Ty and Scott have been staying in my condo, off and on, since I have hardly ever been there. But all the while they have been looking around for the next place they want to buy and fix up, although they haven't found one yet. Yesterday, when we arrived, they were out at the gay campground with some friends of theirs, but they have returned this morning to meet us at the condo, get the things they need, and move for the week to a guesthouse over by the beach. This has been the arrangement we have had- they are welcome to stay in the condo for only a nominal rental, but if I or Fred and I were to want to use it, they would find another place to stay in the interim. Actually, the arrangement has been in place for a few years, but this is the first time they have been between places and using the condo when I have wanted to come down. Actually, they have a line on a new place, but nothing has been finalized yet, although they expect to be into the new place by summer.
Anyway, we visited with Ty and Scott for a while, catching up on what has been happening with them, and Fred and I also spent some time down at the dock watching the
Sunday river traffic
to give the guys time to get their stuff together. When they finished, they packed themselves off to the guesthouse, we made plans for dinner that evening, and Fred and I headed off to get some lunch.
A Walk Along Las Olas and Lunch
After Ty and Scott left for their guesthouse, Fred and I left the condo and walked the block over to Las Olas, and then headed west towards the Atlanta Bread Company. I've put an aerial view at left and you can follow our progress. In the first block we walked, I took a couple of movies of the typical Sunday lunchtime on Las Olas, and you can watch those movies with the players below:
A block further down, we crossed the street to be on the same side as the Atlanta Bread Company, and while we were walking through the next block, I made another movie that you can watch with the player at left.
Just on the other side of the tunnel, there is a little curio shop called "Lost and Found Objects," and out front they had a very
interesting fountain
of a type I hadn't seen before. Apparently, the water that flows over the side goes down through the rocks to a catchment to be recirculated; no one would simply waste that much water all day long. Take a look at my movie of this fountain with the player at right and you'll see what I mean. Before we walked on by, Fred took a picture of
me with the fountain.
Around this shop and at a couple of other places along our walk this morning, Fred ran across some interesting and pretty plants and flowers, and he took quite a few pictures of them. I've put thumbnails for the best of these pictures below, and you can see the full-size images if you click on the thumbnails:
(Click on Thumbnails to View)
We made one more detour on the way to lunch, and that was go off Las Olas into the new
Sun Trust plaza.
Just outside the
bank entry
there is a
While I had been in the bank itself before, I had never walked past its entry doors into the arched marble area outside to take a look at the pretty little fouuntains that have been installed there. (You can have a look at these fountains with the movie at left.) We also found that between the Sun Trust Building and the office tower next to it, there is a long, thin plaza, with an equally long and equally thin reflecting pool and waterfall that empties into the small fountains we had just seen. This was a really neat and restful area, and so Fred and I took pictures of each other sitting or standing beside the reflecting pool in this plaza, and you can look at those pictures
here
and
here.
We had a nice lunch at the Bread Company, and then walked back to the condo along Las Olas. Ty and Scott were gone by that time, but had left a note with their temporary address and phone number. We relaxed for a while and then, this being Sunday afternoon, thought that we might go down to Everglades Inlet to watch the cruise ships depart.
Watching the Cruise Ships at Everglades Inlet
Since it was Sunday afternoon, the day the cruise ships usually depart on their week-long cruises, we thought that we would take a walk down the beach to Everglades Inlet to watch them ships move through the channel and out to sea. We had done this once before, and it is always interesting. Most of the ships leave on Sunday between 4PM and 6PM, so we thought that if we left the condo about three, we'd get there in time to see them all leave.
To get down to the inlet, you have to walk. There is hardly ever any parking within the neighborhoods adjacent to the inlet, and we didn't want to cruise around forever trying to find a space. We could have parked south of Las Olas on the beach to minimize the distance we'd have to walk, but today we decided to drive a bit north to the parking area for the Sebastian Street Beach (where we often go to play backgammon and look at the "scenery") and then walk all the way down the beach from there. It will be a long walk in the sand, but it's a nice day and we looked forward to it.
So we drove over to the beach on Las Olas, and then north on Birch Road to the parking area. We found a space, got our stuff together, and walked the block to the beach to start our walk south to the Inlet.
From the beach at Sebastian Street, we started
walking south along the beach
back towards Las Olas. It was February, of course, but still the temperature was in the high seventies, and there were a fair number of people on the beach, all the way down to the inlet. The first part of our walk took us in front of the many small buildings and hotels that line the beach north of Las Olas, and I made a movie of our walk along the beach, and you can watch it with the player below:
Writing this narrative from a time some four years after this trip, I can report that very few of the low buildings along the beach are present any longer. In the time between this trip and now, almost all of them, except for the one block just north of Las Olas, have been torn down and high-rise hotels and condos have been put up. The beachfront has been transformed and, if you have not already done so, you might want to fast-foward to a Florida trip from 2007 or 2008 and take a look at some of the beachfront pictures from that time.
I was usually in front of Fred, and could look back and get pictures of
him walking along the beach.
We continued walking until we got down just past Las Olas. For the block south of Las Olas there are no buildings lining the beach; there is a large city parking lot and some two-storey buildings. We stopped here so I could make a movie of our surroundings (which you can watch with the player at right) and so Fred could take a picture
looking back the way we've come.
Also at this point, Fred found the water just too inviting, and had me hold his camera and stuff while
he got his feet wet in the ocean.
Just at the south end of this area, there is a concession that rents
small double‑hulled sailboats
that you can just push out into the ocean from the beach. The idea is to stand up and rotate the mast so as to catch the wind and get pushed or pulled along. There are usually two or three of these boats here, but I did not see any in the water. Here's a picture of
Fred with the sailboats,
though. Just before we began the second half of our walk, Fred took a picture
looking back north
along the beach.
The second half of our walk down the beach was very pleasant, and
looking back the way we'd come,
we could see we'd come a long way indeed. In front of us now we could see Everglades Inlet and we were still over a quarter mile away when the first cruise ship, the Celebrity Millenium, began exiting the inlet. Though we were still some distance away, I made a movie of its exit, and you can watch it with the left-hand player below. As we walked closer, it came
fully out of the inlet
and I made another movie (use the right-hand player below to watch) as it headed out to sea.
Fred used his excellent zoom lens to get a good picture of the
Celebrity Millenium,
now about a half-mile from shore.
The Celebrity Millennium Exits the Inlet
The Celebrity Millennium Heads Out to Sea
Continuing to walk closer to the rocks beside the inlet, we saw yet another cruise ship, this one the
Costa Atlantica,
coming out of the inlet. As I was walking along, I made two movies of the Costa Atlantica coming out of the inlet, and you can watch those movies with the players below:
And, finally, just before we reached the rocks themselves, Fred took a picture looking out to sea and captured
both cruise ships
now well on their way.
As you can see from the aerial view at left, just on the north side of the inlet and jutting out into the Atlantic is a large pile of rocks that mark the beginning of the ship channel. As we climbed up on the rocks, we could get a better view of the
beach to the north
the way we have come. These rocks are a popular place for
locals and tourists
in the know to come and sit and watch the boats go in and out of the channel. We have been here before, and will likely come here again. It is a really neat place to bring friends who might be coming to Fort Lauderdale for the first time.
The Grand Princess
Now that we are ensconced atop the rocks, we can wait in leisure for the next cruise ship to emerge, and it did not take long for that to happen. It was the ship shown at right- the Princess Cruise Lines Grand Princess.
Let me record the passage of the Grand Princess, as it emerges from the inlet and heads out to sea, with a series of four movies. Use the players below to watch them and it will, I hope, be as if you were sitting on the rocks with us, watching the ship's passage:
Small Boats Pass the Grand Princess in the Inlet
The Grand Princess approaches our vantage point
The Grand Princess passes by in front of us
The Grand Princess heads out into the Atlantic
We waited for a while longer here at the rocks, hoping that some more ships would come through, but that seemed to be it for today, so
Fred
put his camera away and began to climb down from the rocks to join me on the sand. (I made a movie while he did so, and you can watch it with the left-hand player below.) Then we headed on back up the beach the way we had come. (I made a last movie as we walked along, and you can watch it with the right-hand player below.) As it turned out, if we'd waited a bit longer, we would have seen
one more ship
exit the channel and head out into the Atlantic.
We Climb Down From the Rocks
Heading Back Up the Beach
You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.
