We lunched and talked and then decided to take a nap, Maria promising to make us a special cocktail to ring in the New Year. Unfortunately, we never awoke and slept through the arrival of 2015 - a first for me.
New Year's Day commenced with a lunch in our honour. Maria is a member of a French group and an Archaeological Association (she has her doctorate in Archaeology) . Members of both groups, in addition to some other friends, graced her table. The guests were interesting, one couple having just returned from an archaeological tour of the Burren. Most had travelled widely though one guest had only visited three states in her life and had no desire to visit more!!
Yesterday we devised to go shopping We drove about 200 miles in all The petrol is only $2.25 a gallon, less than a quarter of the Irish price. We filled the tank for $25!!
The outlets were jammed with shoppers. It was almost impossible to find a parking spot and people were not helpful as they would never indicate to you that they were leaving. On the contrary when I indicated to a lady that we were departing she wished me a happy New Year and thanked me profusely. It's obviously every man for himself here .
We did a little damage to the credit card and made for Hobe Sound. En route the Garmin switched off, much to my horror but mercifully, it reloaded before we got lost!!
We dined with Maria on crab claws and huge shrimps - the fish here in Florida is wonderful. This dining experience was in sharp contrast to lunch - in the outlets, malls and motorway service areas, the food choice is dismal - large portions of Sbarro pizza or Dunkin Doughnuts or if you are lucky a Subway. The old American cuisine has been replaced by all this junk. It is almost impossible now to find the American restaurant where for breakfast one has the luxury of real crockery and cutlery as in the 1970s when I first visited the USA- not paper and plastic so prevalent today.
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