ON THE BEACH

Well I'm blogging you from the center of lovely Lauderdale-by-the-sea. I arrived to bright sun and unexpectly warm water. I didn't realize the Atlantic ever gets that warm. The Shore Haven turned out to be a good value for the money. The rooms are large, clean and well stocked. The bed is comfy and the front desk kid is very helpful. I haven't figured out his name yet but I think he's the son of the owner. The pool also looks great but with the sea so close, I haven't tried it yet.

The locals are friendly lot and I have to say this is the place for a single middle-aged woman to score. In less than 8 hours, I was hit on three times. My long time readers know that I always go home alone, but I did have a jolly time hanging out with these guys. Larry from Pensacola, works for Verizon I think and travels all over the country. He was a kind of low-key guy, very sweet and unassuming. I left the popular local watering hole, Arubas for a while with him to check out one of the better kept local secrets, The Pumping Station. It was actually fun to watch the ball game in a room full of Marlins fans. The place reminded me of City Cafe back home.

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I was passing Arubas on my way back to the beach to have a look at the stars when I finally succumbed to the group of Swedes. Three older guys, they all pitched me, but I connected with Anders the best and the other two sort of disappeared for a while. I don't know what kind of deal they were cooking up, they were very vague about what business they were in, but they insisted on ordering buckets of champagne followed by some obscenely rich chocolate strawberry shots.

Never did see the stars over the beach; I decided to accept their invitation to go clubbing down at the Riverwalk section of town. The clubs all seem alike down there, they reminded me of Atlanta. I wasn't impressed and Anders and I went in search of a jazz club nearby. It was already closed, one wonders if he had already known that since it was conveniently located next to his hotel.

He invited me up of course, I accepted on the proviso that he call me a cab from there. The guy was a smooth operator and I guess he used to getting what he wants. Maybe he thought I would be more impressed by the ultra-expensive Riverwalk Hotel. I guess I should have known that he would think I was just being coy in accepting the invitation to come up but I was genuinely curious and thought I was being quite straightforward.

I wasn't impressed by the room either, the furniture was nicer, but the room was smaller than mine and he had a terrible view. I actually have a partial ocean view in mine. I didn't stay long. It was late and he of course went into high gear to get me to spend the night. A champagne breakfast sounded pretty tempting at that moment, but I insisted he call the cab and to his credit although he was obviously irritated, he was rather gracious and waited with me in the lobby until it arrived.

I rolled back into my room at 3:00am and woke up at noon, really happy that I had come home. Moet doesn't really give you a hang-over but I sure didn't feel like eating breakfast. Maybe it was the chocolate things. I never drink shots.

So that's it for today friends. There is drug war news of course, but we're on vacation here. It's a lovely afternoon and I want to get back to the beach...

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