Good morning, Fort Lauderdale

Good morning, Sunshine State, and good morning, Insiders.

Sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes the bear eats you. This time that bear done got eaten whole. I say this every time we visit South Florida, but this stop does beat the typical Calgary/Edmonton/Vancouver three-in-fours that we’re awfully familiar with.

For those of us who’ve grown up in Southern California, there’s little consideration for Atlantic Ocean beachside locales. Why schlep 2,500 miles when Point Dume is a 45-minute drive away? For those fortunate to travel to Hawaii, not a great deal of attention is paid to Caribbean vacation destinations. Have any Insiders/Angelenos traveled to Turks and Caicos? Puerto Rico? Antigua? I’m sure these places are completely charming, but they’re generally seen as playgrounds for those with means on the East Coast.

So, even though we’re surrounded by our own natural beauty out west, there’s still something unique about visiting places like Ft. Lauderdale, especially when we stay near the beach and not in Sunrise. It’s new, it’s somewhat exotic, the sun bizarrely sets over the Intercoastal instead of the ocean and it doesn’t drop below 70 degrees. This is a nice change of pace.

After a 1:40 flight from Nashville and losing an hour, the Kings touched down at Ft. Lauderdale in the wee hours of the morning. We arrived in our rooms at 2:30 a.m., so it wasn’t hard to get to get some shuteye. Sleep was had, and now it’s time to get back to work. The team is practicing at the big rink the practice rink in Sunrise Coral Springs this afternoon, and the bus is outside, so it’s time to bid good day to this good morning post. WUWTK and reports from the rink will follow. Thank you as always for reading, Insiders. Let’s talk soon.