I live in a really weird place. You may have heard of it; it’s called Florida. Home to the mostly true legends of both the SkunkApe and FloridaMan.

But we take a weirdness in stride, and sometimes wear it like a badge of honor.

So when the idea of a guitar shaped hotel started to circulate around South Florida, it was taken with a smile and filed somewhere in between the car shaped like an orange, and the alligator toothbrush. Sure, whatever. Get in the weirdness line.

But as the hotel went up, we started to enjoy its shadow over the skyline. And when the LED lasers first shot upwards into space, we were positive it was a signal to alien life that Florida was ready to make first contact.

But that didn’t happen. Instead of welcoming our new alien overlords, the world shut down. The hotel first lit up in Fall of 2019, and we all know what happened in Spring 2020.

But luckily for us, they kept the lights on. And the hotel puts on a show every night.

During lockdown, when nothing was open, I would drive the kids over to watch the hotel show from the car. Sometimes we would get milkshakes from the McDonald’s drive-thru across the street and just hang out and watch from the parking lot.

It was simple.

It was fun.

It only took 30 minutes, minimal effort or cost, but it was great. The kids would tell jokes and talk. It was pretty hard to be optimistic in 2020, so those 30 minutes were so valuable. And I’m trying hard to keep simple and fun opportunities to just hang out — possibly with a milkshake — in our post-pandemic world.