Observations of a road warrior.

The week has flown by for me here in Florida!  I've had a ton of time to take in my surroundings and really process my perception of Florida, and I kept notes throughout the week of what to share with you guys.

+ I think I was the only person in the state of Florida that used my blinker this week.

+ Floridians either drive at 55 mph, or 110 mph.  There is no gray area.

+ People park their cars on the side of the freeway, all over the place!  In California, if you abandon your car on the shoulder of the freeway, it gets towed!

+ I supposedly had a Toll Road pass, although I never was able to find it on my car.  I'm waiting with baited breath to see if I get any $100 violation tickets in the mail...

Other than all of that, I have to give a huge public thank you to my beautiful and hysterical cousin, Cosette.  She hosted me at her amazing condo in South Beach for the first three nights of my trip, and she totally gave me a feel of what it is to be a local in South Beach.  

It was my first time to Miami, and I have to say that I really appreciated the culture, the color, the cuisine.  The people were beautiful, I got to practice my Spanish like I haven't in years, and I dined on authentic Cuban fare that was to die for.  (Everyone recommended Versailles in Little Havana for an authentic Cuban meal.  It was amazing and the service was top notch.  I recommend it to anyone.)  The air is thick and humid, the people speak super fast, and the yachts and mansions on the water even made this California girl's jaw drop.  I definitely plan to head back to Miami for fun sometime soon - it was that good.

I drove up the coast on Wednesday afternoon through some sporadic rain showers, and made it to Jacksonville by dinnertime.  It wasn't until I was having a nightcap at the hotel bar that I became aware of Tropical Storm Andrea bearing down on Northern Florida.  It's just my luck - I have an uncanny ability to attract storms when I travel.

Thanks to Andrea, I was up at the crack of dawn hearing the wind and the rain beating against my hotel windows.  I made it to my first appointment just fine, but both of my afternoon appointments canceled because of the weather.  Oy vey.

So here I am, taking off on Friday to tackle the remainder of my Florida appointments before I make the five hour trek north to Atlanta.  Wish me luck in the wind and the rain!  I think it's meant to be north of me by late afternoon though, thank goodness.  

The light at the end of today's travel is that my bestie from high school in South Carolina, Cary Beth, is driving to Atlanta to meet me for the night for a dinner date!  We've got a late night dinner reservation at a top notch Atlanta restaurant (recommended to me by one of my favorite Southerners, Miss ALC), and I'm dying to catch up on our long overdue girl talk.

And then Saturday afternoon, I'll jump on a plane from Hotlanta to New York to get to work my ass off with the Northern crowd and spend time with all of my Yankee besties!  

Life is so good.

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