Our day in Ft. Lauderdale was a good one. We slept pretty well last night and woke up at a decent time….about 7am Eastern time. It turned out to be a perfect day for walking due to the perfect weather of not-too-warm or humid temps with a pleasant, almost cool breeze.
We headed off for breakfast at our favorite café, about a 15 minute walk from the hotel. Nothing has changed there, even the lady mannequins that occupy the first booth by the entrance. Very amusing. The place was decked out for the holidays and already filled with customers. Some of them may have been cruisers who will be boarding the Celebrity Eclipse which arrived in Port Everglades this morning. Many of them were families with young kids. We did not see any other cruise ships there, but we expect by Saturday, many more will be docked for their 7 to 10 day trips in the Caribbean. And of course, the Zuiderdam will be there for the official start of the Grand World Voyage.
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at Ace Hardware for a few things and made a run through Publix for some salsa and cheese dips for our room. Also, we got some Snyder's pretzels and tortilla chips…..something we may not be able to locate easily after leaving here.
We saw friends Ellen and Aart when they stopped their taxi briefly on their way to the Apple store. Then we ran right into Martha and Bob, also on their way out of the hotel to make needed purchases. So nice to see them all.
Our room had not been cleaned yet, but we knew the worker was close by. So we left for what was supposed to be a short walk up and over the 17th Street Bridge. One of us always falls for the promise that the walk might be shorter, but then we eventually go further because we can. The fun part was arriving at the center of this bridge when the bells go off and we can watch the bridge traffic shut down. Although we have witnessed this draw bridge going up, then down many times, it is always thrilling to view close-up. The traffic probably does not agree, because it is an annoyance for them, but good for the boats, sailboats, and yachts that pass under the bridge. This seems to occur on the top and bottom of the hour.
We like to go on the hunt for the usually numerous sightings of the iguanas. Today we saw none, until we spotted one huge leaping lizard. No kidding, it must have been over 4 feet long and running like a dog. We caught a few pictures as it came running towards us, then suddenly turned left and disappeared into a grove of banyan trees. Never to be seen again, thank goodness. Never ever knew they could run like that.
So we continued hiking towards the Ft. Lauderdale Beach, mostly because we were in need of something cold to drink. With the cooler temperatures today, the beach area was not as crowded as it usually is. Not so for the restaurants and cafes along the way. We went to Bubba Gump's hoping to order cheese nachos and sodas. Well there were no nachos on the menu, so we split a fried chicken sandwich with fries. The bad news was that it took like forever to be served. The explanation by the bartender who waited on us was that only two servers showed up for work today. Funny thing was that last year on the same day, the identical thing happened. What are the odds with that? Most all of their customers were dining outside, and the interior was empty except for the bar area. If this is a normal occurrence, then we don't expect this chain to be around much longer. Many of their restaurants have closed. The younger crowd probably doesn't even know who Bubba Gump was, let alone ever watched the movie.
We had a repeat performance of the bridge raising on our way back, then stopped briefly at nearby Walgreens for some Coke Zeros. Our "short" walk turned into almost a 5 hour hike. The remainder of the afternoon we relaxed in our room catching up on news and our favorite episodes of Seinfeld and others.
There was a neat sunset which we could see from our room, which reminded us it was time for dinner. Not as hungry as last night, we headed back to Duffy's for a fun dinner of steak nachos and Stella beers. So good and something we rarely do. Adding a brownie, ice cream and whipped cream-topped dessert to share, we were happy campers. The walk took us only about 15 minutes at the most. And so ended our first fun day in Florida.
Looking forward to tomorrow when the rest of our travel group will arrive.
Bill & Mary Ann
