July 3-7, 2023: The Fourth of July in San Antonio
	February 15-21, 2023: Winter Trip to Florida Part 2
	Return to the Index for 2023

Well, this year is turning out to be uneventful, and there was no event or trip worth an album page between our combined trips to Florida and Ecuador in January and February and the trip we are taking now.

Getting to Fort Lauderdale

If you've been through more than a year or two of this photo album, you are undoubtedly familiar with our route to Florida. Years ago we used to fly, but that has gotten to be such a hassle (and a good deal more expensive) that now we drive. This allows us to take all kinds of things with us- including, on this trip, our two youngest cats, Bob and Cole. Both of them are good travelers, and we thought they should keep each other company.

The trip is routine; we stop at the same places to eat and to stay- almost without exception. And it's an easy route, too. Getting out of Dallas is easy if a bit congested, sometimes. We usually leave about nine-thirty, and by ten or so are on I-20 heading east towards Shreveport. We usually turn southeast on I-49 about one in the afternoon, reaching Lafayette and I-10 east along about three-thirty. Baton Rouge can be very slow if we don't get through there by four-fifteen or so, and then it is another 90 minutes to get across Louisiana to the Mississippi border.

Mississippi and Alabama are an hour each, so we are heading east from Mobile about six-thirty or seven. This puts us north of Pensacola right about dinnertime about eight. After dinner, we have now developed the habit of continuing on to Tallahassee, ariving there about midnight. There is a Red Roof Inn there that is pet-friendly (allows them and doesn't charge extra for them.

We usually get away from the hotel in Tallahassee about nine or so for the 150-mile drive to Jacksonville, which we usually reach about noon. Then we take I-295 around Jacksonville to the south, going through Orange Park. This 14-mile stretch is kind of neat, mostly because of the long bridge that crosses the St. Johns River as it opens out into a large lake southwest of the city. (It narrows as it approaches and flows around downtown Jacksonville to eventually empty into the Atlantic.)

I-295 connects up with I-95 south of the city and we simply take that south for another kind of boring 300 miles down to Fort Lauderdale. Along this streth, which Cole is quite familiar with, he sometimes comes up front to watch the traffic and help navigate. Since there are absolutely no turns to make all the way to Fort Lauderdale, this is no problem for him. We usually get to the condo around 5PM, depending on traffic in Fort Lauderdale on I-95 (which can be horrendous).

We unloaded everything at the condo, got Bob and Cole situated (and fed) and the laptops all set up, and then retired to the dock for a celebratory frozen drink. Then, as is our custom, we headed down to the Floridian Restaurant for dinner. I wish we had transporter technology, but the drive is not a hard one- although sections of it can be boring.

Bob and Cole are young enough that they are still good travelers. Bob, for example, will come out of his carrier every hour or so and walk around the car and sit up front for a while. But then he goes right back in and curls up. Cole stays out of his own carrier more; he usually curls up behind my seat where I usually make a flat space on top of my computer and duffel for him. I like it when they come up front, and it is especially nice when they will stay in one lap or the other for a while. As the driver, I'm OK with that; I just try to ignore them and concentrate on the road.

We have been here to Florida so many times that we have pretty much photographed everything worthwhile anywhere nearby. The pictures we take now are just candid shots around the condo, at the dock or perhaps at an Art Fair or other event that occurs while we are here. So I've begun the practice of just grouping the pictures for these Florida trips by topic.

Bascom-Palmer Eye Clinic in Miami

On the second day of our drive down here, my left eye was very uncomfortable. It was tearing pretty constantly, and I ended up wearing a patch over it for the last part of the trip. I decided that on my first day here I would try to get an appointment at Bascom-Palmer Eye Institute where I have been before. There were no appointments in Plantation, and none in Miami either, but I did find out that the Institute ran an Eye Emergency Room that was open 24/7/365, so on Friday Fred went with me down there.

The Bascom-Palmer Eye Hospital is part of the University of Miami Hospital System, a very large collection of general and specialty medical facilities concentrated in an area just west of I-95 near downtown Miami. I have been there two or three times, and also to one of their satellite offices out in Plantation much nearer to me.

It is an especially well-known and well-renowned facility, and I am lucky to be close to it when I am here. The only drawback to the Miami location (where the eye emergency room is located) is getting there. Oh, the route is direct enough, just twenty miles down I-95 and then a couple of blocks on city streets, but the traffic is often horrible, and usually just bad. This morning the traffic was its normally congested mess on I-95, but we got there without much difficulty.

This is the Eye Institute complex; it is like an entire hospital devoted solely to ocular issues. There are doctor's offices, optometrists, surgery centers, and, of course, the eye emergency room.

We parked and headed into the building and up to the second floor for check in. The clinic was fairly busy, although the check-in process was pretty fast and painless- particularly since I had been a patient here before. This clinic is run on a different model than my opthalmologist. My Dallas doctor has a waiting room to be sure, but once you are called into a room, all of the tests and the visit with the doctor take place in that room, one after the other.

But my retinal specialist and both the Bascom-Palmer locations do it differently. There is a central waiting room, of course, but you are repeatedly called into various exam and testing rooms for individual tests, and then returned to the waiting room each time. The final call-in is for the physician. I suppose this maximizes the utilization of the various exam rooms, but it takes a bit of getting used to.

The upshot of all my own tests and the visit with the doctor was that I had somehow gotten some cat hairs (fancy that) in my eye and under the eyelid where I could not easily get them out. This made each blink almost unconsciously irritating the eye each time. She removed the hairs, washed out the eye, and prescribed both an antibiotic to prevent infection and some gel eye drops to use for the next week or so. I was relieved that the problem was no more complex than that.

So why is this story in the photo album? Because we actually took some interesting pictures while here and on the way home. We parked in the garage on its east side, and so we had an excellent view of downtown.

This aerial view of the garage is marked with the location where we parked and where the pictures at right and below were taken.

From where we parked, this view looks southeast and is a good view of the Miami skyline.

From that same position, I took a panoramic shot to include the buildings and parking area you can see in the aerial view and most of the skyline of both Miami Beach and Miami:

On the way back to Fort Lauderdale, the GPS had us on city streets for a while, and Fred noticed and photographed a number of street art murals on the buildings we passed:

Walking Along the Riverwalk

Fort Lauderdale's Riverwalk along the New River is really the city's crown jewel, running as it does along the New River right through downtown. The pleasant walkway is lined with condo and apartment buildings, and runs from the Riverside Hotel to the Broward Performing Arts center a mile or so west.

Right on the Riverwalk, one of the restaurants in the Icon Las Olas has an outdoor bar and a bunch of tables where both drinks and food are served.

A little way past the Icon Las Olas, the Riverwalk curves around the Las Olas Grand and the Water Garden. At that point, here is the view looking upriver.

The Riverwalk goes under the Third Avenue bridge and past the new Alluvion Condominiums.

This view looks from the Andrews Avenue bridge back downriver (east). Boat slips along the Riverwalk are hugely expensive.

Just west of the Andrews Avenue bridge the old Briny Pub is now the upscale Rivertail Restaurant, and here are a couple inquiring about a table.

Continuing past the Rivertail to the west is The Wharf- an outdoor area with bars and food trucks that cater to tourists and the residents of Society Las Olas next door.

On the FEC tracks, this view looks south, and the bridge is up. Looking north (and zoomed in) is the Brightline Station on Broward Boulevard

After we pass The Wharf and Society Las Olas (a highrise you've seen pictures of on earlier pages), we can see ahead of us the bridge that carries the tracks of the Florida East Coast Railway over the New River:

In the picture above, the bridge is down; as the sign says, for two trains. At this time of day, both of these will be Brightline commuter trains. Now from the point where we see this view, the Riverwalk goes around Society Las Olas and then it crosses the tracks themselves. The two pictures I took at left were actually taken on a different day, and you can see that the bridge is up. But today, we had just seen the bridge go down, so we walked quickly around to cross the tracks before the train actually came along. Crossing was not dangerous, as one can see pretty far in both directions, and we didn't see the train coming yet. But as soon as we crossed the tracks, I could see the train in the distance. So I stood close to the tracks to make a movie of the train going by, while at the same time Fred took a picture of me making my movie. Both the still image and my movie are below:

This is Fred's picture of me standing by the tracks making my movie of the train passing by.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

Crossing over the tracks brings us to an area known as Old Fort Lauderdale. Here there is a museum of Fort Lauderdale history, some restaurants, and a venue that is used for weddings and celebrations.

Looking across the river, we can see the newest highrise on the south side of the river- Harbour at New River. It stands next to the Regatta at New River, and both are part of a new community development on that side of the river.

The Riverwalk continues past this area, eventually reaching a broad esplanade right at Sailboat Bend, where the river curves past Esplanade Park, the Broward Performing Arts Center, and the Symphony Condominiums. The Riverwalk actually ends just past the Symphony. In this area there is a performance stage, a boat ramp, and numerous monuments and historic markers- like the one at right.

From this area we can again look across the river, and the Harbour at New River is directly in the center of the image below. To the right is an older condominium, The Esplanade on the New River. At left, on this side of the river, is the Society Las Olas that we passed earlier.

An Evening Walk to the Downtowner Restaurant

One evening we decided to walk along the Riverwalk to the Andrews Avenue bridge, cross to the south side of the river, and have dinner at the Downtowner Restaurant (where we've eaten before). We began by walking west along SE 4th Street towards the Riverside Hotel. You can see the new Veneto Apartments going up in the background.

When we got up on the bridge, we had very good views in all directions in the deepening twilight, and we spent quite a few minutes admiring the views. At left is a picture I took of some of the newer highrises on the north side of the river. These include the new Marriott Hotel and Residences at left, and the River House and Water Garden in the center.

I got a good picture of Fred with the east view behind him and just before we continued on across the bridge, Fred got a very nice sunset picture:

We had dinner at the Downtowner and an hour later were heading back home- again across the Andrews Avenue bridge. It was pretty dark now, and so the views were entirely different.

Here is a picture Fred took of me as we crossed the bridge on our way to dinner.

Here is essentially the same view, but at night.

At left and below are two pictures I took of downtown Fort Lauderdale on the north side of the river as we crossed back over the Andrews Avenue bridge after dark.

And finally, back on the Riverwalk on the north side of the river, here is a picture of the Downtowner Restaurant.

Progress on the Tunnel Top Park

Work on the new plaza built atop the Kinney Tunnel is proceeding; I think it is supposed to be finished this year. We walked down to take a look one day. Not part of the plaza, but the newest (and tallest) addition to the Fort Lauderdale skyline is the still-under-construction Veneto Las Olas. I suppose that technically it fronts on Las Olas, but the building itself is really one block north, right beside US-1.

Here are some pictures taken around the construction area while we were here:

This is actually a photo of the picture that is posted over in Laura Ward Park showing what the Tunnel Top Park will look like when it is finished.

This is the sloped, raised area that has been extended out over the tunnel entrance. This is where seating and a performance stage will be.

This is that same area with a better view of the new Veneto Las Olas.

This is the area between the Cheesecake Factory and the Icon Las Olas, looking south towards Laura Ward Park and the river. The area has been redesigned and updated, and SE 4th Street will be back.

Taken from the south side of Las Olas, that's the icon Las Olas in the background, and some of the new plantings that are being added.

This looks straight west down Las Olas, which has been narrowed to just two lanes during the construction.

Around the Neighborhood

Here are some pictures taken from the condo or nearby:

This is a reference picture taken from the balcony just outside the condo. At some point, I'll be putting it alongside pictures taken in past years from the same place.

This is the Riverside Hotel down the street with the new Veneto in the background.

These next pictures were all taken from this side of Federal Highway between Broward and Las Olas:

The New Veneto Las Olas

The Veneto Las Olas from Across the Street

The Veneto Las Olas and the Icon Las Olas

The Icon Las Olas

A Few Miscellaneous Pictures from This Trip

At left is Bob in one of his classic poses (the other being sprawled out on the seat of the exercise bike). And below is my ship coming in:

These last four pictures were all taken in Huizenga Park, which is at the southeast corner of Andrews Avenue and Las Olas.

The Hyatt Hotel and Residences, the Alluvion, and River House

The Andrews Avenue drawbridge has just come back down.

The Northwest Corner of Andrews and Las Olas

Huizenga Park

The Trip Home

We left Fort Lauderdale on the 24th and the next afternoon we were home. The trip itself was uneventful and, as usual, were crossed the Florida State Line about 5PM. As usual, we stayed in Lafayette for the night and were about 3PM were back in Dallas.

Fred likes to take a picture of downtown Dallas to record the event, and this trip's picture is at left.

As always, it will be great when we finally get transporter technology, but for now driving will have to do.

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

	July 3-7, 2023: The Fourth of July in San Antonio
	February 15-21, 2023: Winter Trip to Florida Part 2
	Return to the Index for 2023