Last Moments on Land

 I’m writing today from somewhere in the Atlantic between the Bahamas and Bermuda. We’re on our second full day at sea - and we’ve got 5 more before we arrive in Portugal. The seas are behaving and the Dramamine is working! Praise the Lord!

We had a great time chilling out in Fort Lauderdale. We were a little bit worried about doing this because Florida has been such a consistent COVID hotspot and we had to test negative to get on the boat. Our brains kept running a script of- what if we test positive? What will we do? Can we get our money back? Ugh. 

We now have 2 groups of friends who own condos in the area and their places are just 11 miles apart! We spent most of the time with Karen and Steven. Their place is in Delray Beach and it was perfect. We had the first 3 nights there to ourselves as they were still in New Orleans. We went to have seafood at the beach 2 nights and dined in the other. It was very relaxing and much needed after, well, the last 2 years. 

Our other friends, Dana and Cecilia, have a place in HypoLuxo, just south of West Palm Beach. They came back into town mid week so we got to hang out with them and spent Wednesday night there. We would have stayed another night but they left for Italy on Thursday. Unfortunately, by the time we get to Italy, they won’t be there anymore.

Both sets of friends have 2 little dogs so we got to catch up with dog snuggles. We have known Tyler and Riley for years but it was fun meeting Elvis and Benji, Karen and Steven’s dogs. We sure miss Brix!!

One night, we went to dinner at this amazing Italian place called La Sirena. It’s Dana and Cece’s favorite. They’ve become friends with the owners and chefs, We laughed so hard. The place has such a huge wine list there are 2 books of wine to look through. Both Vogel (Dana’s winery) and Enriques (Cecilia’s winery) were in the book! So fun to see them succeeding. 

Back over in Delray for our last couple of days, we took a cool walk through a portion of Everglades and spotted 3 alligators and all kinds of other interesting and weird creatures! SO MANY BIRDS. Ack! Delray Beach has this great bar and restaurant area on Atlantic Ave so 2 nights we went and bounced around happy hours. Delicious, fun, and very cheap! Frankly, anything would be fun with Karen and Steven.

So, on sabbatical #1 we stayed with them at their amazing waterfront condo in Brisbane, Australia. Here on sabbatical #2, we stayed with them in their perfect condo in Fort Lauderdale. We put them on notice that they need a new condo in 4.5 years for us to visit on sabbatical #3. 

On our last day in town, we turned in the rental car and then took an Uber to the beach to check out a cool bar a friend of ours had recommended (he grew up in the area). If you are paying attention, you likely realize it is spring break time. I don’t know that I’ve ever felt so old!! So many baby faced young people partying. In some ways, it was lovely to see people having fun again. In other ways, I varied between not wanting to be in the middle of it and hoping COVID didn’t kick up again. One alarming thing you need to know about is apparently the only swimsuits being sold these days to ladies are ones with thong bottoms. Man did we see way too many buns! Buns everywhere! I am so glad this was not a trend when I was young- I never would have even dared to wear such a thing,

We had to walk down the beach a bit to find a restaurant that wasn’t absolutely blaring loud music. (Did I mention I’m old?) I love music! But I hate shouting over it. Plus, it was like…11 am. I hadn’t even had breakfast yet. Bah! 

After that, we caught another Uber and proceeded to go directly to the wrong hotel. Lol. Never done that before! So, then we changed our trip and took the same Uber to the right hotel. This ended up taking another 30 minutes because OH MY GOSH I FORGOT TO TELL YOU HOW LONG THE DAMNED STOPLIGHTS ARE IN FLORIDA. Seriously. What is wrong with those people? I could literally feel myself losing periods of my life while sitting at red lights. 

Anyway, normally, we’d want to stay right on the water but spring break was down there breaking and we were happy to be a couple of miles away. We sat out at the pool for a bit before grabbing some glasses of wine and going up to the room. We ordered a great pizza from some Italian joint nearby and went to bed early.

Back on the Hope In Spades Ranch, life continues to be wild and unpredictable. Mark and Christiana are ranch sitting and, unless they are lying, they seem to really be enjoying it. This is quite a feat considering how much work there is to do on a regular basis. And, the pruning crew has been there for days working their magic on the top 24 rows. One morning Mark called and said the crew wanted to use the tractor. Jason said, “ I wouldn’t normally say yes to this but I don’t have the time to worry about it.” I’m so proud of him! They needed it to pull the very large wood chipper around to mulch up all the cuttings. Mark, a photographer, took drone photos every day and we were able to track the progress that way. Pretty clever! 

Something kind of fun- Mark and Christiana recently sold nearly everything they owned and moved onto a sailboat. This sounds like a dream but is a lot of work. They needed a break from Boat Work. We needed a break from Ranch Work. So, they are minding the ranch and we are on a boat! BAM! 

In a couple of weeks, my parents will fly out to California and take over ranch sitting duties. By then, Mark and Christiana will have the place all settled down and in good order for the hand-off.