Fort Lauderdale to Miami Beach

I've been debating whether to continue this blog or not. It seems that I'm not very inspired to do it, perhaps because not very much of what we're seeing or doing this trip is new. Although I do try to capture the most interesting bits (to me!!) in the blog. There are sooooooo many places I'd like to see that I've never been, so many things I'd like to do, and seemingly not all that much time to do them. Perhaps it has to do with turning 70 this year? While I love living on the boat and it's nice to be relatively warm in the winter, much of what Florida and the Bahamas has to offer is not very appealing to me. I look forward to winter being over so we can take Neverland home for a change, but that's not going to happen for a while.

And then yesterday I was going through all my photos, years and years of photos, trying to pare them down to a reasonably-sized number on my Mac. I went back through them all and was totally caught up again in so many past experiences, especially past trips. Just magically and completely transported to other places. And I was struck by how the photos allowed me to time travel, but also how many things I'd forgotten about, and for some photos how I was a bit fuzzy and puzzled - where? when? why? I didn't start blogging until 2 or 3 years ago and it's obvious that putting words with the photos helps a great deal in bringing back clearer memories.

At this point in my life, what is meaningful is to have experiences that make wonderful memories. So the blog continues, at least for now....

So. After returning from a special and wonderful week in Mexico City with my son Jake, Jim and I spent a few more days in Fort Lauderdale. Lots of dinghy rides through the extensive network of canals, sometimes to do errands and sometimes just for fun.

Florida has lots of banyan trees and their huge, complex trunks and abundant shady foliage are always a wonder to me.  I appreciate the owners who save them rather than ripping them out to have more room to build.  The second photo shows the typical arrangement here, a massive home crammed between two neighbors and dwarfed by a gigantic yacht parked out front.

However in our meanderings, we noticed that many smaller homes along the canals still exist, but have gargantuan yachts in front of them.  We suspect that in a city with very limited dock space, people may buy "tear downs" and then just use the waterfront to park their boat?

This is the place we kept Neverland while in Fort Lauderdale - La Olas City Marina. Having the boat in a safe, secure slip allowed us to each travel to see family over the holidays. Plus, we could take nice hot showers, do laundry, and keep all our devices charged with shore power. What a luxury!! The family on the little Ranger to the port side of us keep their boat there all winter, every winter, and then haul it home by TRAILER each year to Pennsylvania (that's how small the boat is). There were 5 adults on that 28-foot boat. They would sometimes go out for a little spin down to Hollywood or somewhere and then come back a few hours later. They had bought a whole slew of Spirit airline tickets very cheaply and flew back and forth regularly (mom and dad both still working, kids probably in college?). It works for them. God bless.

We walked lots and lots since were were right on Las Olas Blvd and also very close to the beach. Walking is a great way to see places and our iPhones tell us we walk about 3-4 miles a day, on average.   But I liked these little red alternative ways to get around - especially "Bambino".

Our friends Diane and Jan, who live in Fort Lauderdale, recommended a couple of restaurants and our new favorite became El Vez, right on the beach. Blood orange margaritas and amazing cuisine!

And of course no visit to Fort Lauderdale is complete without a trip to Gran Forno for bread and pastry.

 Light through bromeliads...

 One weekend we took the dinghy up the New River to the afternoon Jazz Festival that happens once a month and listened to a high school band that was super.

This is my favorite house on Las Olas - the one with the peach ceiling on the top floor.

Finally we headed south from Fort Lauderdale, but didn't get far. The engine died in the ICW and we got towed into Dania, a few miles south. It was a weekend, of course, and we had to stay there until Monday to get replacement parts for a split diesel fuel hose and primary filter.

While there we saw a magnificent Dutch barge boat named De Vrouwe Christina, which has an amazing history. You can read about it on line if you look up the name, and see photos of it in icebergs in Alaska. This unusual vessel has been everywhere.  The workmanship is a feast for the eye and we would have loved to see the interior.

This is the front end of one of the two teardrop-shaped lee boards (one on each side), which Dutch vessels of this type have instead of a keel to keep the draft (depth of water needed) minimal.  The board on the leeward side of the boat gets swung down into the water when underway to help drive the vessel forward rather than being pushed sideways in wind and current. The Christina only needs a little over 3' of water under her - great for exploring shallow waters!

 This is a handstiched cover for a wooden block

All teak (except for the lee boards) was protected from sun and weather with specially made toast-colored canvas covers.

This tug was also nearby and the guy restoring it gave us a tour inside and out. Tugboats are fascinating to me. This thing has an engine room big enough to hold a cocktail party.

Finally we got everything squared away with Neverland and continued south to Miami, where we dropped an anchor in our usual spot right off Belle Isle, the closest island in the Venetian Causeway island chain to South Beach. There's good protection there from pretty much all but south winds.

We met up a couple of times with our cruising friends Hayden and Radeen - once for breakfast at the 11th St Diner. This diner was built in 1948 and imported from Wilkes-Barre, PA.

A block from the diner is the Wolfsonian Museum, which I included in my blog from last year. Hayden and Radeen hadn't been there before and the collection of Art Deco art and objects never disappoints.  

 Here's my obligatory sunset photo of the Miami skyline from Neverland...

A stroll along the walkway beside the ocean

Facades of the hotels along Ocean Avenue, which parallels the beach

One day we hopped on a bus and went to Calle Ocho in Little Havana in Miami. These are trash cans, each uniquely painted.

I forgot to take a photo of the domino players, my favorite people on this street. But we did stop for lunch at a restaurant we particularly enjoy and I got these photos of Jim with a mojito and dozens of glasses with mint tucked in them, ready to be filled at the bar...

Meanwhile, back at the Collins Canal in Miami Beach there's a bunch of iguanas, one of whom likes to hang out on the dinghy dock installed by the local Publix grocery store for cruising customers like us. I should give this big 2-foot long one a name. Charlie? Fred? Max?

We were here for the Art Deco Weekend, during which old classic cars are parked along Ocean Ave. Of course, there's food and music and tons of crafty stuff, but these were pretty photo-worthy.

A couple of days ago we went to the Botanical Garden, where the tour guide, Gaylord Cull, modeled several hats for me in the gift shop

 

Our favorite museum so far is the Bass Museum. The current exhibits are a whimsical delight. I especially loved the feather-covered polar bears dancing with Jim.

 

And lastly, the magnificent baobab trees outside the Bass.

Well, back to boat chores. Because we're anchored, every few days we need to haul a few 5-gallon containers of fresh water by dinghy to the boat. Here, we get the water from a public spigot on a dock not too far away. Back at the boat we heave the containers up onto the deck from the dinghy and siphon the water into our tanks. FYI, the yellow containers hold an extra 15 gallons of diesel fuel tied down on deck, since we have limited tankage for both water (75 gallons) and diesel (35 gallons). Life on a boat makes you really appreciate simple things we take for granted at home on land, like drinking water, electricity, refrigeration, hot showers and clean, dry clothes and linens! ('cause today it's raining and I can't hang coats and dish towels and stuff outside to dry).   But rain washes the salt off the boat so it's all good!!