October 27, 2004: Florida Trip Day 5
	October 24, 2004: Florida Trip Day 2
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Along the Fort Lauderdale Riverwalk

This morning, we met with Ty and Scott at the Home Depot and took a look at some cabinet colors and granite. We have been working with a young lady for some time now on the cabinets; we have already done all the measuring and now must just decide on a color and style. I think we finally did that, settling on a smooth maple color and a relatively simple cabinet style. We have also settled on a granite color, but this Home Depot doesn't actually obtain the granite, but rather send you to one of their contractors who does. Ty and I have planned to stop at two granite and stone places tomorrow or the next day to actually pick out the slabs that we want to use. We are still hoping that we can get everything picked out this week so that Ty can begin the work right after we leave.

We had some lunch together, and then Fred and I went back to the condo to relax for a while before going out on a walk along the New River and through downtown. On the aerial view above I have marked the general area where we wandered around (in red) and our path to Riverbend (in yellow).

We walked over towards Riverfront Center, where the theatre is, but went a little north of the Art Museum instead of along the river. Between the Art Museum and an office tower behind it, we found a really nice fountain- one that we had not seen before. This area of downtown has many of the clubs and stuff like that- kind of like Deep Ellum in Dallas. Many of the old buildings have been redone, and the area is full of late-night tourists and locals most times. If you look at the picture that Fred took of me at the fountain and compare it with the aerial view, you'll be able to tell just which way the picture looks, and match up the buildings all around.

We walked over through Riverfront Center to see what movies were playing (and found one that we would go see in about an hour), and then walked across the railroad tracks to Old Fort Lauderdale, which is a collection of some of the oldest buildings in town. It is right across the river from Shirttail Charlies, which is one of our favorite places along the river to go eat. It is very reasonable and you can almost always get one of the tables on the dock they have that extends out over the river. You've seen pictures of us there before, I am sure. From this same vantage point here at Old Fort Lauderdale, we can look over to the bend in the river in front of the Broward Performing Arts Center called, appropriately, Riverbend. Here, two new condo developments are going up. One is on the south side of the river, occupying a prime piece of land right at the bend. It is called, I believe, simply River Bend Condominiums. Across the river, right beside the performing arts center, the dual tower Symphony Condominiums are going up.

Both these buildings have been under construction for only about a year, which would seem to indicate that the aerial view of this part of Fort Lauderdale shown at left (current as of this writing in 2008) was taken prior to be start of construction, since both parcels show up as vacant land. This also means that the aerial view has not been updated since that time, which makes me wonder how often, if ever, the source that Google uses for its Google Maps updates its aerial photos.

In most cases, I guess, it really doesn't matter, but in areas that are undergoing a lot of development, like South Florida, the landscape can change dramatically in a short period of time. There are all kinds of new condo towers along the river here in downtown Fort Lauderdale, very few of which even show up under construction on Google Maps. Sometime when I have the opportunity, I'll take a walk along the river and photograph the new buildings, and then pull up an aerial view of the river and show you what's changed. But that will have to wait for a future trip.

While we were here at Old Fort Lauderdale, I made a couple of movies of the new buildings and some of the river traffic passing by, and you can watch those movies using the players below:

At Riverview Gardens

We went to a movie at the Regal Cinema in Riverfront Center, and got back to the condo about four-thirty. That was just in time to make some frozen drinks and relax by the river before it got too dark. We didn't do much but sit and talk, but Fred did take pictures of a house across the river, a boat going by and, looking upriver, the Nu River Landing- yet another large condo development along the New River. (I don't know who is buying all these places, but I guess someone is or they wouldn't be putting up so many of them.)

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

	October 27, 2004: Florida Trip Day 5
	October 24, 2004: Florida Trip Day 2
	Return to Main Index for Florida Trip Pictures