May 2-18, 2012: Our Cruise to Europe
	March 24, 2012: A Visit to the Dallas Arboretum
	Return to the Index for 2012

Fred and I have planned another trip to Florida before it gets too hot. We also want to allow plenty of time between this trip and when we leave on our European Cruise vacation at the beginning of May. So we've picked these dates.

The Drive Down to Florida

As usual, we drove down to Florida, and our friends Steve and Mario watched over our kitties while we were gone.

Also as usual, we broke the trip into two days, staying overnight in a Super 8 Motel in Marianna, Florida.

We reached Fort Lauderdale the next afternoon, found the condo in great shape, touched base with Ron and Jay, had our traditional frozen drink down by the dock and then went to the Floridian for dinner.

We have been to Florida so many times that unless there is some new or special thing that we do with Ron and Jay, or some event (like the Las Olas Art Fair) going on, we don't take all that many pictures. And the ones we do take can be a bit repetitive (how many pictures of boats going by the condo on the New River can you really appreciate?). But I do want to include some of the pictures we took on this trip here in the photo album, but I'll just put them under some general headings.

At the Beach

Of course we went to the beach a few times, but almost all the pictures and movies we took there were taken on Easter Sunday, when we walked to the beach.

Click on the Image Above to View the Slideshow

The beach is always pretty much the same- crowded on nice days. Unusually, there were a number of cruise ships leaving Port Everglades that afternoon, and some of them appeared in our pictures. I say "unusually," because the normal situation is for them to be leaving and returning on Saturdays. There wasn't much new at the beach, save for an historical marker that I don't recall having seen before. Fort Lauderdale and the civil rights movement: "Who Knew?"

Anyway, we came away with a lot of good beach pictures- so many that I have put them in a slideshow. To view the slideshow, just click on the image at left and I will open the slideshow in a new window. In the slideshow, you can use the little arrows in the lower corners of each image to move from one to the next, and the index numbers in the upper left of each image will tell you where you are in the series. When you are finished looking at the pictures, just close the popup window.

I also made a couple of movies here on the beach, and you can watch them with the players below:

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible) Sunday at Fort Lauderdale Beach

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible) Standing in the Surf

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible) The Shops and Restaurants are Busy

Fred made a panorama of the beach scene with his camera, and the result is below:

The Intracoastal Waterway

I am sure you are familiar with the fact that to get to the beach from the condo, we just walk along Las Olas, eventually crossing over the Intracoastal Waterway on the Las Olas Bridge.

On our way across to the beach, found ourselves glad we'd walked, for there was a lot of traffic. On the beach side of the bridge, we stopped at The Quarterdeck for some lunch, and took pictures of each other (which you can see here and here).

On the way back, we had views to the north, and also saw some boardriders down below us on the water. Use the clickable thumbnails below to see some of our pictures from the Las Olas Bridge:

Fred made a panorama the view north from the Las Olas Bridge, and that panorama is below:

On the New River at the Condo

Another picture-taking opportunity we always have is of the boats, some large, some small, that go up and down the New River right past the condo. Below are clickable thumbnails for a few of the many pictures and movies we took:

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible) The Carrie B Goes Downriver (Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible) The Jungle Queen Comes Upriver

I usually take a few movies, so you might want to begin with a couple I made of the commercial day-cruise boats that ply the river; use the players at left.

Sometimes the boats don't ply the river under their own power; there are boatyards upriver where boats are worked on (although some are so large that they are always towed up and downriver). Here is a motorsailer being towed upriver.

It is very relaxing to just sit at the dock and read and be entertained by the river traffic- especially on weekends- and we usually get lots of good pictures. I've created a slideshow of the best of these from this trip.

To view the slideshow, just click on the image below and I will open the slideshow in a new window. In the slideshow, you can use the little arrows in the lower corners of each image to move from one to the next, and the index numbers in the upper left of each image will tell you where you are in the series. When you are finished looking at the pictures, just close the popup window.

Click on the Image Above to View the Slideshow

On weekdays, most of the boats that pass by are either large yachts being serviced upriver, the daily cruises like the Jungle Queen, and the ubiquitous river taxis. By dusk, everyone has got to where they are going and things die almost completely down.

But on weekends, people who have one take their boats out for pleasure, so there are quite a few that go by, of all different sizes and with all different groups of people on board. Everyone is friendly, and a wave always gets you a wave back.

The Trip Home

For two weeks, we just did our usual thing, which included movies and meals with our friends Ron and Jay. It is always a pleasure to see them and to be in Florida, although we don't like to leave the kitties by themselves for much longer than that (although we will shortly leave them for much, much longer), even considering how well looked-after they are by Mario and Steve.

On April 11th, we began the drive back. We usually don't take many pictures on the drive (since we've seen it all so often). But once in a while a good opportunity presents itself, as when we came across Mobile Bay into the city of Mobile just at sunset. Fred got a very good picture (considering that it was out the windshield and we were going 60 MPH. That's the picture at left.

We reached Dallas in mid-afternoon on the 12th, and as we came around the east side of downtown, Fred took a few more pictures. Some of them turned out rather well, and you can use the clickable thumbnails below to see them:

That brought another very nice trip to Florida to an end.

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

	May 2-18, 2012: Our Cruise to Europe
	March 24, 2012: A Visit to the Dallas Arboretum
	Return to the Index for 2012