Greetings from Hollywood....

Just got back to Washington, DC from Hollywood. Florida. Hollywood, Florida.
"How was it," people been asking me.
My students (yes, I'm teaching again), my new writing-partner (brilliant, genius, I must add) etc.
"Well, I brought my laptop in hope that I would find a cafe and write with the view of the ocean...except there are no cafes in Hollywood, Florida...."

Let's see, that was my fourth or fifth time in Florida.
A few times in Saint Petersburg, once in Miami and now Hollywood, and I have to say, it makes me appreciate even the DC culture. Don't even know how people from NYC or Europe can stand it.
To be fair, it had some perks. The Ocean, for one. Except, in February, I can't swim in it. So, it's a big, wavy tease. But I did get my feet wet. Is that worth a two and a half hour flight?
(Whenever I say "two and a half hour flight," I automatically think of the Belgrade-London flight. But DC-Ft. Lauderdale and Belgrade-London? Two different planets in two and a half hours, I swear. Would take the European flight over the other one any time....)
What else?
Warm pools?
Well, you can, to be fair, read a book with a Strawberry Daiquiri by a warm, nice pool, I'll give you that. Which was the highlight of my trip. (Aren't you pitying me right now?)
A water taxi from Hollywood to Ft. Lauderdale where they have actually heard of a cafe, an Italian cafe (Yay!), is kind of fun, but it takes hours and hours to make a 15-minutes car ride, and the waiting time, and transfers...Too much time, too much effort.
And Ft. Lauderdale is kind of nice. Reminds me of Rodeo Drive in L.A. just slightly less expensive.

Food?
I'm sorry to say, I wasn't impressed by food. As a matter a fact, my first night there, I ordered a guacamole in a Mexican restaurant on the boardwalk, and after coming back from washing my hands in the bathroom, I prayed not to get food poisoning. I never before let guacamole go to waste. (it's my favorite thing to eat!) The one in Trader Joe's tastes better, that's all I'll say.
Fish tacos were good though, but with the side of a dirty bathroom I have seen just minutes before...

So, I know, I know, I'm complaining about four days of 80-degree weather and the ocean breeze.
But would it kill you to have a cafe on the boardwalk? A tiny Starbucks at least, if not something independent?
And if I see one more old, "pregnant" man with a leathery-tan skin and no shirt...