What a weekend

 5/24/25 - 5/25/25

Opal-

We started the weekend by waking up at 7 am and driving to south Miami to look at a boat. This one was 16 feet and a Mercury 25 motor. Speaking as someone who doesn’t know boats that well. I generally go by if it’s well kept and clean it’s probably better taken care of. This one checked that box. Then we headed to Publix for some breakfast and I decided on yogurt and Cheerios which I know may not sound great to some but it was a childhood staple of mine. I also added some popcorn chicken to my shopping cart for lunch which later came in handy. After breakfast we went right next door to a goodwill. Let me tell you this was the most organized and clean goodwill I have ever seen. You might think this is a plus but oh no. It meant that there were no good finds. No real thrifting or sorting through old Tupperwares without lids. Everything was just right there in front of you. How horrible. So we quickly moved on to a Salvation Army. One of my rules for thrifting is never look for specific things because you will never find them. We were looking for very specific things:

Two small desert plates

Misquote netting

A Water pitcher (which was eventually thrifted)

A lid for an 8 inch diameter pot

As you might guess none of these items were found at Salvation Army. By then it was about time to look at another boat so we decided to go get out some cash. Now this is where things went south. 

As you may know this country recently switched to only using Real IDs. Well it turns out when you want to remove more than $2,000 in cash you need a real ID. I DO NOT HAVE A REAL ID. So I was denied the money and we were left at the bank a bit out of luck. Eventually after calling Oliver’s parents and my bank (5 different times, none of which they picked up for) we decided that our best option was to just go look at the boat and figure things out afterward. This boat was 15 feet and also nice by my standards. Its owner only spoke Spanish (we were in Miami) so communication was a bit rough. I attempted to ask a few questions using my classroom Spanish but they don’t teach you the vocabulary for buying a boat in Spanish class. Eventually the owner called his brother who spoke English and had him translate for us. After looking at that boat we were famished and feasted on my popcorn chicken that had gotten quite warm in the heat of the car. Then we faced the dilemma; which boat to choose, and the other dilemma; how to get money to buy that boat. We concluded after much debate and discussion. 

1) We would make an offer on the first boat (it suited our needs better) and then buy that one if it was accepted.

2) With the money we would have to get out as much as we could today and then wait until tomorrow to get the rest out. Bank of America ATMs have a limit of $2,000 a day and both boats were listed above $3,000

To initiate these plans we went to a bank. We got out $2,000 from the teller and were walking past the ATM when Oliver said “Why don’t you just try to get the rest out now.” I was skeptical but started putting my information in. After each step and new screen we waited to be denied. But suddenly cash started coming out of the ATM. We were shocked. This had to be a glitch. If it was it was a good one and we didn’t stick around long to find out. Next up was a Walgreens, a dollar store, and a line of thrift shops all blasting Latino music and promoting Memorial Day sales. Here we encountered swim suits for our later beach excursion and our offer on the first boat was excepted. Things were looking up. Unfortunately the guy who owned the first boat didn’t get off work until 9pm so we had a lot of time to kill.

We “killed time” by going to a wonderful art museum, eating Vietnamese food and relaxing on Miami Beach. Then on our way to pick up the boat we stopped by home depot for some misquote netting and took a few wrong turns onto a few wrong highways. We were very tired by this point. Eventually at 9:30 we secured the boat and headed home but not before stopping for gas. That hour and 30 minute drive felt like the longest drive in history. We were both on the lookout for pythons when we entered the park and while we didn’t see any we did see a few vehicles well equipped with side lights and off road cages. Hunters. The road stretched on and on and each minute felt like an eternity until finally we reached our turn and missed it. So we turned around unhitched the boat and stumbled into bed at 12:30 am.  

On Sunday morning we fixed up our room, putting bug net over the windows, sweeping, and arranging. Then we took our leftovers and headed out with the boat. Good news, it floats! We drove up and down the channel and then decided to come back in and relax for the rest of the afternoon. That night there were less misquotes out, we made a dinner of venison quesadillas and sat on our porch overlooking the bay. It was a nice end to a long first weekend in Florida.