We spent another day lounging, finishing books. I finished a book called A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Bachman. Everyone should read it. It’s a lovely book and quite possibly my favorite one so far.
I haven’t said too much at this point about the mosquitoes, but oh my god. Eaten alive. I have to have at least 30 bites covering my legs, back, arms, hands, and feet. Sam is only a little better, they mostly got her back and feet. The itching is unbelievable. On top of that, I have PMLE on my back- which also itches and is a result of my ambition to soak up the sun. All the itching. Everywhere.
Anyways, laid in hammocks. I finished my book, went and climbed along the rocks that divide us from the port next to us. Got to the end and sat there a while watching the boats come in and out of the dock. It was peaceful.
While we were walking, I found a pair of white and pink goggles that looked just the right size for a tiny human. Looking around I see a family packing up and leaving with daughter who is around 12. Too old. I look a little further down, I see four girls playing the ocean with each other splashing around. I approach the water, near two of them and ask if these goggles belong to any of them. A blonde, probably 8 year old girl, turns around from the distance looks at me, looks at the goggles and her face explodes with excitement. It was like a slow motion reaction. She sprints towards me, splashing water everywhere yelling “Oh my gosh! Thank you so much!! I was looking for these!” Her friend trails behind her, running.
I don’t know if I have ever seen a more excited, happy face. Genuine happiness.
She takes the goggles from me, jeers right and takes off, sprinting toward a man sitting on the sand. “Dad!! Dad!! Dad look!!” she’s yelling as her and her friend race toward him.
She hands them off to her Dad and the race back to the ocean. Passing me, the little girl tells me, “thank you SO much!” passing me up for the water. Her friend trails behind and stops to say, “Thank you. She couldn’t find those. She was really sad.” and joined her back to play in the water.
I said to Sam about the girl, “I feel you, girl. Having all the feels about inanimate objects and the things we love.” Sam looks at me and says, “Your hat” And all I could think of was my hat. How I was certain it was gone forever. All I could think about was how sad I was about losing that hat and how happy I was when it wasn’t actually lost. And all the things I have ever lost that I have cherished so much. All the things that make us happy. How much we cherish them. So that was pretty cool.
We walked to the end, across a shore of rocks and tide pools, looking at all sorts of rocks, shells, and crabs then turned around and walked back. We decided tonight to eat dinner at the restaurant on the property, which was interesting. Interesting because of one single family sitting near us, having a great time, made it interesting. We sat outside on the patio, looking at the ocean. This family near us, we could not pinpoint the language they were using, was listening to music via external speaker loudly, so the entire patio could pretty much hear it. Pretty sure the parents were drunk. But hey, they were having a good time.
Alarm went off, watched the sunrise, discovered wifi on the beach, went back showered, napped, cleaned up, and checked out. Laid by the pool, crossed our fingers it wouldn’t rain, it did. We got out before a dropped hit us! Third time is the charm, we figure out how to read those clouds! Haha! We sat in the lobby, changed into real clothes until our cab to the airport came.
After being able to breath again and in the airport, we were ridiculously early. The full two hours. Their airport is tiny, both security and customs were a breeze.
Got to Fort Lauderdale. Figured out a hotel to stay in and had the worst possible taxi driver ever. 7 miles. 7 miles and I was ready to throw myself out of the car. He made me sick. He was so bad, even Sam was queasy! Didn’t put our hotel in his GPS, took a million U-turns and hard turns. Awful.
Got to our room- adorable! Walked up the street to a place I saw in the cab called Taco Bar— SO FREAKING GOOD! It made everything better. The tacos, corn, beans, drinks- to die for.
Woke up to rain. Decided the beach was out as an option. Decided to walk to Walgreens to get me all the anti-itch medicine. It was too much. We walked about 2 miles to the Walgreens and purchased the magical-ness of modern medicine. For anyone that knows me- I NEVER take medicine. But the swelling and itching of all the bites + rash was too much. I took Benedryl and am mind blown. I see why everyone always does this. It’s helped so much.
Anyways- Sam went on Yelp and found a cute little cafe nearby called Atelier 3 in Hollywood, right down the street. Yeah, there’s a Hollywood, Florida. It’s weird. We went to this cafe intending to just have a coffee and lunch.
We spent the entire afternoon there. 3 1/2 hours, drinking delicious coffee, eating delicious food, playing chess and talking to the owner and his brother. The cutest place. Sam got to play her very first chess game! It was a perfect, relaxing, and quiet place to end our trip with great conversation. We got an Uber, went to the airport. Now, headed home.
The Wandering Sandals 