My first visit to Florida! It’s been a very exciting weekend for me! As I wrote earlier, I went there with my friend Anna to celebrate her birthday at her sister’s place. With us came also her grandmother, and yesterday, her dad and her other grandma also came over from Fort Lauderdale. So I got to meet part of the family.
Saturday morning, after breakfast, we headed to the Jupiter Beach and spent a few hours there. It wasn’t a lot of people at our end of the beach, so it felt very quiet. The waves were quite high but the water was nice and both Anna and I went swimming several times. In the afternoon, V took us for lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, where I enjoyed the view and their Kentucky Bourbon Skewer.
In the evening, we went for a wine and paint gathering at Uptown Art I’ve never been to one before, but they have become quite popular here in the U.S. It’s basically a simple art class for groups that you can bring wine and snacks to. You get a motive and help with what colors to put on your palette, and then an instructor guides your through the different steps in composing the painting. It was really well organized and so much fun! I used to draw and paint a lot when I was younger, but at some point in high-school, we had to choose between art and music and I choose music of course. I basically haven’t painted since but I think I will pick it up. Admittedly, I wasn’t particularly good at it, but who cares? After the wine and paint, we had dinner at a great Thai Restaurant, where I had close to divine octopus dumplings – the best thing I’ve eaten in along time!
Sunday morning, Anna’s dad and other grandmother dropped in for brunch and later, we went to downtown West Palm Beach and hang out by the inner state (the canal that goes all the way from Florida up to New York) and later, we had margaritas and nachos at Rocco’s Tacos. In the evening, we had sushi at Ra, and then watched Downton Abbey at V’s and ate left-over ice cream cake from Anna’s birthday party. A perfect ending of a perfect weekend!
So what was my first impression of Florida? Since I just saw a small piece of it, it’s difficult to say. The beaches and the small lots of protected land areas were of course amazing! The U.S. has such gorgeous wild nature. The downtown West Palm Beach and a small strip close to Uptown Art had the feel of 1920s sea resorts over them, and very charming. The rest was mostly spread-out suburbia and malls, and while functional, probably the dullest type of architecture in the U.S. I feel like it suffocates life and kills any kind of creativity and intellectual curiosity, but people seem to like it. In line with Florida’s reputation, the airport was full of seniors. (I’ve actually never seen so many people in wheelchairs at an airport in my entire life.) Nevertheless, I really liked Florida and I’d like to go back. I mean, who would not like a place with palm trees and beaches? Here are some pics from my weekend:
