It looks like I can finally catch my breath after an insane few weeks of work and play.  It’s been quite a while since I’ve had to figure out a way to balance various activities, but I don’t really mind staying busy.  However, for the sake of this website, I just need to stay busy with more interesting undertakings.  Sitting at a desk and writing for hours on end doesn’t make for the most riveting posts, but luckily for you, now that things are settling down, more exciting events are on the horizon.  The Iowa State Fair is coming up, followed by a trip to Las Vegas with my sister and 13 other friends.  Ahhh…Thousands of calories of foods on a stick, followed by copious amounts of alcohol and no sleep.  I will probably die.

Anyway…

As my last post alluded to, I drove back and forth between Des Moines and Miami.  On the way back, my brother and I made the journey together.  During the 26 hour drive, I tweeted to suppress boredom.  Here’s a sampling of a few.  Most were quotes from my brother:

“I wonder if we’re going to see a gator.” 20 min later: “I wonder if we’re going to see a skunk ape.”

“That animal has to be so hot. It’s thinking: Out of all the fake animals, I have to be Bigfoot living in Florida. Take me back to Nepal.”

“If I happened to be a bug hitting a windshield, I would rather splat than bounce. Wouldn’t you?”

Brother, after seeing a billboard: Pelicans? You can buy pelicans?   Me: Pecans. You can buy pecans.

Me: There’s a cop, you’re driving, and texting is illegal.  Brother: I’ll just tell him that I’m playing games.  Me: …

Oh, and finally, this is why you don’t forget your iPod connection or CD’s.  Georgia had a great selection of radio stations:

Road Trip Music

From my favorite fish at the Gansevoort Miami Beach hotel:

While I was in Miami, our boat was mostly just a floating condo.  One engine was not quite working right, which rendered the boat worthless.  Living in a small, swaying space is not quite as luxurious as living on a motor yacht, so my dad was anxious to fix the situation before the rest of my family arrived for a vacation.  This meant that a platoon of boat mechanics swarmed our dock every morning.  This also meant that relaxing on the boat was impossible.  Such is the frustration of boat ownership, apparently.

Anyway…

During the final stretch of repair work, my dad and I decided to explore the Florida Keys for a day.  We drove from Miami to Key West and back again in the span of an afternoon.  The drive was pretty, the water was vivid blue, and the key lime pie was fantastic.  If you’re ever in Key West, I definitely recommend a stop at the Key West Key Lime Shoppe.  Overall, it was a nice break from the non-stop energy of Miami Beach.

My dad legitimately likes Smirnoff Ice.  He deems it okay, because he drinks a little, then fills the bottle back up with vodka.  Because of this, our family boat was stockpiled with the not-so-awesome beverage.  My sister and I took advantage of this, or, mostly, we took advantage of my brother’s apparent inability to learn.

The final drinking tally was:  Me-1, Sister-1, Dad-1, Brother-10.

Also, we definitely could have forced my dad to drink more.  However, whenever someone else was subjected to chugging this miserable drink, my dad would run to their aid and declare, “Hey, if you can’t finish that, I’ll help.”  He likes the stuff.  Not okay.  At all.

(A special thanks to my sister for the title of this post.)