A Night at the Palace

It was very strange walking into one of my favorite places on Earth Tuesday night. As one of millions of people in this country that participates in Fantasy Football, we had our draft at the Boca Raton Resort & Club.

I worked there from 2004 to 2006 and enjoyed every minute of it; however, I hadn't stepped foot inside since mid-2007 and so with so many enhancements since I had moved on, I was curious how it was all going to look to me.

As I drove in the front gate, I took this picture with my Sprint instinct. It's always so picturesque and I'm glad no one has tried to change the look of Addison Mizner's masterpiece which debuted in 1926 and the Schulz and Weaver add-on lobby of 1928. The palm trees have always given the hotel a special look on the way to the hotel's front valet area.

Since I was early (as per norm), I made a right when I walked in and proceed to the area I knew as the Piazza when I worked at the hotel. The old gold ceiling had been replaced with a clear ceiling skylight that definitely let the sunshine into the east lobby.

There was new carpeting and furniture throughout the hotel. The changes definitely grew on me last night in the time I was there.

Our draft was held in the Governor's Suite on the 6th Floor of the Cloister. The Cloister is the original of the hotel's five buildings. As normal for any fantasy football draft, we had plenty of pizza and beverages to go around but failed to start on time...big surprise. That seems to always happen!

It was my 3rd draft in 9 days, and I think I was ready to go on auto-pilot by the 10th round. If you haven't seen a group of guys and girls during a draft, it's quite a site - people telling other people they loved the pick - people telling other people that guy was 123rd on their draft board - people picking people only they've hear of - and people making plans to see each other during the season (but often failing to do so due to busy schedules and the like).

So how did it all end? It's always nice to visit old friends - even ones you worked at and know like the back of your hand. As for my team, solid for sure. I'm definitely ready for some football.