Beach at twilight

Pompano Beach pier

Thank God for neighbors with illegal fireworks

Well, thank you for all your votes. My husband's vote won out, though -- even more than my vote.

We went to Lion Country Safari. We arrived just in time for it to start raining. They say that's the best time to see the animals, though. But because you can't roll down your window while you're driving through, you can't photograph the animals with raindrops on the glass. For example, here are the lions.



So.

I did manage to get a good snapshot later, though.



Tonight we were going to see our city fireworks. But it got rained out.

Fortunately for us, we had at least four neighbors who were setting off fireworks. From our front yard, we had quite a show.



So all's well that ends well.

Tell me what to do this weekend

This is what happens when you don't look at the calendar:

Me: Honey, you're off work tomorrow!

Honey Husband: Why?

Me: It's the Fourth of July!

Husband: Already?!

Me: Yeah! And I'm so mad because it would have been the perfect long weekend to go somewhere but now it's probably too late to make plans so we're stuck here like a bunch of losers.

Husband: Speak for yourself.

(Apparently, we missed all the commercials, fireworks stands and red, white and blue cupcakes for sale at Publix that indicate a major national holiday is approaching. And my husband didn't get the memo at work. We're observant like that.)

Then I read somewhere that July 4 and July 3 are the first and second deadliest road travel days of the year, respectively. So I feel a little better about not going anywhere.

However, my man has pointed out we should still have fun. Because a day off work is still a day off work. We looked at several options -- everything from flying to the Bahamas to staying in bed in our pajamas all day. But we've narrowed it down to:

Lion Country Safari -- to drive through a giraffe's legs and take the Man-cub to the petting zoo

Museum of Discovery and Science -- for the new frog exhibit and an Imax movie

The beach -- because my car needs more sand

Kayaking in our own tandem, possibly at John U. Lloyd Beach State Park -- because my kayak is way too dry and lonely

Please vote, or give me additional ideas. Thanks!

Swordfish sculpture

Everyone loves a swordfish sculpture, no? This is at the Broward County Convention Center.

Nine Mile Pond Canoe Trail

Nine Mile Pond Canoe Trail in Everglades National Park

Butterfly World

Butterfly World

Never wear sequined thongs in an aviary

My son has had The Very Hungry Caterpillar book for more than a year now but seems especially interested in it lately. Like probably most kids around his age, he likes to touch the holes where the caterpillar has eaten through all the food in the book.

Wait, stop the story for a moment. Did you know the author, Eric Carle, lives in the Florida Keys? That's all I wanted to say....

So when you get to the last page of the book, the caterpillar has turned into a beautiful butterfly. By then, we've passed all the pages with the holes in them, so my son has lost interest in the book by the end. But I decided to turn the book into a butterfly, moving the sides of the book up and down and make it "flutter" around his head.

Now he loves the end of the book. In fact, the boy will even skip the pages with the holes just to get to the butterfly at the end and make it fly.

With his new interest in lepidoptera, I thought he'd enjoy going to Butterfly World. We went today. The first part of the butterfly garden you enter is amazing! There are butterflies everywhere you look.

To dress for the occasion, I put on a pair of blue flip-flops that are topped by butterflies made out of sequins. Cute, huh? Well, when we got to the lorikeet aviary of Butterfly World, a bird there also thought my shoes were cute. In fact, the bird decided to stand on top of the sequined butterfly. My son was amazed, the lorikeet keeper (say that five times fast) was curious, and I was amused.

Until that little bird finally moved on, and I noticed he left behind green poo on my toes. Niiiice!

Overall, my boy enjoyed Butterfly World. We'll definitely go back -- but next time, I'm wearing work boots.

Everglades above and below

Mural at Everglades National Park visitor center, Homestead

Vizcaya Museum and Gardens

Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Miami

Living my water-park dreams

About zbdlkjt years ago, there was a huge water theme park called Atlantis in Hollywood right by I-95. Anyone been there? I totally loved that place. One summer in high school, I spent the whole day there and got burned so bad that I had sun poisoning for a week. My forehead swelled up so bad I looked like a beluga whale.



Fun times.

Even though I am a goofball responsible adult now, I dream at night about water slides. (That is, when I'm not dreaming about Jason Taylor.) I just love water slides.

So I was excited yesterday to read in the paper that today would be the first day county water parks would be open every day for the summer.

Guess where I went today?



I took my son to Splash Adventure, which is in Quiet Waters Park in Deerfield Beach.

I have to say, the water park was much better than I could have dreamed. Splash Adventure is like going to a playground that's been flooded. I think I read that it's 18 inches deep at its deepest, which is perfect for the boy. There was a gentle water slide, a corkscrew slide, a tunnel slide and a short double slide. The whole thing is set up where there are levers and wheels to turn to make water come out of holes in the floor, or fall from above, or spurt out of a tube. There were plenty of lounge chairs and big umbrellas around the water play area, too. Plus, there were always two or three lifeguards standing by.



If my son had the language skills, I'm sure he would have asked me if we can come back every day. I am thinking about taking him to a different water park every week. Even though my beloved Atlantis is gone, it's amazing how many county and city parks have added smaller water parks.

That's definitely one good reason to live in South Florida.

"Free" ice cream

Today is Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's, so I forced persuaded some friends to go with me today. Because a good friend is there when you eat ice cream, but a great friend is there when you have to drive for miles and use lots of gas to get to the closest place where the free ice cream is.

We chose the Ben & Jerry's at Sawgrass Mills Mall, a kiosk near the Colonnade area. That's the White Seahorse Entrance for old-timers, aka the Rainforest Cafe entrance. We were so eager to get our free ice cream that we arrived before the kiosk was open, so we decided to let the kids play in the Rainforest Cafe play area. Except that was closed too. We watched Rainforest Cafe employees clean the alligator pit (fun job!) until someone came and opened the play area.

Before we knew it, lunch time rolled around, and the kids were hungry. I have always wanted to try the casual French cafe in the Colonnade (Paul's?), but we thought the kids would have more fun at the Rainforest Cafe.

My friends and I all agreed we made the wrong call.

We were the first people seated, yet it took about 40 minutes to get our food. We ordered a hamburger, house salad and a cheese pizza. What's so hard about that? The server -- who was unfailingly cheerful, despite my son's food-flinging habits -- came back after ordering to ask me if I wanted the 10-inch or the 6-inch pizza. The 6-inch was fine -- but it turned out to be from the kid's menu, not the nice four-cheese pizza on the regular menu. The server didn't explain that. So basically, I paid $6.35 for the Chef Boyardee special.

Eating out with toddlers, time is everything. They don't like to be strapped into high chairs or booster seats in the first place, and you can distract them with toys for only so long. If you don't feed them when they're hungry, they make everyone in the restaurant pay by shrieking and wailing! Sitting and waiting for 40 minutes for food to come, and then eating (er, throwing food on the floor), and then waiting for the bill to come .... That's a lot of sitting for a perpetual-motion creature with a short attention span. And even the Rainforest Cafe thunderstorms, fish aquariums and animatronic gorillas can't help you then.

Eventually, we did get our free Ben & Jerry's cones. And made a donation for a good cause.

But next time, ah, next time, I'm going to Paul's.

Maybe without children.