Florida

Life is full of irony and the older I get the more I appreciate it. Gotta get your jollies any way you can somedays.

We finally left the heat of Nicaragua behind us, where it never did cool down more than a couple degrees, simply lost some of the humidity. We arrived in Florida to the hottest day on record for December! That's irony :) For us it still felt cool though and both Nikki & I still ended up wearing light sweaters through most of the day. I can't believe how cold the stores keep the A/C. In Nicaragua due to the extreme cost of electricity it is always kept to a minimum even if they have it. I don't think there was a single restaurant in Granada that even actually had it.

The plane ride was uneventful. My panic was kept at bay for most of the journey through a combination of Gary hand holding, pills, music, book and sheer will power, I was getting out of Nicaragua and this was the only way! It is a horrible feeling to feel it starting to overtake my control as it started to a couple times, but always somehow managed to be pushed down so that I didn't make a fool of myself.

Then we arrived in Florida.....and it was gone. I kid you not....and I wasn't making it up to get me out of Nicaragua, I'm not that good!! I will spend alot of time trying to figure it all out. I had a brief moment today in the elevator as the doors took a long time to open, but honestly, other than that I am fine....so far. And I have no need for any pills, which I have to take to wean so that I don't experience withdrawal, but I am immediately down to 0.5 mgs (which is almost none) and tomorrow none.

Another irony was that the moment we arrived at the hotel, Nikki's shoes broke. Sounds like not a big deal except that they were the only ones we had left and I had only one pair left myself other than one pair of red high heels (Nicaragua was VERY hard on our shoes and you can't buy good ones there). So the next day she wore my sandals and I had to come up with an outfit to wear all day with my red heels! A few blisters later, after spending half our day at the airport again trying to secure a rental car (most rental agencies were OUT of cars and many only had big, very expensive ones) we headed out to try and find a mall. And did we ever find one! After a year of no, and I mean no good shopping in Nicaragua this mall was overwhelming and incredible. I think we walked around for the first hour in a daze with our mouths wide open and drooling!! In fact we were so stupefied that we barely bought anything but did manage a new pairs of sandals for Nikki & I. Nikki also got some PJ's. For the last three months she'd been wearing an adult pair of sleep pants that the crotch hung down to her knees and the legs dragged behind her, but I had been lucky to find them at the second hand store. She got an adorable pair with dogs on them, big surprise.

And for my dinner in Florida I had a real Chicken Cesar and for the second, Sushi (thanks Jess!) I am in heaven!

Today we left Fort Lauderdale, which to us looked like a fake city where the perfect houses are made of cardboard, the front lawns coloured in and where even the people look fake. We travelled the three hours to Orlando in our tiny Nissan Versa (Gary is my hero for making our luggage fit) and arrived at our $29 a night comfort Inn which is twice as good as the $79 a night Ramada we just left. We are within minutes of all the attractions. We said it reminded us of Niagara Falls, all shiny and flashy, commercial. Not our sort of place but we do look forward to taking Nikki to Busch Gardens and doing some serious shopping. Even Nikki said today that she doesn't think much of Florida. We are really looking forward to our time in South Carolina.

We made contact with a local Brother who sells cars and we are going to go and look at what he has tomorrow. We turn our car in at the end of the day. Renting is very expensive as since we have been out of Canada for more than 6 months we are not covered through our Visa for insurance so we have to pay the almost $30 a day for theirs. Rip off! We will take it day at a time and make decisions as things present themselves. So much to sort out.....but isn't life exciting. And we are sure making some memories. Good, Bad, Ugly, Rich & Rewarding.

Life instead of simply time.

Can't wait to see the family....we have some cool presents we are lugging about, that you sure better appreciate! And my one luxury from Nicaragua, a ceramic vase, is still in one piece (I actually carried it on the plane)!!