Day 1 of my Floridian adventures comprised of a relaxed day at the pool and later walking around the beach with my dad. We cooked food, and I once again ate fish. And, again, I’ll keep on eating it, even though it makes me feel sluggish and weighty. Day 2 was filled with grocery shopping and a day at the beach to not just walk around but to swim and sit under our half tent. Unfortunately, I’m slightly sunburned, hungry, and headache-y. I’ll be pink for the next few days, and my freckles are getting darker by the minute, I swear. But, that’s the price I paid and will continue to pay for being outside without sunscreen while being a redhead. Luckily, there won’t be any blistering or skin damage at this point. Just some irritation at myself when I look in the mirror (but hey, that’s not uncommon). I jest.
Anyway, as I like to talk about food as much as possible, here are some of the great things I’ve been eating:
German style buttered bread with Swiss cheese. It makes the best breakfast.
Sushi. Yeah, I tried it and found that I’m a fan of the wasabi.
Fish with steamed vegetables, rice, and salad. Speaking of salads, I’ve been making the best cucumber, avocado, tomato, onion salads. Add some bleu cheese dressing, and it’s awesome (and that’s coming from the girl who usually doesn’t like to have dressing). My dad also makes a great Greek salad from just cucumbers, tomatoes, and black olives mixed with this dressing that he makes from combining Greek dressing and Greek spices. I could have said Greek more times in that sentence, but I didn’t feel like it.
Anyway, here are some photos from the beach as proof that I’m actually down here. Meanwhile, it’s time to make some asparagus pesto and watch the rain fall down–even if I’m doing more watching than actual cooking.
Day 2 ended by me realising that I’m incredibly sunburned. Day 3 began with me throwing up and rolling around in nightmares—probably because of the sunburn. What a stupid, stupid idea to think that I could go out into the sun for four hours without any protection other than shade. Stupid, stupid, stupid. My shoulders, arms, chest, knees, and even feet are bright pink, and it hurts to even move. Luckily, though, I bought some Sarna this afternoon (as recommended by my friend Jenn, who had supplied the stuff to my roommate for a sunburn this past spring) and kept mostly inside. Then again, even staying outside wouldn’t have been too awful, as it’s been raining all day.
As always, I ate fairly well today. We went to a fruit stand and bought some mango butter and orange-coconut marmalade and later went to Sweet Tomatoes—a fabulous salad and soup buffet. I’d been once before in Saint Louis a few years back, and the second time was just as good. I recommend the split pea soup and triple berry green tea while there. Both are delicious.
The rest of day 3 was spent driving out to a bird sanctuary, only for it pour once we got there. I still took some pictures and had a bird talk to me (see last post), but we spent an equal amount of time at a local fruit stand, buying the previously mentioned jam products and questioning what fruit was what. The good of that came with me now knowing what a lychee is. Yay.
Day 4 was rain. Lots of rain. And a very itchy sunburn on my shoulders and chest. I spent a good deal of the day trying to relieve the pain and itch with Sarna, lotion, et cetera, none of which did the job as well as simply distracting myself—which came in the form of eating super hot peppers. My dad was cooking up some ceviche when Olga and I heard a mighty WHELP come from the kitchen. There stood my dad, flinging his hands and trying to get the pepper from his mouth. Even a tiny sliver had turned his mouth on fire. He gave me a piece the size of an ant (literally), and I didn’t think much of it. So I ate a slice the size of two ants, in which my dad gave me an odd look. Olga came and took a similar bite, which immediately found itself on the kitchen floor along with a slew of Russian in complaint. So I ate an entire sliver. Still nothing. It was a little spicy, but about the same as any salsa. I wondered what was broken with me since I felt practically nothing from the pepper but decided not to care because I had finally stopped itching. I would try the same thing the next day by just taking a bite out of the pepper. The pepper then immediately found itself not on the floor, but in the trash, along with the remnants that were in my mouth. OH GOD!! My mouth wasn’t just on fire. It was the most painfully spicy thing I have ever felt in my life! I immediately poured orange juice down my throat as it was closest. Then tried to immediately stuff a banana along with it, then two cups of milk, then an ice cube, then tea, then anything else I could find to stop the burning. And it still burned—for a half hour, actually. My dad got home after fifteen minutes of my burning adventure and found me sucking on an ice cube on the couch, not even paying attention to Anthony Bourdain in the background. He told me I should do it again and let me film him; it would be a hit on YouTube. I declined the offer.
Much of day 4 was rain, though. Heavy rain that ended our plans of seeing fireworks for Fourth of July. We would have gone to the beach, two miles away, to see a wonderful display from the pier. But, it rained, and we stayed at home, watching the telly and eating leftover asparagus pesto, mushrooms, and berries.
Day 5 was even more rain, but we didn’t know about it until we had reached the riverfront in Fort Lauderdale for fifteen minutes. Then it poured. Poured until you could barely see anything, and we were trapped under trees and awnings, shoes saturated, my pants and vest completely saturated, hair sticking to my face in wet tendrils. Miserable weather, and I was still wet even after a full hour of lunch at a café (where I had marguerite pizza—so good). As we were still wet, we braved the rain a little further with our umbrellas to see shops selling shirts for 300 dollars and ice cream for an equally ridiculous price. Though, even with the price, it might have been worth it: think roasted coconut rolled in chocolate and then put into vanilla ice cream. Absolutely freaking delicious.
Later in the afternoon and evening, my dad and I made some tea and chatted it up on the porch, watched Anthony Bourdain (as I only realised today that there has been a marathon because of the new season starting Monday), and ate ceviche. I also tried stuffed tea leaves (interesting with a lot of vinegar and a very earthly flavour from all of the tea) and Mediterranean/Russian olives (so salty, that I had to run for some orange juice to wash my mouth out).
Any times in between have been spent lounging about with my computer: playing Sims or internetting or reading Great Expectations (surprisingly good) and my favourite fanfiction which I saved into a Word document (the only fanfiction I’ve ever enjoyed and a secret guilty pleasure). I’ve been trying to update my wordpress for days, but I’ve only managed one little post from when I went to a bird sanctuary that we quickly left from because of the rain. I certainly brought the rain with me; suppose I’ll have to go back up to Saint Charles to get rid of it. And here I leave you.
Leave you with a picture of Anthony Bourdain–love of my life, right after Chris Thile.
“Missi is fucking awesome and has great taste in food.”
Really, Anthony? Aw, love you, too.
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