A road trip to Ft Lauderdale
Lynn & Mike ..around the world
Mike Drinkrow & Lynn v/d Hoven
Sat 1 Aug 2009 22:44
A road trip to Ft
Lauderdale:
Taking a break from boat cleaning, maintenance and
preparation for the haul out, we took a road trip to Ft Lauderdale. My
friend Louis, kindly offered us his bed at his condo (flat) which is very
centrally positioned. We hired a car - a real "bat-mobile" ...Mitsubishi Eclipse
- and took to the highway for the 150km drive south. Our first stop was
the massive Sawgrass Mills outlet mall, so that I could get a good shopping
fix, and Mike headed off to the movies. Like most men, he hates shopping
centres as much as I love them. The exception of course, are boat shops, and
hardware stores!
That evening we went to a local bar with Louis, for a
quick dinner, a lot of chatting and too much beer. Yesterday, after a slow
start, we drove around Ft Lauderdale giving Mike a very quick tour. Of
course we first visited the giant West Marine and the rather chaotic
Sailorman, both chandleries. We then went to the Bass Pro Outdoor world store,
which is a sports hypermarket, with specialist sections in hiking, fishing,
boating and hunting. It was a bit of a shock to see so many guns, hunting bows,
knives on display ...surrounded by targets, weapon safes, camouflage outfits and
other weird hunting stuff.... including plastic deer (Huh?!) There is also
a big fishing museum across the way which we did not have enough time to explore
- but enjoyed these two exhibits:
We then drove over the huge opening bridge down to
the beach front area, driving across the many waterways of Ft Lauderdale - which
is why some people call it the "Venice of Florida". There are boats
everywhere, many canals, many bridges, many marinas and many docks at the
bottom of peoples gardens. I ripped this pic off the web to give you a better
idea:
Later we stopped by the Riverwalk off Las Olas Boulevard
to catch up with Michael Gully whom we had met in Rum Cay in May. He is anchored
right in town, on the waterway, in the middle of a lot of city activity -
something we may consider for a few days when we return to Florida next
year.
Our last stop was dinner at Rustic Inn - a fabulous Crab
restaurant. Using my highly tuned radar and a hazy memory we did not have to
drive around too long to find it. This is a very busy restaurant, where you
sit at a table covered in paper, get a wooden mallet, a strange plastic
tool and a bib - eating crabs is a very messy business. We chose the crab
sampler - which gives you 4 different types of crab legs. Delicious..a
real treat!
