Back in Florida I got a chance to reconnect with my family who I hadn’t seen in almost exactly a year. They had recently become obsessed with the board game Settlers of Catan. We played dozens of games over the few weeks I was there. I got some dinner with my dad, had more craft beer at a few microbreweries that opened up along Central Ave, and went swimming in the pool.
My next door neighbor, Lauren, moved back to St. Pete and started working for her family’s company so her and I got a chance to hang out as well. Shortly before I was scheduled to leave for New York to start the web development program, Lauren invited me on an adventure to Miami to see her friend from South Africa perform at a bar. We made the 4 hour drive into a full day adventure of airboating and eating gator meat. It was fun to be a tourist in my own state.
In Miami we stayed with my friend Gerard and his parents. Gerard showed us around town and took us down to South Beach for a walkabout. That night we saw Lauren’s friend’s band perform. They were really good, but the weather was biblical. We Ubered downtown in the pouring rain and partied in near hurricane-like conditions. At the end of the night we had delicious tacos and took an Uber back. By the time we made it back to Gerard’s there was heavy flooding and the streets were nearly undriveable.
The next day Lauren and I hit the road and returned to St. Pete. Along the way we visited Koreshan State Historic Site. A real-life The Village. It’s a creepy little commune of old buildings once occupied by members of a cult.
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