The market was fairly small, but it was much more varied than any other one I'd ever been to. There was food, of course, but mainly the rest of the booths were crafts and things. I really enjoyed it. We did one circuit around the place before we bought anything, and once done, we shopped in earnest. Well, Sara shopped in earnest and I instigated her shopping, haha! We had a lot of fun, though. I did buy some yarn made by a local alpaca farm (because of course I did) and got a beautiful lotus shaped candle holder from a local potter. We didn't want to buy any food, because it wouldn't have traveled well, and for that I'm sorry, because there was some awesome fruits, veggies, and prepared foods for sale there.
One incident at the farmer's market has to be told, though, because it's so stupid. Scratch that, I am the stupid one. I think you'll agree. One of the stalls at the market was some kind of hippy-dippy couple selling powdered clay of some kind. I don't remember what it was called, but I think it was supposed to be used as a cosmetic mask. I wasn't sure, because I got distracted by another thing they were selling. They had a small table off to the side that held what looked like small bottles of lotion. There was a sign that had the name of it (I'm not going to put it here, because I don't want anyone googling it and finding this entry) and it had a list of many, MANY, special benefits that included aligning your chakras, finding your soul mate, lucid dreaming, levitation, telepathy and the like. Basically, it was your run of the mill hocus-pocus BS, but I was intrigued. I asked the guy behind the table what it was (to be polite) and he started trying to explain it to me. I asked him if it was a lotion, and he said "No, you put it under your tongue, want to try it?" Now, normally, I'd never, ever do that unless I knew what was in it. However, I was in "Adventurous Vacation Mode" and didn't even think before I scooped some up and put it in my mouth. As soon as I did that, my brain kicked in, and I immediately regretted my decision. It's pretty solid advice NOT to put random white mystery goo into your mouth when it's offered to you at a farmer's market, or really anywhere else, to be frank. It could have been ANYTHING, y'all, and I had voluntarily put it in my mouth! Blerg! He offered it to Sara and she was all "Hell No!" which made me feel even stupider. So for the duration of us standing there talking to these people, I couldn't swallow or spit, so I had this mystery substance in my mouth for what seemed like a year. Do you have any idea how hard it is to spit without anyone noticing? I do! I finally managed to spit it out, and I don't think I absorbed much of whatever it was, so I didn't meet my soul mate and my chakras still feel in the same position as they were before. I'm not convinced that it was a real thing. I guess I'll never know. :)
We left the farmer's market and had breakfast, and then we moved on to Flagler Ave, which was the main street of where we were staying. It was lined with shops and restaurants, so we spent the next few hours of the day walking, talking, shopping and eating. It wasn't so much about spending money or eating, though, we were just enjoying hanging out. It was great fun! I'm pretty sure several of the shop keepers we met thought we were an adorable lesbian couple (and I mean, we would be if that was the case) so that was kind of hilarious! Eh, that's fine with me. Sara should be so lucky! Haha!
I'm not sure how long we were out, just that by the time we got back to the apartment, we were tired. At this point we probably could have just hung out for the rest of the day, but there was one thing that Sara wanted while we were in Florida that we hadn't found while we were out. She told me that when she was a kid, she was never allowed to buy one of the cheesy, air brushed vacation shirts that seemed to be so ubiquitous when we were kids, so she wanted to get one as an ironic souvenir. Used to, air brush shops were everywhere at the beach, but we had to drive 30 minutes away to Daytona Beach to find a place that still did it! That was a mess. I don't know how many of your have been to Daytona Beach, but it's a big, skeezy, crowded tourist trap surrounded by enormous hotels and restaurants that pretty much obscure the ocean view, but it's a POPULAR big, skeezy, crowded tourist trap. We drove down the strip and around and around all of the places trying to find the air brush shop, but we couldn't find it! Sara, who was driving, got angrier and angrier because we couldn't find a place to park, or even a place that resembled where we were going. We almost gave up, but decided to call the number on the facebook page and see if they could help us. Turns out we were driving right by it, over and over, but it blended in with all the rest of the neon, so we never saw it! We finally managed to put our shirt order in, but it was going to take an hour and a half, so we spent the next little bit continuing to drive around and around and around and up and down Daytona, until we stopped at a beach ramp to walk out and take some pictures. We should have done that much earlier, because about three minutes later, the air brush shop called to let us know that our shirts were ready. Oh, they were glorious. You can see the final design here:
Good Lord, how big is my forehead?
It was late by the time we made it back to New Smyrna Beach and we were starving, so we found an open restaurant, which was kind of a bar, I think, and had delicious hamburgers for dinner. Next to us was a family with small children. In a bar. Let that sink in. We were wiped out when we got back to our apartment, and so we got ready for bed and sat up and talked for a long time before we fell asleep.
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