Visiting Dad!

We just got back from visiting my Dad in Florida for a week. It was very nice to have both flights go very well. I enjoyed watching some more downloaded episodes of my favorite (new to me) Netflix show.

Dad was in rehab, after a series of mishaps that resulted in multiple circular trips to ER, hospital, rehab, and home. On this visit, we caught him at the rehab place, where they were caring for him, until his multiple wounds could heal enough, and he could get strong enough, for him to go home safely. He wasn't happy about being there, but he responded well to the assertion that he needed to get stronger, and heal his wounds, before going home  I'm not posting any pics of Dad, since he looks pretty crummy right now.

We stayed in a hotel practically next door to Dad's condo, which made it very easy to stop in there every day, and try to help out with a little cleanup effort. We were also very close to our favorite breakfast place, that serves up some delicious red, white, and blue pancakes, and it was such a treat, to be able to stop there every day for breakfast.

We went out to eat for every meal, and since I'm not posting any Dad pictures this time, I'll just include a few photos of our delightful views at the various nice restaurants where we went. 

We enjoyed the pleasant Palm Beach climate, after leaving the sub-freezing Denver area behind. Here's a photo of our view from the patio at Hangry Grill at lunch one day with Adele. This place was fairly new, with a very knowledgeable and friendly owner, and lots of vegetarian and vegan menu options.

We enjoyed some delicious seafood dinners - including a visit to the Waterway Cafe, one of my favorite dining experiences close to  Dad's condo, and also not far from his Rehab place. We were visiting Dad for his 80th birthday, so many years ago, and I still vividly remember having the most delicious piece of Key Lime pie there, while watching the various sailboats and motor yachts passing by on the adjacent waterway.

The Seasons 52 restaurant was another fun dinner experience, just catty-corner across the PGA parkway's bridge from the Waterway Cafe. I caught this pic of the beautiful sunset, while the drawbridge was going up. In all my years of visiting Dad, this drawbridge over the Intracoastal Waterway, with its very predictable schedule, has practically run Dad's life, since he had to drive across it, every time he went to visit Adele, and again, every time he went back home. I've always thought of watching the bridge cycle as a fun experience in the past, but this trip, after unexpectedly losing 10-15 minutes to the "bridge up" event several times in one day, I was starting to get a sense of why Dad always made such a big deal, about leaving at the right time to miss it.

After a few days, my sister decided to join us, after I reported on Dad's not-great condition in rehab. Of course, we also visited with Adele at her rehab place every day, and took her out to lunches and dinners as often as we could. I snapped this photo of us, in front of the nice fountain outside the Brio Cafe at the Gardens Mall, not far from Adele's current residence.

We had an amazing dinner at Firefin Grill with Adele, the night before we left. Our table had a large aquarium, with a half-dozen Lionfish swimming around, and an eel peeking out from behind the rocks and coral. That brought back some great memories, of scuba diving in Tahiti, and seeing Lionfish in the wild, on the outer edge of the protective reef around the island.

Our dinner at Firefin was delicious! We ordered the Raw Bar Sampler, and it was all delicious. I loved the crab, oysters, and shrimp cocktail. I've never been able to eat Lobster, but they said they loved that, too.

In what seemed like the blink of an eye, we were back at Fort Lauderdale airport, waiting for our flight back to Denver. We tried eating at Rocco's Tacos, and loved it.