I just got back from Florida. It was nice, minus the tropical storm that hit Ft. Lauderdale while we were there. We went to the beach, Lion Country Safari, a casino, and a few other places.
The beach was great. We had 10 foot waves, so I got to do some body-boarding. The kids asked me to take them out to the deeper waters, but the waves were too much for them. They got scared (especially Riene,) so I took them back in to shore. All the same, they had a blast playing in the surf and building sand castles with their grandmother and great-grandmother. The body-boarding was pretty awesome - I caught one wave from about 100 yards out that slammed me to the bottom and tumbled me 9 or 10 times before washing me up on the beach in what seemed like only a few seconds.
Lion Country Safari was ok. It was miserably hot, so all the animals were in hiding. The lions were hiding in their concrete dens. The white rhinos were hiding under their sheds. The various species of antelope, wild mules, and other such animals were all hiding under trees. Plus, there was some really annoying driver in a silver Jeep Liberty that kept stopping for literally no reason in the middle of the road, looking at grass. I tricked him pretty well though - I passed him, then stopped where there was nothing, pretended to see something and point. So naturally, he stopped and sat there for a good 15 minutes trying to figure out what I had "seen."
LCS has some kiddie rides and a water park too, so we ended up playing there for a bit afterwards. Riene and Bear had a blast on the carousel and a mock-Disney Dumbo ride. We also went up on a ferris wheel that had a pretty nice view of the park and some of the Everglades. Bear nearly kicked one of his sandals off at the top; I caught it as it was falling out of the gate.
We played in the water park area for a while. It was mostly water spraying devices, but they did have an inflatable water slide for the kids with a 10 minute line to get on. Bear got a hold of one of the water cannons in the park area and turned it on parents who were hiding in the shade and not wearing bathing suits. The panic that caused was pure hilarity.
I went to the Hard Rock Casino with my mom one of the nights we were there. Going there was fun, but it really wasn't my kind of place. It looked like the Seminole were trying to make a knock-off of Vegas on tribal lands. You had to wind your way past no less than 15 bars just to make it to the casino, and there were signs up all over the place that said "What Happens in Vegas Happens Here!" I'm assuming that's somewhat true, as there were scantily-clad females and designer shops all over the place, but I didn't spot an Elvis impersonator anywhere. The Indians should probably get right on that and the hookers if they really want to emulate Vegas. (Even if they do, I'm still most likely not going back there. Not my kind of place in the least.)
Aside from the back pain, the drive to and from Ft. Lauderdale wasn't too bad. It took me about thirteen hours to get there, and maybe nine to get back. I had to stop a lot on the way down because of back cramps and spasms. It's really not kosher to drive that far a few months after breaking vertebrae. It's just too much strain. The way back, I just slammed a lot of coffee and forced myself to keep going. The kids were asleep a third of the way and I really wanted it to be over with.
When I got home, I was greated by slashed blinds in all the front-facing windows of the house. Apparently, Furball (Maria's stupid cat that she didn't take with her when she took the tv and everything else of value out of the house) didn't like being left in the house alone for that long. It took me a good three hours to clean up the mess he made. He knocked over tables, cleared off the counter, dragged a bag of cat food through the house, puked on the carpets, and kicked cat litter all over the bathroom. What a jerk! Next time I'm leaving him outside and he can eat crickets if he's hungry.
Ahh yes, off topic here: I'm at 11% body fat! The top part of my abs are just starting to come out. I figure another 2 to 4 weeks and I'll have six pack abs. It's pretty exciting to know I've actually surpassed my original goal of 12% bodyfat and so close to my other goal of a ripped stomach. Hooray for Zoidberg!
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