Go On Downtown Baby, and Find Somebody to Love

So last night I had a lovely Father/Daughters evening. The Ds drove to my office and we had a Miami Spice dinner at a Japanese/Asian place called Abokado. It was in Mary Brickell Village, next to D1's future new apartment.

Miami Spice is the August discount restaurant plan, where many places in town offer well priced prix fixe meals to lure the locals away from home and their usual dining choices. It worked for us --we ate some delicious spicy sushi rolls, avocado and salmon nachos, and some of the best crusted tuna I've ever tried.

We walked around, and D1 was crowing about her "new hood." It really IS cool how in just a few years a mostly vacant after 6 pm area has evolved into a vibrant place with an almost Manhattan vibe.

We drove to her new condo, Axis, and asked the door ladies to look around. One was Latina, the other black American, and both were funny and charming. I told them I'd be tipping them heavily, and expected reports on D1's behavior. The black lady immediately accepted my offer!

Axis is a 2 tower condo, designed by Arqitechtonica, the famous Miami firm that built many of the cool buildings here in the 80s. This project has the 2 towers connected by a gorgeous pool, jacuzzi, and rec area. We walked to the pool deck, on about the 20th floor, and were treated to a blood red sunset over the Everglades, that bathed the whole neighborhood of new high rises in a breathtaking light. (Maybe I was just so delighted to be out with the Ds that everything looked prettier).

I joked that the building is a high rise, more luxurious version of a UF dorm. EVERY resident, and I mean EVERY resident looked to be between 20 and 30. It looked like they took my mother's condo rule about "no one under 55" and reversed it.

And, of course, folks 20 -30 are a tad more attractive than those in my mother's condo...

We took the People Mover back to my office, just 2 stops away. That white elephant of a project, built in the 80s and used by so few, is finally getting use. I guess Dante Fascell and Bill Lehman, the congressmen who brought that pork home 30 years ago, were prescient.

D1 was excited about her new digs, and D2 was, I could tell, already considering the possibilities of sleepovers when she returned from UF. I wondered how I'm gonna keep D2 in boring Pinecrest after she saw a neighborhood of young folks walking, jogging, and following all breeds of dogs around...

So, if all goes according to plan, I have my girls here another 2 weeks. We then take D2 to UF, and return to help D1 move to Brickell.

We have a long, dining room table, and I joke that, after we become the only 2 residents of our house, Wifey and I can sit at opposite ends, eating breakfast and reading our own newspapers, like that great scene in "Citizen Kane."

She's already telling me she wants to try marital relations all over the house. So, like Carl the Gardiner in "Caddyshack," who received eternal peacefullness as a tip for caddying for the Dalai LLama, I got that going for me...