let's go "downtown"....

this weekend proved to be a smack in the face "you're not in california anymore duh" weekend. and it all started with planning a date night. each week we trade off planning a date night that costs under 20 bucks (which sounds easy until you realize you've done coffee the past ten weeks!) and this week was my week, and they usually are wednesday but this week it was pushed to saturday. it's kind of funny since it makes it sound like we have to make time to see each other, but in reality cody gets home from the field after only about three to four hours. soooooo date night is really more about getting out of the house and doing something that we have to pay for since we aren't in the position to be doing that daily even though we have enough time too. it's like retirement but backwards and with way less money.

well, this is actually way more challenging when you're placed in a new area, home field advantage is gone! so i googled. yep i'm such a  romantic obviously that i turned to google and typed "cheap things to do in florida." and apparently it's happy hour, that's the exciting and cheap thing to do in florida according to the internet...aren't you supposed to make my life easier?!?! oh well. so i looked up areas to walk around, because that is one of my favorite things to do, walk around and people watch and explore new places and cultures, so what a easy thing being in a completely new home.

exploring is basically the easiest ever back in the golden state, there's a downtown in every county that is actually way fun and you can see the personality of each city in each one. downtown LA for example is world's different from downtown san diego, which if you ask me i'll choose san diego any day over LA, sorry LA, love you sometimes though. seriously, you can walk around for hours and not be bored by looking at new restaurants and stores and people or quaint little city houses. there's always something new to notice too, like that graffiti of a majestic wolf-unicorn-cheetah or that house with a large gnome collection you looked over while instagramming that modern hipster coffee shop you just gave an outrageous amount of money to for the world's smallest yet most delicious latte. 

so, after much research of places closer than miami (saving that for another time, right cody? please?) i landed on the riverwalk of downtown ft lauderdale. sweet right?! you mean like the riverwalk in san antonio?? loved that place!

and so off we went....

and we were met by a scenic ghost town.

what a sad, sad, sad little attempt for a "downtown"....okay i'm being judgey but i've never seen so many empty store fronts in my life! the directory had spaces for about 30 places but only 4 places were written up on the board....it's almost laughable. but we gave it a shot and kept walking around, at least to find some coffee....

i do hope they improve this place because there are so many rundown and abandoned treasures like this!!! i can already picture myself eating breakfast with a coffee on that patio overlooking the river...

it really was a scenic place, but it felt so empty!

a place with buildings and walls like this, it deserves more places than "the tilted kilt"....seriously.....

after a failed attempt on yelp to find what could have been a fun little coffee stop, we gave up and went to our tried and true, west palm beach.

we've been a few times now and it reminds me of pasadena, so we ate and grabbed coffee and dessert at a newer place.

before i talk about that i want to make a disclosure that i'm a fan of the creative and specialty coffee shops, seriously, i'm a sucker for some good latte art, but two or three hearts in there and i'll be back time and time again. but, sometimes a big glob of foam and alternative 90's music does the soul good.

c-street coffee.

that ugly foam cappuccino was amazing, the flour-less chocolate cake that you spelled "flowerless" and served in a styrofoam container, and the large group of older ladies that looked like they loved their mom jeans for their comfort and not the trendiness of them, side by side with their husbands who enjoyed a good sock and sandal with their tommy bahama shirt made it even better.

 
speaking of people who could care less about their style, can we talk about how this guy right here went from wearing nike drifits and baggy jeans to rolled up slim fits and the best socks ever....

he just wanted you all to know he's come a far way.

so there it is folks, sometimes a adventure fail turns into a great night, laughing about ending up in the wrong side of town and walking into the india festival.

thanks for saving our night west palm! you're a little gem to us now.....


but i still miss CA downtowns......