I’m on vacation in Florida. I’m visiting family. Unfortunately, we both live in places that neither of us want to visit in the summer time.
There are a few things that are quite noticeable here — I’m too liberal for this state as there are flags waving everywhere. It doesn’t look like there’s much dissent here. Where I’m staying, they have a lake in the backyard. Since I live in water-deprived Tucson, this is a big treat and I can sit out there (it’s sunny) and watch the ducks float by.
Traffic is everywhere — somehow worse than Tucson. All the roads seems to be under construction which I guess is reminiscent of the soon to be I-!0.
The architecture here is homogenous. Everything has to look Mediterranean and it’s ugly. This is Florida not Cannes. I like the Old Florida architecture. They could’ve made the new stuff to look old or more indigenous to the area.
And shopping… so many stores and they all look the same from outside anyway and one Lowes looks like a ride at Disneyland because it has an odd facade.
I’m not driving here but if I was, I’d be constantly lost because everything looks the same. How would I find a landmark?
We drove on billionaire’s row and saw these mega-million-dollar Tuscan-style mansions that were quite ugly, so money doesn’t account for taste.
They have the best grocery stores here and today we went to a chocolate salon.
Enough complaining, I’m having a great time being with loved ones and just hanging out. Tomorrow we go see the manatees and on Saturday the mermaids.
This article appears in Feb 1-7, 2007.
More on Florida. I’m back. I had a relaxing trip fortunately it was nowhere near the tornado or the Super Bowl. The weather was pretty temperate except for the day we went to Tampa to the Dali Museum. We never made it to the mermaids but we’ll save that for another time. I guess culture won over kitsch. On that day it was cold and rainy. We ate marvelous Cuban food at the Columbia.
We walked through some cypress sanctuary (swamp) where these great white egretes flew overhead like a duck air ballet.
Florida is different, a nice place to visit during the winter but I wouldn’t want to live there.