A Month in Southern Florida

Beautiful Ft. Lauderdale Beach
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12/3/2008

Drove to Ft. Lauderdale today and checked into Paradise Island RV Park where we will stay for a month. I headed to the local Wal-Mart for some items and we got set up. There are tons of things to do around here and we are looking forward to exploring.

December

It took a while to check out the area and we found that it is very congested here. Traffic everywhere makes it slow going – even to a location that is close. You have to change your mind set about travel time.

Holiday Everglades Park
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We drove to Holiday Everglades Park which is west of Fort Lauderdale and took an air boat ride into the everglades. It was quite beautiful and hard to imagine miles and miles of saw grass and swamps. We saw two alligators, an iguana, and several types of birds. The weather was sublime – 77 and sparkling clear.

Visited Birch State Park here in Ft. Lauderdale and wandered along the boardwalk at Hollywood Beach. They have a wonderful bike trail there so we decided to purchase bikes for each other for Christmas. Most of the places we have been and are yet to go have wonderful areas for bike riding.

More Everglades
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Ft. Lauderdale is a busy place, every kind of store or restaurant you could imagine and beautiful waterways. We are having fun checking things out. The RV park we're in is central to everything. The weather is absolutely wonderful, warm and sunny most days – between 70 and 80. There is usually a breeze blowing (sometimes a strong breeze) but the air is warm.

We played golf at Pompano Beach Golf Course one day and it was like being in an animal preserve. We saw a family of iguana’s, raccoons, turtles, ibis, pelicans, turkey buzzards, wild parrots and several other interesting species.

Air Boat we rode through the Glades
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On the 16th of December we drove to Key Largo and John Pennykamp Coral Reef State Park. While there we checked out the campground and enjoyed a glass bottom boat ride out to the reef. This reef is the 3rd largest in the world and it is beautiful. The ocean was gorgeous and reflected so many shades of blue. We have decided that we will move the motorhome here when we leave Ft. Lauderdale and then visit Key West and the Everglades National Park. On the way home we drove through Miami and stopped to have an amazing dinner at Joe’s Stone Crab, a world famous eatery that has been in this location for 96 years. Since our last trip to Joe’s the restaurant has been completely remodeled and enlarged, but the stone crab is still absolutely wonderful.

Mike at Hollywood Beach
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We took our bikes to Hollywood Beach and rode the boardwalk from end to end. After that we lolled on the beach for awhile. The beaches are not very wide and the ocean drops off quickly. The water is a very nice temperature, not to cold. I always remember the eastern beaches being wide and so shallow you could wade out quite a distance. Things have changed! I guess it is from erosion and development.

We visited Everglades National Park via the Shark River Entrance, which is located on the north rim of the park. There are several entrances into the park but this one appealed to us because there is a 15 mile circle bike trail into the Glades. The drive there took about 50 minutes. The trail is paved and we had a wonderful time viewing all of the wildlife. The alligators are everywhere laying on the trail in the sun – some of them were huge. We saw egrets, heron, turkey buzzards, turtles and many other interesting Glade inhabitants. At the halfway point of the trail there is a 500 foot high tower that has a 360 degree view of the Everglades – it is amazing. It was a warm day but the wind picked up in the afternoon and when we turned toward the entrance on our bikes it was directly into the wind. It was a tough ride back – Mike did great but I had to stop several times to take a breather.

Mike with his new bike at Birch State Park
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Christmas Day was wonderful, although we missed our friends and family. We went to the movies and saw Benjamin Button which was a very different (but good) movie. After the show (3 hours long) we drove to Lauderdale By the Sea which is a quaint area of restaurants, a pier and beautiful beach. The sun was shining and it was about 80 with a breeze. The beach was absolutely loaded with people and the restaurants were open. We wandered on the beach for awhile and then stopped to eat at great cafe. We sat at a sidewalk table where we enjoyed a traditional turkey dinner and it was delicious (especially since I didn’t have to cook it).

Glass bottom boat in John Pennykamp Coral Reef State Park - Key Largo
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We booked a ten day cruise on Holland America to the Panama Canal which will leave Ft. Lauderdale on January 8th. This is a cruise we have wanted to take and decided that since we are already in Florida, now was the time.

On the Saturday after Christmas we drove to Ft. Lauderdale beach and it was jam packed with people. We parked and wandered along the beach to a nice outside restaurant where we had some breakfast. At 1:30 we boarded the Jungle Queen which is a paddle wheeler that cruises the Inland Waterway and the New River through Ft. Lauderdale. It was a three hour cruise and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and gave us a lot of information about the area and some of the famous home owners. Many of the estates along the waterway are enormous and have price tags of $25 M and up. Empty lots sell for $5 M. You’d never know we were in a recession here. It was another glorious day here in paradise.

Amazing ocean colors - Key Largo
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New Year’s Eve was spent here at our RV park. There was a party around the pool – lots of music and dancing. Everyone brought their own food and drinks. I could hardly move the next day from dancing on the cement. Happy New Year to everyone.