I missed you.

That's right friends - I'm back from Ft. Lauderdale! Home of sea turtles, surprisingly average seafood and folks with serious amounts of sun damage. It's also home to a little body of water I like to call "El Océano Atlántico". That pretty lady tried to drag me into the deep a couple of times and dad's wife may have had to help me back onto the beach because the water rendered me temporarily blind (IT GOT IN MY EYES! AND THERE WASN'T A TOWEL!) but I couldn't get enough of it. I got up at 6 am every morning so I could get my fill before the heat set in (it was like sitting in a sauna for 3 days straight). It's sea turtle season and every morning I'd watch the local marine biology grad students come to the beach and check the sea turtle nests for hatchlings. Did you know:

- That mama turtles bury their eggs in the sand several feet deep and the babies have to dig their way out and then trudge across the beach, dodging hungry sea gulls, vicious red ants and cooing humans to make it to the water? (I have pics. A-dor-a-ble.)
- Baby sea turtles are super cute?
- That all the development along the waterfront is causing a severe decline in the sea turtle population because the baby's instinct is to crawl to the brightest horizon (usually the sea, because of the light from the moon on the water) but since condos tend to leave lights on, they'll crawl toward the housing and die?
- Baby sea turtles are super cute?
- That only 1 in 1,000 make it to maturity?
- That baby sea turtles are super cute? (But don't take them home, no matter how much you really, really, reallyreallyreally want to.)
- That leatherback turtles are the size of a Volkswagon Beetle?

I even got to watch one hatch. It tried to waddle its way to the sea but one of its flippers was a little weak and it kept getting washed back ashore so they had to take it back with them. (Cute. cuuuute.)

I saw some alligator wrestling. I don't so much recommend.

Floridians like their yachts and excessive displays of wealth. I saw one home that had a yacht and two sailboats docked in front. (Overcompensate much?) Guess what it costs to fill the tank of an average sized yacht?

$60,000.

I'll let you process that for a moment.

I saw two rainbows and ate my weight in pancakes and Key Lime Pie. Had wine and margaritas every day. Lemme tell ya, going from my fairly spartan diet to one filled with pancakes and pie, combined with the awkwardness of sharing a rather smallish room with a virtual stranger, made things... um... let's just say that it sent my system into a tailspin and leave it at that.

All in all, a fine time had by me. I miss the sea. Still, it's good to be home.