Pleasant Chill

First night's sleep in my own bed after a mostly pleasant week in Florida.  Restful, but having my every whim accessible to me isn't the inner me.  I prefer retrieving the newspaper from the end of the driveway in my nightwear with warmer clothing needed for longer stays outdoors.  Unpack today.  Treadmill at reduced intensity later, as exercise equipment not available at the place I stayed, though I had my share of slower walks of similar distance to what my treadmill program would offer.  Restaurants all pleasant, mostly mid-priced, but I prefer the challenge of assembling supper for my wife and me each evening.

As much as I liked the four cruises I've taken, all mixtures of leisure and sightseeing, and my times in Puerto Rico, Arizona, and Hawaii with similar hotel based lounging and touring, Florida was distinctly less than that.  It was more doing what natives do, less having to go to work.  Really being part of the sprawl, doing things that pleasant weather enables, sharing the cluster or mall based restaurants with people who access them daily rather than a few times per lifetime.

It will probably take a day or two to restore the normal cadence of activities, though I much prefer these to the mostly leisurely warm days that I just had.

Returning Home

Completing a week in Florida.  Pleasant time.  I needed the break more than I thought I did, though don't anticipate needing another for some time.  Ate out.  I prefer what I create in my own kitchen from things I bought at Shop-Rite.  Walked to the beach across the street.  That was pleasant, though I didn't stay there for very long.  Dunked myself into the pool outside our front door a few times, again, never for very long.  It's still better than a JCC or Y membership where I would have to drive there, change in a locker, and mostly stay indoors except for the summer at the JCC.

I much prefer my sedan to the SUV rental, though I got used to driving it in a day or so.  Within about three days I knew where the important things were: gas station, WaWa, where to eat, how to access the highways.

Just over half a month remaining in the calendar year.  Much shorter checklist than the things I needed to do before vacation.  One final Medscape column.  My Semi-Annual Projects.  Two Torah readings.  Return to treadmill schedule.

My sleep pattern remained unchanged by the change in location.  There must be some internal, involuntary signals.  Did not take any of the diphenhydramine that I brought along.  Less beer than I would have had going out to dinner at home.  If they didn't have something unique or regional, which most of the places didn't, water would do.  About the same amount of coffee that I'd have at home, mostly gas station varietals, though some with restaurant breakfasts that seemed especially good.   Starbucks around the corner, no attraction to me whatever.

I'm very much looking forward to returning to the many things that I usually do.

Seeking Experiences

Penultimate day in Deerfield Beach. I've purchased no material goods to bring on my return trip, not a cheap T-shirt or a coffee mug.  Nada.  Came for experiences and got experiences.  Met with a cousin who I've not seen in decades and with a friend who I've kept in touch with for many decades.  Visited my father's grave site, completing my Semi-Annual Project of visiting all family cemeteries.  Self-toured the Everglades.  Slept late.  Lounged at pool, jumping in a few short dips.  Walked a block to the beach, mostly sitting at the shore, but wading in twice.  Deerfield Beach differs from Downstate Delaware.  Smaller width.  The town or state built barrier rocks, presumably to avoid flooding.  Even the places we dined at had a uniqueness not readily accessible at home.  I know of no pâtisseries.  Here we had two.  The breakfast places were each a little different than where I would go at home, more in ambience than menu, though I am used to more extensive griddle options.  We don't really have small restaurants with seafood dominant menus, though our beer selections are a lot more varied.  Only ate at one large chain, and that to be with my dear friend, whose house I got to mostly tour, along with my cousin's home.  These are different, inside and outside, from mine, though admittedly I prefer mine as a place to live.  

The scale of the area is also part of the experience.  The shore runs for hundreds of miles.  The population may be among the largest suburban sprawls in America with massive housing developments, mid-rise condos on the beach blocks, and shopping centers spread out with shops catering to any imaginable whim, or even legitimate need.  Nothing seemed grimy. The Everglades followed a single road, but that road ran 38 miles, encompassing multiple habitats.  Yet the two visitor centers seemed far more compact than other National Parks I have visited.

There is also a Jewish presence, part obvious with Chabad style Menorahs prominent in many locations, though much hidden.  Synagogues come up on a list.  I didn't go to one this shabbos, none notable from the roads as I drove past.  Kosher restaurant before I head home, another experience difficult to duplicate.

And maybe the ultimate experience, shirtsleeve, beach weather in December.  Not something I'd want all the time.  I'd probably not really like living in one of the many housing developments of restricted access with rigid Home Owners Association Rules and fees.  As pleasant as the week has been, I still think I like my own norm better.

Intercession

 

OLLI's mid-semester break comes at just the right time for me this term.  Wife's organizational obligations take a hiatus just at that week. Passover still a few weeks off.  I don't really need another vacation, and doubt that I will just a few weeks hence, but it's a chance to do something a little different if not challenging either alone or even better as a couple.  And preferably something that I cannot squeeze in at a different time.

After some early thought, I think I am willing to fly three hours and rent a car or drive maybe six hours.  That could take me to Florida by air, which seem the best air values.  By car I could get to Kitty Hawk or possibly to Boston.  Haven't been to Montreal in decades but it seems out of range for that time frame.  Could go to Montauk, never been to the very end of Long Island but I have been to Orient Point on the North Shore.  And then there is the option of visiting friends.  I have some in Florida, some in New York, one in the Berkshires.  Beach would be nice.  I could splash in an indoor pool up north.  As much as I like Boston, and even miss living there slightly, I don't really want a cultural immersion this time.  Nature would be better. New Hampshire, even Lake Winnepesauga is not that far north.

For all my time in school, I never really got away for spring break other than observing Peach, and some years not even that.  Would never consider spending my father's money on lavish entertainment.  Still imprinted to be a little hesitant to spend my own money that way, even when ample.  There has to be a purpose to travel beyond my own amusement.

And I've not been to my father's grave site since shiva in 2009.  Can get to Paramus and Elmont for everyone else any time, much harder to get to Florida.

Maybe check with some folks who live there.

Maybe Give Florida Another Go

One full year has elapsed since Covid-19 altered our customary activities.  Had I not retired when I did, I would have functioned amid the medical fray, finding myself desperately in need of a vacation but limited to mostly a staycation, assuming they allowed their docs some periodic respite.  Even soldiers in modern warfare have some R&R provisions.  As a forced indoor cat, I probably did better than most.  My car counts as isolation, so a daily drive usually to nowhere became the norm.  For a while I went to stores but soon lost interest in being a consumer of anything other than food.  I never liked take-out, preferring a menu with the rituals of a waitress.  There not being many options for this, it became a special occasion, one whose absence became less bothersome as the months proceeded.  I had some destinations.  State Parks allowed fishing.  Two state beaches got visits without the deviants among us expressing their autonomy by endangering the public, as I saw in news reports from elsewhere.  I even ventured onto an airplane for my son's wedding, a much muted venture limited to puttering around my former campus and neighborhoods in St. Louis, eating outdoors twice, but not having the hotel amenities that add to previous short trips.  I also made three modest day trips, one to a Philadelphia's Italian Market, another to Ladew Topiary Gardens with grounds open but mansion closed, and another to a more distant state park while zipping briefly for coffee or pizza in the small town America that barely survives the nearby malls.  I even had a trip planned to the Everglades, but cancelled as the toll of Covid-19 peaked enough to make travel to the that part of Florida beyond prudent risk.  Now we have immunization, or will soon.  We also have places that depend on visitors trying to have their Second Act. Each day an airline or two tries to entice customers with air fares that undercut any other means of traversing that distance.  And Atlantic Florida being overbuilt, overscheduled by competing airlines, and without any need to transport cruise ship passengers, again emerges as an economical destination, though as safety improves, bargains have become more restrictive.

It's a place I never particularly sought out beyond making a trek to Disney World with the kids, something that has become largely obligatory one time, perhaps like the Hajj, for American parents.  My father lived in Boynton Beach for his final two decades, so a few trips worthy of Kavod Av got incorporated, though never truly what I think of as a personal vacation with that required element of escape for fun.  And I've been there in my professional capacity as a physician for two conferences.  It's not really the enticing destination where I would go to let my hair down let alone ride out my closing years like my father and some childhood friends have done, nor seek my adult destiny there, a venture taken by many friends as young adults.  Nobody who has done that seems to move on.  I found it a place where people like being catered to or having their entitlements reinforced, something that almost jeopardizes my pride of independence with the accomplishment that comes from doing as much as I can myself, mostly for myself.  

But a bargain is a bargain.  I have to look at the flights and places to stay.  What would I do if I were there for five days or so, or whatever length of stay qualifies for a discounted flight home?  The Everglades, which I have seen from the window of a small plane on a business related shuttle from Miami to Tampa, should be experienced at ground level.  I have a few friends there though with Covid still active, I don't know how receptive people are to guests.  When FB friends venture there and post photos, they invariably include gatherings of friends maintained over decades, and in far larger numbers, and likely in closeness, than my less gregarious nature has maintained.  There are beaches, but in the likely travel month of June we have wonderful beaches in driving distance. Hotels have outdoor pools there.  We have them indoors, though the outdoor ones are more likely to avoid suspension of activity by the regional health departments.  For parts of the area, there is a stronger Jewish presence than I have at home.  It would be pleasant to dine at a Kosher restaurant on some delicacy not readily duplicated in my own kitchen.  

Whatever is there that I might do, I think the strongest incentive remains being someplace other than here which has taken its toll.  My drive to nowhere to get me out of the house most days can be a drive to somewhere someplace else.  Check the airfares.  Check the calendars.  See who might be around.  But I'm ready for a more distant destination.

Cancelling Vacation

Covid-19 has taken its toll on travel, though this Thanksgiving a lot of people took their chances to see trusted relatives in person.  When I went to pick up a few items at Total Whine for my own Thanksgiving, a lot of other shoppers had full baskets that they could not possibly consume themselves.  I felt a need to get away too, and began to act on it.

 

It's been a confining time.  I went on three small day trips this fall and air travel over Labor Day weekend.  My son's wedding was worth some prudent health risk, though far fewer attended than originally planned.  I went virtually nowhere, getting food at a supermarket on arrival and having two dinners, one outdoors, the other in a tent.  The hotel had closed its pool.  In lieu of a buffet, it offered a doggy bag, which I declined in favor of the munchies from the supermarket.

That vacation overdue feeling had arisen, emphasized by a goal I had set for myself to visit a National Park by year's end.  I could have driven to Great Smokies, probably a reasonable  Plan A.  It would take a lot of driving, but offered detours to either Asheville or Knoxville. But there didn't seem to be all that much to do at the park itself, maybe hike or drive on trails.  It is also the most visited of the National Parks, so undesired crowds might be expected.  As an alternative, I looked at the Everglades.  By travel standards, this looked too good to be true.  Airfare less than regional intercity train fare in the Northeast.  Hotels about a third less than I usually pay for a chain hotel.  Rental cars seemed something of rip-off with Florida gouging its visitors as best it could, but as a package, it could not be beat.  Reservations made, with a modest penalty for canceling the car.  Looked forward to getting away until the reports of accelerated infection rates starting making the news.  Most of the trip would not have been that unsafe.  Air travel requires masks and we would sit together.  Hotels and cars also leave us by ourselves.  The hotel district can be accessed on a variety of internet maps.  There is a cluster of them near ours, at the edge of a shopping center district with ample takeout.  And the Everglades have assigned roads and open spaces, far larger than any of the parks near home.  However, to see what's in the Everglades, the National Park Service franchises tour concessions who take tourists around in some form of land or watercraft.  The State of Florida has been a little loose about protecting it's inhabitants, with far more people than we have rejecting infection control precautions as infringement on their personal or economic liberties.  That part is not a prudent risk.  As reports of illness, hospitalization, and mortality disseminated, responsibility for the health of my wife prevailed.  Son's wedding, take a chance.  My amusement, no way.  I cancelled it all, forfeiting an auto rental deposit, accepting an airline credit good for nearly a year, and perhaps staying at a different hotel in an area where the people have a better level of regard for each other.