Still in the US.

On By StevenIn The U.S.

I’ve been back in the US for a week and a half now, with one more week to go before I head back to Deutschland.  I’ve been making the most of my time, visiting with as many friends and family members as possible.  In the first four days of my visit, I refilled the gas tank of the rental car twice from criss-crossing the lower three counties of Florida.  I had Thanksgiving dinner at my sister’s place, and there were lots of dinners and brunches over my birthday weekend.

The rental car isn’t too bad on gas consumption.  Since I was going to be in Florida, and away from the cold and damp of Germany, I opted to go topless for my choice of rental car:

rentalcar

…however, Florida is doing a pretty good job of making me want to leave again.  I worked a week in the Florida office to stretch out my trip a little bit, and my commute to and from the office each day looked pretty much like the photo below.  Lots of stopping, with an average top speed on I-95 of about thirty miles an hour.

traffic

Once I get into the office, though, things get better.  I missed the sense of humor of my Florida co-workers though.  It’s a really fun group.  Here’s a small example… this is the hot-n-cold water dispenser in the office.  In case it’s not clear, the little post-its say “Health” and “Mana.”

healthmana

Speaking of things that I missed, there were tater tots.   Oh, such tater tots.  Despite the very wide variety of potato offerings in Germany, I haven’t ever seen tater tots there.  Whenever I try to explain tots to a German, they always get this blank expression, and the always suggest rosti, croquettes, and making my own… it’s just not the same, though, and my culinary to-do list for this trip included proper tots.  These little beauties are from a joint in South Florida called Charm City Burger.

tots

Getting back to my birthday, I decided that I wanted to start my new year on the ocean, so I snagged a hotel room on Ft. Lauderdale beach.  This is the view I woke up to on Sunday morning:

beachview

When I get back to Germany, it will probably be snowing.  Oh well, at least the Christmas Markets are open now.

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8 thoughts on “Still in the US.”

  2. nel

    I remember from the Coven list you were complaining about the SF traffic to and from work when one time you were stuck on 95 for 2 hours. Upon watching a motorcycle use the emergency lane to bypasss the standstill, it was funny how you said it took every inch of your good soul not too open your driver side door and have him crash into it, lol.

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