April 7-8, 2001: A Weekend in the Wichita Mountains
	February 9-11, 2001: A Visit to Frank and Joe in Leakey, TX
	Return to the Index for 2001

In recent years, Fred and I have tried to get to Florida at least once together during the year; often we use his other week of vacation to do a hiking trip somewhere, and we even try to use his sick days that he never takes to do something different. This year, we are planning a summer trip to the Pacific Northwest, and maybe we will do a trip near to Dallas as well this fall. So this spring will be our yearly trip down to Florida.

We flew down to Fort Lauderdale on Friday evening, March 2nd, and we returned on Sunday afternoon, March 11th. This gave us a nice, relaxing week to spend there. We didn't take a whole lot of pictures on this particular trip; they get kind of repetitive after a while unless we do something we haven't done before (which, on this trip, we didn't).

Fort Lauderdale Beach

Of course, one of our more common activities it to go to the beach, which is nice even in March.

The beach is only about a mile and a half from the condo, so we usually walk. But today, Ron Drew is with us, so we drove over in the rental car.

Today, we've just come over to lay out a blanket and relax, and we only took a few pictures. One was of Fred on the beach; the picture looks north. A couple of others were taken by the Fort Lauderdale Beach sign, and there are clickable thumbnails for them below:

Lunch at Shirttail Charlie's

Something else we do every time we are here is to walk along Fort Lauderdale's Riverwalk. The Riverwalk begins (at the moment) on Las Olas Boulevard just west of the Kinney Tunnel (which takes Federal Highway/US 1) under the New River. One walks a block south to come to the river itself, and then there is a nicely landscaped walkway that follows the north side of the river all the way to the Broward Performing Arts Center, passing underneath the 3rd Avenue and Andrews Avenue bridges.

When we want to go to Shirttail Charlie's, we have to cross to the south side of the river on the Andrews Avenue bridge, and then walk a few more blocks, around the marina boat dry storage, to the restaurant/club/ship's store complex. Years ago, when I had a small boat here, I kept it in the dry storage at Shirttail Charlie's.

Scott, Ty, Ron Drew and Fred on the Riverwalk

Today, our good friends Ty and Scott have come over to the condo to go to lunch with Ron Drew and us, and we walked from the condo over to Shirttail Charlie's for some of the best burgers on the river. I took a few more pictures on the way to and at lunch; you can use the clickable thumbnails below to have a look at them:

On a different day, Ty, Scott, Fred and I did the same thing and went along the Riverwalk to Shirtail Charlie's again. On this particular day, I stopped at the top of the Andrews Avenue bridge to take a few pictures of the bridge and of the boats going by. The bridge was up when we got to it, and we had to wait until it came down anyway. Use the clickable thumbnails below to see these pictures:

On one of the days that we went to Shirttail Charlie's, we walked back to the condo along the business end of Las Olas Boulevard- the section where the street runs through downtown Fort Lauderdale. We took a couple of pictures along the street, including one of Ty at the Sun Sentinel building and another of Fred beside a fountain outside another of the office buildings along this section of the street.

Dinner at Ty and Scott's

Ty and Scott have lived in a great many places during their time in Fort Lauderdale (they have been here almost fifteen years now). At the moment, they are in a two-story, two-bedroom apartment in Wilton Manors- a "family-friendly" area of Fort Lauderdale. The dinner was quite nice (both are excellent cooks). We used Ty's camera to take a few pictures; they are below:

At Riverview Gardens Condo

The only pictures we took around the condominium on this trip we took on one of the days that Ty and Scott came over for a walk to lunch.

At the Riverview Gardens Dock

Riverview Gardens is a very nice complex, and two of its best features are the lush courtyard between the buildings. Most of the complex is a rectangular building with an enclosed atrium where the pool is. There is another wing to the east, and the courtyard you can see at left is between the rectangular building and the east wing.

The other great feature is the dock, where up to four of the residents can keep boats. Below are clickable thumbnails for three more pictures that we took of ourselves at the dock of Riverview Gardens:

I had Fred take one other picture today, when we happend to see Mary Jane Mehl, a lady that I first met when Grant and I bought the condo back in 1989. She has lived in Apartment 109 for as long as I can remember, and we see her frequently whenever we are down here. She is a "snowbird," living here in the winter and in Chicago in the summer.

My Condo Unit

On Sunday evening, just before we left for the airport for our 8PM flight to Dallas, we stopped to take a few pictures of the inside of the condo, and you might find them interesting. There are three of them, and you can use the clickable thumbnails below to have a look. The first two are the living room, one looking towards the kitchen and one looking towards the front door. The third is the bedroom.

Along the New River

While we were here this week we of course did a lot of wandering about near the condo and along the Riverwalk, taking pictures as we walked. Most were of river traffic, but Fred also found some interesting flowers and plants to photograph. You can click on the thumbnails below to see some of the pictures that he and I took:

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	April 7-8, 2001: A Weekend in the Wichita Mountains
	February 9-11, 2001: A Visit to Frank and Joe in Leakey, TX
	Return to the Index for 2001