We are currently on a train in between European cities (St. Louis, France to be precise, oddly there is no arch which is a slight let down) and I am sensitive to motion sickness.  Blerg!

-Random tangent:  I love when elderly people travel.  It makes me so happy to see that no matter what age you are, you can still adventure.  They also have a steadiness about them that can be awe inspiring.  Let’s also pause to appreciate their style! -

I call this, "A lizard searching for their true self".  Most of our time in Florida was spent very similarly to this lizard.  Hanging by the water, eating, sleeping, and just living life.