FLORIDA IN SEPTEMBER
Our Florida visit was not as jam-packed with activities as our time in CT, but we did get some quality family time and some fun adventures. We spent a day at Discovery Cove (luckily the rain held), a controlled, limited number of people interactive sea world situation. They only allow 1000 people in a day and they are very concerned about the animal’s health so they do not provide lids, straws, or paper towels (cloth hand towels in the bathroom). They give you special sunscreen that won’t clog the filters or hurt the animals, but it was a little hard to apply and soak in. All day you’d see people with white paint all over their bodies, we were quite a clan from our name tags to our matching wetsuit vests. Matt and I were signed up to a dolphin swim so for about 40 minutes we were part of a group in the water feeding, touching, kissing and interacting with our buddy, Rex. There’s a lazy river that goes through the aviary, which was fun to enter and exit via a waterfall. There’s a staff: guest ratio of 1:4 but since it was the slow season; it was about 1:2. By doing the Cove experience, we had a free pass to Busch Gardens for the next 7 days. I think 1 day was plenty; we got to ride one of the top 10 roller coasters in the country, Kumba and experience a 90-degree drop on SheiKra. It was fun to go on roller coasters again and I’m impressed Busch Gardens is making a visible effort towards conservation, animal education and environmental awareness. Something good can come out of crappy beer (oh, 2 free beers for everyone at Busch Gardens).
We spent some time on the Gulf Coast visiting my other grandma (we brought lightening to her town, too). We spent the remainder of the week at my parents, relaxing, watching movies and getting ready for Peru. There were also thunderstorms almost every day at my parents. When it wasn’t raining, we got in some swimming and the obligatory stop to Ritter’s for some frozen custard. It’s much creamier than ice cream so Matt and I had to share a small scoop. I think my addiction to ice cream is diminishing. I don’t crave it as much (it’s been almost 10 years since I was eating ice cream every day at my high school job as a scoop-tress). It’s weird, I never could imagine life without ice cream but I think it has just transferred to dark chocolate. Mmmm, Dagoba.
Our last few days in the US were spent with Matt’s aunt, uncle and cousin who live in Fort Lauderdale. It was fun to see them all and see southern Florida. There were lightening storms our whole bus ride down to see them, but luckily our first day with them was sunny and beautiful so we spent it at the beach, bobbing the waves and walking on the beach. I haven’t spent much time at the beach since I moved to Seattle, where it’s a couple hours away and not as warm or swim able. So it was fun to have a Florida lazy beach day where you can spend all day in the ocean. We had quite the exciting experience at Jaxson’s ice cream parlor, all old school homemade ice cream in a building filled with tons of antiques and monster sundaes. They have a sundae called the kitchen sink. When someone orders it they turn on a siren, light sparklers and it’s a party. We didn’t get to see one, but heard the siren. Minimum of 4 people to share this monstrosity. Matt and I shared the Chocolate Peanut Gargantuan, which we finished with a bit of a stomache-ache…but it was yummy. We visited the Calvary Chapel and a home-church with them, shared a lot of meals, good stories and walked around Miami and the beaches together. Matt and I visited Natural Vibes on our last day, a vegan Jamaican take-out style restaurant and that was lots of fun. Everyone that worked and ate there was Jamaican except us. We shared some soy chicken stew, yams, green bananas and dumplings, collala? (a collards dish with okra and peppers) and a bean dish with beans I’ve never had before. It was all hearty and full of flavor. We had some home made soursop juice, which was quite thick and refreshing. We also had irish moss smoothie, with irish moss, pumpkin seeds, hirish walnuts and so many ingredients I can’t remember. It tasted like a thick pumpkin shake. The owner said the sour sop was good for the nerves and the irish moss was good for the irishand he pointed at Matt with a knowing smile). I’m not 100% sure how it will help Matt, I’ll keep you posted. 
Off to Peru!