Kate's visit, part four

Kate, Andy, and I got bus tickets to South Florida for Friday, January 15. My last class ended at 3:50, and the bus would leave from campus at 4:30, so I packed some clothes and other necessities in my backpack and carried them around with me throughout the day. After my class, Kate met up with me, and we found Andy at the parking lot where the buses were.

We got comfortable in the back row, which conveniently had three seats and inconveniently was next to the restroom. The bus got off to a late start, so we laughed and joked in Esperanto to pass the time. In fact, we spoke Esperanto during the whole bus ride, to the probable confusion of those who anyone who was trying to listen. (I doubt anyone was. Everyone turned on, tuned in, and dropped out.)

We got off at Pompano Beach, where my parents were waiting to pick up me and Kate. One of the first things we did when we got home was make some tea for Kate. I wasn't even sure if my parents would have any tea, but they did, so that was good. It was already late by then, so after making plans for the weekend, we just went to bed. My sister had let Kate sleep in her room, which was very nice of her. (Thanks, Kristen!)

On Saturday, we got off to kind of a slow start, which was fine by me. But it was going to be kind of a big day. There's a lighthouse near my home, and it's only open to the public a few days a year. I had never been there. As it happened, they were giving tours on Saturday, so my mom took Kate and me to the waterfront hotel where tour boats were departing. Soon, we were heading down the Intracoastal, on our way to the lighthouse.

I thought there would be a guided tour, but after a guide talked about the statue of Ed Hamilton, the barefoot mailman of local lore, we were left to just wander around. There wasn't a lot of space for wandering, though. There were a couple of cottages that were off-limits because they were being used as vacation homes for Coast Guardsmen and their families, apparently. That pretty much left the lighthouse.

Of course, we wanted to go up to the top, but the lighthouse had a maximum capacity of about twelve people, so we had to wait a while first. Finally, we were allowed to enter, and we made our way up the narrow spiral staircase. Soon, we were on the observation deck just below the light. It was extremely windy up there, but in spite of that, we managed to stay a little while and take some photos. I tried a couple of panoramas. This one turned out better (click for huge version). The boat in the corner is a nice touch, if I do say so myself.

After a while, we made our way down to the ground. One of the Coast Guard Reserve people hanging around the entrance saw that I was wearing a Beatles shirt, and we had a little conversation about the Beatles. The lighthouse people took our photo, and they said they'd put it in the next issue of their newsletter.

There wasn't much left to do, so we planned to take the next tour boat back to the hotel. We asked one of the lighthouse people when the next one was coming, and he said it would come at 3:30. In the meantime, we sat on the beach. Although we tried to be early for the boat, we ended up missing it because it was even earlier. Instead of waiting an hour for the next one, we decided to walk to the nearest public beach.

Our walk took us through the ritzy community next to the lighthouse. It was filled with people playing golf, tennis, and yes, croquet. After that, it wasn't a very long walk. It was cloudier and windier by the time we arrived. We had two beach towels with us; we sat on one and I covered myself up with the other. Kate didn't think it was cold, so that worked out well enough.

After that, my mom picked us up and took us home. Kate gave my parents a gift; it was another calendar with some spectacular scenes of St. Petersburg. Kate then used Google Earth to show us some of the places she's lived in and visited. After we had a dinner of steak, Kate took a dip in the pool while I watched from a safe distance. I've tried to go swimming in the winter, and it is just not fun. Again, Kate didn't think it was very cold.

On Sunday morning, Kate got to experience a Kalilich Sunday brunch, complete with waffles, scrambled eggs, sausage, hash browns, bagels, and probably other stuff (I think Kate had bread and cheese). It was a big meal for a big day. Kate had wanted to visit the Museum of Art and the Museum of Discovery and Science in Fort Lauderdale, and Andy had said that his aunts would treat him and us to dinner in the evening.

Before we left for our big day out, I tried to get my photos off my camera and onto my dad's computer. "Tried" was the key word. My trusty memory card, the one I had used throughout most of my camera's life, was corrupted and unreadable. I remembered Magic Rescue, which I reviewed here a year and a half ago, and installed it on my dad's Ubuntu machine (I didn't have my computer with me for once). Magic Rescue recovered 67 of the 72 files. After that, I resigned myself to using my last good memory card, capable of holding a whopping 8 (yes, eight) photos.

We went to the Museum of Art first. They happened to have an exhibition of Norman Rockwell's artwork, which I figured would be good for Kate to see: what could be more American? There were a lot of his earlier works, and also some well-known later works such as Triple Self-Portrait and The Problem We All Live With. There was also a huge wall with every one of his Saturday Evening Post covers.

We proceeded to the rest of the museum, which was more modern and less traditional, and after that, we went to the Museum of Discovery and Science, which was just a few blocks away. I had fond memories of going there as a little kid, so it was fun to go back. It was full of little kids running around everywhere, though.

Kate had wanted to go to the museum's IMAX theater, but the showings were all sold out, so we just checked out the museum. They must change it up periodically because I hardly recognized anything at all. Still, it was fun to see all the exhibits about marine life, space, geology, and so on. There was a section of the museum devoted to brain teasers. I solved the Towers of Hanoi puzzle with six discs. I wouldn't have known how to do it if I hadn't learned about a recursive solution in one of my previous programming classes.

After going through two museums, we were pretty tired, so we sat by the New River and then went over to Riverwalk, a shopping area by the river. That's when Andy came to pick us up. The three of us went to Lincoln Road in Miami Beach, where we would have dinner with two of Andy's aunts. (The preceding statement should not be taken to imply that Andy has more than two aunts; in fact, I don't know how many he has.)

We ate at an Italian restaurant called Da Leo Trattoria. One of Andy's aunts, the one who lived in Miami, told me about how she and everyone in her office would read my blog over the summer to find out what Andy and I were up to in Europe. From the blog, she already knew about Kate, and she said she felt as if she already knew her.

The food was very good, and so was the dessert. I was actually the only one who didn't order dessert, but after the waiter gave everyone else their desserts, he inexplicably had a slice of Key lime pie left over and asked if I wanted it. How do you say no to that?

After dinner, we thanked Andy's aunts for treating us to dinner. Andy drove Kate and me to South Beach and then went to his aunt's place for a little while. Kate and I pretty much spent the whole time sitting on the beach. It was pitch dark, and there weren't many people around, but there were a lot of flickering lights from boats on the water.

Later, Andy picked us up took us home. Thanks, Andy!

On Monday, we got off to another late start, I think because I was taking a long time to pack my things (even though I had hardly brought anything). My mom drove us to Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, where we had about twenty minutes to walk around and see the River of Grass before we had to go to the rest stop on the highway where the bus would pick us up.

At the rest stop, we met up with Andy. The bus came and whisked us away to Gainesville. It was a newer bus than the previous one; the back seat spanned the whole width of the bus, which was more than enough room for us all to be comfortable. The bus ride, of course, took forever, but it didn't seem quite as long as before.

It was a national holiday, so there would be no local bus service to take us back to our apartment from the bus stop on campus. Andy called ahead for a cab, and it arrived right after we did. By the time we got back to the apartment, it wasn't late, but I was tired, so I didn't think we did very much.

Congratulations for reading this far. Here's a link: The Same-Sex Marriage Debate, Greatly Simplified. It's a sort of crazy flowchart.