Florida

North America » United States » Florida » Fort Lauderdale
August 26th 2006

Published: October 15th 2006

Edit Blog Post

Aussie Jo

Beautiful Florida

James under the tree, strumming on the g'tar

Ft Lauderdale - Over tanned and overweight

Maybe not as catchy as something like 'The Sunshine State' but I think it would be a more accurate description of Florida's charms.

I was lucky enough to score a week in Florida with Kristen after leaving Banff. Her Mum has a timeshare and Kris invited me along with her brother, James and his gf Jo. So 1 cheap airfare later and Kris and I were on the plane from Buffalo, USA (Seventh Heaven fans may remember this is where the wayward Mary Campden aka Jessica Biel got sent) airport to Ft Lauderdale.

Florida is ... hot! I know as an Australian I shouldnt complain about such things but there is a huge difference between our dry heat and the balmy, unrelenting humidity of Florida. Me in my naievity thought the rash of bumps and itchiness on my arms and legs were because I had been bitten by some sort of bed-dwelling spider. My mother later enlightened me that it was probablly heat rash. So that was a bit of a dampner to the whole mood but other than that is was a beautiful week of sleeping in, swimming in the

Downtown

The beachfront

warmest ocean I've ever been in, sunbaking, shuffle board, eating and catching re-runs of Seventh Heaven and Full House. A wonderful week!

Florida was exactly like I expected! Tacky, terrible bathing-suit clad people walking the beach turning from brown to black in the sun.
An unexpected suprise was the turtles nests that were hatching along the beach during the week we were there. Tens of tiny little turtles hatched each night and we helped get them going in the right direction ie towards the ocean, not the road where many of them ended up. So we would take torches down the the beach and go turtle-spotting and release whatever we found into the water.

And then of course there was my BIRTHDAY! Lucky me got to turn 24 in sunny Florida. To mark the occasion Kris and i made the best cake in the history of birthdays, sticking with a Florida theme it had palm trees, fish, rainbows and lollies - a delicious work of art.
Although it was strange not to have family and friends with me, it was great celebrating with Kris, James and Jo over dinner downtown and more cake...

All up it was