Florida was an exotic adventure for us. Like cultural tourism into our own cultures leisure culture, to paraphrase one of the few people likely to read this. Paul had never been to Florida, despite his many travels elsewhere, and I used to go with my family as a child. We stayed in three areas, seeing a wide spectrum.
Along the way, we both followed our tradition of reading books related to the place. I read All Families are Psychotic by Douglas Coupland, a great novel set mostly in Florida, and Paul read Orange by McPhee, a non-fiction book about the most important fruit in the state. This came in handy for conversation topics while sardined between people from all over the world while an operator kneeded on the floor to hand-operate the semi-functioning tram, the only way from one side of Miami's airport to the other. Both of our airport experiences in Miami were absurdly bad, it was the most dysfunctional and crazy aiport I've experienced, and I've written here about the Delhi airport in the midst of it's reconstruction.
But the weirdest thing was the weather. How to save oranges turned out to be a hot topic, since it was close to freezing when we arrived. The weather slowly warmed up, so that by the time we spent the last two days on South Beach, Miami it was warm enough to sunbathe. However, the water was off limits due to "dangerous sea life." By the time we reached Palm Beach we were able to put the top down on the convertible we got thanks to our delayed arrival at the rental car counter (not too popular in the cold). The first few days, spent at a resort on Key Largo, were the weirest since we and the other guests were wandering around wrapped in all our warm clothing looking at swimming pools, sailboats, and kayak's wondering if we would ever use them. But Paul did get to catch a big fish, and the dockside restaurant re-opened in time for us to have them cook it for us.
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