Fort Lauderdale - Florida

It was Thursday 19th November as Georgie, V and I took a taxi from the cruise drop-off to our hotel in Fort Lauderdale. We were all shattered after a measly 2 hours sleep on our last night on the ship, so we nearly kissed the receptionist at the Avalon Waterfront Inn when she allowed us to check into our room straight away rather than wait 5 hours until 2pm. Needless to say we all agreed to have a catch up on sleep for a few hours and congregate later for lunch. Once we’d caught up a little we headed to a beachfront bar for a true American style lunch of burgers and refill cokes.....just what was needed for the mild hangovers. Following lunch Georgie headed off in search of a beauty salon and we walked a short walk along the beach for sundowners.

Later that evening all three of us set out for our final dinner together. We tried to convince Georgie to bring her ID with but she insisted she was not going to drink that night. After walking the main strip of the beachfront we settled on Margarita Cantina for some great seafood and Margaritas – poor Georgie changed her mind but they simply refused to sell her alcohol without ID. They are ridiculously stringent about that here! Then it was time for some customary shop browsing before heading back to the hotel for an early night as Georgie was getting a before sunrise wake up call. We said our goodbyes to the last of our team and hit the sack.

On Friday we woke up to a spectacular day. Like most days in Florida the sky was blue and the sun already warm. We headed just across the road to the Fort Lauderdale beach and sat in the sun and watched the world go by. Later that afternoon we headed out to catch a water taxi so that we could check out all the sights that the city has to offer. Fort Lauderdale is known as the “Venice” of America and the water taxi is the best way to see the sights. We made our way to the pickup point in our area and began our cruise along the canals. The guys driving and commentating on our boat were extremely cheesy, and insisted on telling the worst jokes so we jumped off after a couple of stops to grab some lunch. After a rare healthy and very tasty bite to eat we made our way back to continue our sightseeing.

The next water taxi we boarded had a great couple of guys driving and commentating, and they were very happy to fill everyone in on the owners of all the big houses and yachts which was fascinating. For example the largest house in Fort Lauderdale is owned by the guy who started The Sunglasses Hut – who would have thought! The houses and yachts we saw as we cruised the various canals were unbelievable, including some boats with helicopters on board! V and I quickly agreed we could never live here as we would always feel poor in comparison! We finally jumped off as we made it to the Riverside close to downtown. This was a disappointment as there were only a small handful of bars and restaurants, so after a quick walk we hopped back on another water taxi and headed to Los Olas Boulevard a couple of stops away.

This was Fort Lauderdale’s version of Rodeo Drive with lots of designer shops and swanky bars. On our tight budget we made our way a little further down the road and popped into a Japanese restaurant for a quick beer at the bar. The beer set us back a quick $15 so we sipped it slowly and then walked even further down the road until we came across a great American diner called Floridian. V went for the shrimp (which are really prawns) and I settled for an American classic, meatloaf. The food was good but was accompanied by an awful jug of wine. Even the waitress warned us when she said it was guaranteed to give us a headache in the morning – we should have listened. At least it was cheap! After a hearty meal we decided to walk it off and headed back to our hotel on foot, an impressive hour walk. Along the way we kept passing mansions and massive yachts parked outside – it really was impressive yet depressing at the same time ;-).

As the walk dragged on the wine was quickly working it’s way through our systems and we started to speed up in need of the toilet. In true male style I was about to dive into the bushes when V warned me that they can arrest you for this in Fort Lauderdale – I had to take her word for it. Then when crossing a bridge the boom came down to stop us as the bridge was opened to allow another yacht of cosmic proportions to pass through. This did nothing for the bursting bladders and we had to do a little jig in front of the traffic while waiting for the bridge to close! The final 100 meters were a bit of a dash but we made it without any physical damage.

Saturday we woke up at 5.15am to catch our 5.45am taxi to Miami airport. A tough early start but well worth it as we were catching an 8am flight to Dallas to spend a week with Paul, Elizabeth, and the kids which we have been looking forward to for a long time! The highway was closed for roadworks so it was a nervous trip as we cut it close, but we got there in the end!

A very quick stay in Fort Lauderdale and here are our highlights and lowlights
- Another beautiful beach and laid back city
- The water taxi is a great trip
- The canals are amazing and make it a beautiful city, never mind the properties and yachts you see along the way
- Makes you feel really really poor ;-)