Vacation Week, Short Report Edition

Location: Vero Beach, on Florida’s Treasure Coast

Weather Report: Hotter than Hell, then some

Fun Event of the Week: Seeing the Shuttle Endeavor lift off from the beach (Cape Canaveral is 75 miles north). Yep. You could see it alright. It looked like a flare someone set off and it lasted for about 10-15 seconds. Then it was obscured by some annoying clouds.

Activities Summary: I promised myself to walk twice a day for an hour (nope); promised to be ‘on the wagon’ the whole week (no); promised not to eat a whole lot of fattening foods (didn’t happen).

Alcohol consumption report: 1 six-pack of ‘good’ beer (Harp Ale), $9.95; two frozen margaritas at Waldos, ($6.00 each plus tip), 2 cans of Mike’s Extra Hard Cranberry-Lemonade ($2.59 each at the Super Stop), one 12-oz bottle of Heineken ($1.69).

I really wanted to order a ‘top shelf’ Margarita over ice at Waldo’s, but they were $8 -$10 each, so I didn't. I watched the the young shorts-and-tanktopped blonde bartender as she mixed them. Expertly (for such a young lady) she deftly poured Patron Silver Tequila, Cointreau and Waldo's special Margarita Mix over glacier-sized icecubes into enormous glass goblets. These top-of-the-line Margaritas looked so icy cold and it was so fricken hot outside. A Magic chill-pill.

With just a fifth of Bacardi Rum and some Minute Maid frozen limeade, I would have made a batch of my own frozen daiquiris upstairs in the condo. The mini-kitchen has an adequate blender and there is an ice machine down in the lobby by the elevator. But no. I did not have a way to get to the mainland stores for rum or groceries, so I was stuck with beer or wine from the Super-Stop and whatever was in the vending machines. Darn. Now I really want to go make frozen daiquiris. (Horrible waste of calories.)

Signed,

Лиза

(Confession: the blonde bartender was really middle-aged and not young. I just embellished the story a little to make it more interesting.)