Fort Lauderdale, Florida - March 7th to 8th, 2025
After the cool temperatures and rain during our Amtrak trip to reach Florida, the warmer temperatures and sunshine of Fort Lauderdale felt wonderful. Fort Lauderdale is a large city, just north of Miami, but we found it to have a nice feel, with its beaches, River Walk and canals lined with boats, big and small.
We got a good night’s sleep in the hotel. The elevator required our room key to operate it. That’s the first time we’ve encountered that, but according to others, it seems to be the norm in large cities. Breakfast was the usual nice breakfast for a Hampton Inn. It seemed to be a popular hotel for people waiting for their cruises. We’re sure we were below the average age of the guests there.
At breakfast, we met Bob and Karen from Omaha Nebraska. They were going to be on the same cruise as us. We’ll probably be seeing more of them. After hanging out in the room while Ann worked on a post, we went for a walk over to the beach. The beach wasn’t very close, but we needed the exercise.
From the hotel, we worked our way over to E. Las Olas Boulevard via the Himmershee Canal. The boulevard cuts across a maze of isles before crossing the Middle River to reach Las Olas Beach. The isles are man-made, long, islands, with dead-end streets down the middle of them, lined with homes which have boat docks on the canals out their back door. They are what give Fort Lauderdale the nickname of Venice of America.
Once we reached Fort Lauderdale Beach Boulevard, part of the A1A, we turned south to go over to the Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Center, home of the International Swimming Hall of Fame. The hall of fame is currently closed and under construction. The aquatic center was just recently rebuilt. But Ann wanted to visit because she swam there 48 years ago, in the YMCA national championships. There was a diving meet going on and we could see quite a few talented divers going off the 1 and 3 meter springboards as well as the diving platforms. We could have paid to stay and watch the event, but we declined.
For lunch, we stopped at the Quarterdeck Restaurant. It was a block or two west of Beach Boulevard, so it was a little quieter. Keith had the chicken chopped salad while Ann had a poké bowl. She declined on the fish eggs, but she found the seaweed salad had an interesting texture.
From there, we headed north up the A1A to Sunrise Boulevard. At the intersection of Las Olas and the A1A is where the rowdy crowds seemed to congregate. The block or two of bars had their music blaring out into the street. It must have been spring break for some colleges, because the bars and the beach were packed with young people. That probably explains the high price we paid for our hotel room (over $350 per night).
As we headed north, things became calmer and more family friendly. The hotel resorts were on the west side of the A1A and the beaches with umbrellas to rent were on the east side. We saw one family with two kids buried in the sand up to their necks. They looked like they were having a great time.
We normally like to walk along the beaches (at least Ann does), but the beach was too crowded and it didn’t look like there was any wildlife or shells along the shoreline, unless you count the college students as wildlife. So we walked along the sidewalk on the east side of the road.
On the northwest corner of Sunrise Boulevard and the A1A is the Hugh Taylor Birch State Park. A sign indicated it was part of the Great Florida Birding Trail. The park was heavily wooded and looked like it would be an interesting place to visit. Maybe next time.
We turned onto Sunrise Boulevard and headed west. There was a luggage store on Sunrise that we wanted to visit. Keith had lost one of his buckles on the waist belt of his day pack. When we were on the trains, we were sliding our day packs under our seats in the roomettes. We’re guessing that the buckle got caught on something under the seat as Keith pulled his pack back out and the buckle, unknowingly, pulled off. Unfortunately, the luggage store didn’t have anything that would work.
At one of the bridges, we had to stop while the draw bridge opened to let a boat go through. We continued on Sunrise Boulevard to work our way back to the hotel. We were getting rather warm by this time, so Ann found an ice cream shop on Google Maps, just south of Sunrise Boulevard after crossing the Middle River. It was Razzleberry’s Homemade Ice Cream Victoria Park. They have three stores in the local area. The ice cream definitely hit the spot. Keith, of course, had a vanilla shake. Ann, naturally had one scoop of chocolate, but opted for razzleberry for the second scoop, since it was the name of the shop. She was not disappointed.
From there, we zig-zagged our way to the southeast, cutting through Holiday Park along the way. We caught a glimpse of the St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church and went right by the FTL War Memorial, the Baptist Health IcePlex, and the Parker Performing Arts Theater.
By this time, it was almost time for dinner, so we stopped at Mister O1 Pizza for an early meal, just a few blocks from the hotel. Mister O1 has quite a few locations in Florida, Georgia, and Texas. We split a Sabrina Salad and a Luca Star Pizza. It was more than enough food for the two of us. The star pizzas have the edges cut and folded over a dollop of ricotta cheese, to form a star shape. It was a rather unique and tasty pizza.
By the time we returned to the hotel, we had walked about nine miles. A long walk felt good after sitting on a train all day the day before.
Instead of figuring out where to find a replacement buckle and spending our time getting around to possible places, he ordered one from Amazon and had it delivered to the hotel the next morning. On Saturday, the buckle arrived at the hotel after breakfast and before we left for the day. Perfect. How did we survive before there was Amazon?
After hanging out at the hotel in the morning, we headed out just before noon for another long walk around the city. Our friends, Joe and Joy, were in town shopping for a boat, so we arranged to meet them for a late lunch at Coconuts, right next to the Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Center.
We decided to take a slightly different route over to Coconuts than we did the day before. This time we headed south from the hotel down South Andrews Avenue to the New River. Then we first walked west on the Riverwalk to the end of it, near Avenue of the Arts, then turned around and followed the Riverwalk east to the other end, to the Historic Stranahan House Museum. Although there was some construction along the river, it was a beautiful stroll.
There were a few draw bridges along the river. The road draw bridges would open when a tall boat would come along. However, the train bridge worked the opposite way. It would stay open, allowing boats to travel through, and would only close when a train was coming. The bridge would close well in advance of the train. We’re assuming it was long enough to allow time to stop the train if there was an issue with the bridge closing, at least we would hope so.
To our surprise, Fort Lauderdale was having their St. Patrick’s Parade and Festival. It seemed a little early, since St. Patrick’s Day was still nine days away, but we guess that makes it easier to get some Irish bands here as the date doesn’t conflict with other parades and celebrations. We didn’t really watch much of the parade, as we needed to make our way over to the restaurant. The parade went down Las Olas Boulevard, the street we needed to take over to the ocean. It was difficult to fight the stream of people lining the boulevard, so we took a parallel road for a few more blocks before cutting back over to Las Olas.
We had a wonderful time with Joe and Joy. It is so much fun to have unplanned meetups with friends during our travels. We didn’t realize they were in Florida until just a couple of days prior.What a nice coincidence!
While we were having a lovely meal and lovely conversations, a restaurant employee came out to feed the scraps to the fish. There was a large school of fish along with a couple of pelicans that seemed to know it was feeding time.
After saying our goodbyes, we walked south along the A1A and crossed the Stranahan River on 17th Street. From the bridge, we could see several cruise ships docked at Port Everglades. It didn’t look like the Sky Princess was docked there yet.
From the bridge, we zig-zagged our way west and north back to our hotel. We covered about ten miles that day. Since we had a late lunch, we skipped dinner. Instead, we just got a couple of Cokes and a Toll House ice cream sandwich from the front desk. Later, Keith ordered a glass of beer from the hotel bar.
We had a lovely visit in Fort Lauderdale, but we were excited about boarding the Sky Princess the next day. It would be our first cruise and it was a doozy, a 15 day transatlantic crossing. Let the cruise begin!
Check out our related video: Fort Lauderdale, Florida
(Ann)