South Florida Boodlefest*

*Boodlefest, from "boodle," an Achenblog term, see definitions here.

Yesterday was a fun vacation day with two of my (formerly) imaginary friends, people I would not have known if not for the comments section of Achenblog, which we call the "boodle." Since it's an on-line forum, most people don't use their real names. Since this is also a public blog, I will just use our boodle names; the out of town visitors were "mo" and "mo's mom," they live in the DC area. The rest of the party consisted of my daughter, "Artist Alice" and myself, "kbertocci."

Mo is famous for wearing only black. Her mom doesn't thoroughly approve of the blackness, and she dressed all in white to balance it. Alice likes to dress creatively; her outfit was kind of pirate wench/biker/goth. Me, I generally dress to blend, so I wore beige pants and in deference to the prevailing gothic theme, a black t-shirt. The clothing is all terribly significant.

We met at Las Olas Riverfront, in downtown Fort Lauderdale, arriving simultaneously despite having started at points 40 miles apart and in opposite directions from there. The weather was sunny and hot. Alice headed directly for the frozen lemonade stand while the rest of us took refuge in whatever shade we could find and later in an air-conditioned gift shop.

We took an hour-long narrated water taxi ride to Beach Place. The scenery along the river is pretty much limited to mansions and yachts, although we did see some iguanas and a few birds. We dined on "authentic cajun cuisine" at Lulu's Bait Shack, passing up the alligator appetizers in favor of crawfish etouffée and shrimp and lobster--a good meal that we finished just after the live music started, so the timing was excellent. We got to talk all through lunch and then hear two songs and then it was time to go.

We walked along the world-famous Fort Lauderdale beach, which was teeming with scantily clad people. We crossed the street for a closer view of the waves, but it seemed that even fully clothed we were man-magnets (it's a good thing we weren't wearing our bikinis) and so we had to leave after a short visit.

Escaping our admirers on the beach, we checked out some more souvenir stores (embalmed baby shark, anyone? Or maybe you'd rather pay $3 for a tablespoon of sand enclosed in a plastic keychain?) found a pirate store that mo and Alice were thrilled to explore, and then headed back to the boat.

The water taxi delivered us back to our starting point in time for mo and mom to head off for the rental car return. It was a great day--just like being on vacation for me, except without having to take off my shoes and put my belongings through an x-ray machine. Thank you very much, mo and mo's mom, for sharing your Florida vacation!

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*And fellow-boodlers, don't worry, we only said nice things about you, in case your collective ears were burning yesterday.