That’s Olga giving Mila her first introduction to the Atlantic Ocean, at Melbourne Beach in Florida on March 1. We went down for a week to visit my parents, who moved last year to the “Sunshine State.” Mila took to the ocean pretty well, kicking up a storm and sticking her tongue out wide to taste the salty air.
Melbourne Beach was the first stop on our trip before heading up to parents’ house in Ocala. We wanted to show Mila the ocean for the first time and visit an aunt who lives nearby. The weather mostly cooperated, and we all got a (very) little bit of color our first day there.
Though we were only there a few days, we did a lot of traveling around. Mila had a blast on the trip because she is generally quite adventurous so far and like to do new things. Olga and I however, being snobs, had some considerable reservations about the Union’s most dong-shaped member, mostly because we don’t believe that strip malls, giant detached homes, and trying to force green lawns to grow where green lawns do not want to be makes sound ecological sense. We made frequent catty remarks about how excited Jean Baudrillard would be about the whole place (so it was a little ironic when we found out later that he passed away while we were there).
Among our stops was Fort Myers, in the Southwest part of the state on the Gulf Coast. One of the conditions of my visiting Florida in March was that I was darned well going to be going to Spring Training. And I did, getting to see the Sox lose to the Dodgers at City of Palms Park.
Spring training ball is really a unique treat, although the prices and the traffic jam outside is vaguely reminiscent of going to a regular game back home. When you don’t have to worry about winning or loosing or the standings you can approach the game like a true aficionado. Bottom line, after watching a 2-1 defeat, is that Josh Beckett looked really good in two strong innings, and our coaches need to get to work with the fungoes we’ve got a lot of work to do. And the one moment I wish I was close enough to hear what they were saying came when JD Drew got a base hit and started talking to our old friend Nomar, who was playing first for the Dodgers. I imagine him saying something like, “If you can believe it, they’ll get worse.” But I hope not, because we gave him a very nice round of applause when his name was announced.
After the game we went down to the beach to see one of those famous Gulf Coast sunsets, which was duly spectacular. Then we had a nice gyro dinner at an outdoor place near the beach, and drove all the way back up to Ocala.
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