February 23-27, 2019: A Visit to San Antonio
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We left Dallas a couple days after Christmas to spend New Year's and the first half of January down at the condo in Fort Lauderdale. As these trips to Florida have become so commonplace, we tend to take fewer and fewer pictures, and so there is less and less need to divide up the drip day by day. Rather, I'll continue doing what I've done for the last few years- just divide the photo album page by topic, pretty much regardless of when the picture was taken.

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 staying near Pensacola so we don't have to do a lot of driving at night. We have two hotels here to choose from; this time we've chosen the Red Roof in right near where we have dinner.

We usually get away from the hotel in Pensacola about nine or so for the 350-mile drive to Jacksonville, which we usually reach about one in the afternoon. 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. This is another boring part of the drive, but it gets us 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.

The Fort Lauderdale Art Fair

Sometimes, our visits here correspond with the Las Olas Art Fair, an event held three times a year (January, March and October) where Las Olas is blocked off and a whole bunch of art vendors set up booths along both sides of the street. It extends from the intersection by The Cheesecake Factory (located above the Kinney Tunnel that takes US 1 underneath the New River) right at downtown Fort Lauderdale four blocks east to the Colee Hammock canal that goes under Las Olas.

This time, the fair was held on the weekend of the 5th and 6th, and we went to walk along the fair on Saturday. It is always interesting to see the wide variety of arts and crafts offered, and perhaps every other fair we end up buying something for ourselves or for a gift.

Usually, we find our friend, Doug Fountain, with a booth set up somewhere in the fair; he does works that incorporate things like large feathers, masks, and Native American themes. But this time we did not find him as we walked through the fair.

The Art Fair has been going on, three times a year, for at least twenty years, so I assume that the artists sell enough, or make enough contacts at the event to make it worthwhile financially, considering that they have to pay the operator of the Fair their share of all the expense of putting it on.

The Art fair usually takes up three blocks of Las Olas, which, for those three blocks, has a narrow median with trees. The promoter sets up covered booths in two rows on the north and south of the median, and taking up most of the street on either side. The way the booths are set up, there's space for people to walk past the booths that's about eight feet wide (so it can get crowded). Some of the artists stay in their booths, while others will sit up on the sidewalk opposite their booth. I thought the artist at left was interesting, as her attire looked like one of her artworks.

The various businesses that line Las Olas (the Rodeo Drive or Fifth Avenue of Fort Lauderdale) also benefit from the steady stream of potential customers walking along the Fair route. As usual, all the restaurants and stores seemed busy, even though it was a bit chilly (even for Florida) both afternoons when we were there.

We walked the entire length of the Art Fair on this chilly but sun-lit afternoon. Today wasn't particularly crowded; moving along can be slow when it is. The three interesections involved in the fair route offer a chance to bypass the particularly slow walkers, if you want, and they are also the locations usually given over to the larger sculptures and all of the commercial booths (insurance companies, car dealers, the local newspapers and a couple of radio stations). There are usually also at least two or three musicians performing and selling their CDs. Here are two movies made at the intersection of SE 9th Avenue and Las Olas- the intersection closest to the condo:

Our Arrival at the Las Olas Art Fair (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

A Musician Performing and Selling CDs (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

Our usual habit is to begin at the 9th/Las Olas intersection, turn right, go down to the end of the fair, cross to the north side of the double line of booths and head west to the opposite end of the fair. The western end of the fair is at the Kinney Tunnel, where US 1 goes under the New River. Then we come back to the southern side of the fair and return to our starting point.

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We took a number of pictures at the Art Fair today, and they are in the slideshow at right. I like to take pictures of much of the colorful artworks that I see, and I often wish I had the money, the wall space, and the kind of modern house that would show them off to good advantage. So you will see quite a few shots of the various booths and artists.

But the fair is also a good opportunity for people-watching and for taking general pictures of the portion of Las Olas that is given over to the fair. So you will see lots of those pictures, too. We went to the Art Fair both days, but I've aggregated here all the pictures that I thought were good enough to include in the album.

If this is the first time you've encountered one of my album slide shows, they are easy to navigate. Just click on the little forward or backward arrows in the lower corners of each slide to go from one to another. You can refer to the index numbers in the upper left corner of each slide to see where you are in the show.

Of course, what the many vendors are hoping for are sales, and while we hardly ever see lots of people carring away lots of merchandise, we assume that most people conclude their transactions like we do- buying things and then coming back at the very end of the day to pick them up. By far the most common offering at the Art Fair are paintings, which I guess is what most people would immediately think of when the term "art" is used. Some of the paintings are pretty traditional, using traditional media such as pastels or oils. Others use additional media to set themselves apart.

We hope you enjoy visiting this year's Winter Art Fair with us!

Bob and Cole in Fort Lauderdale

We brought Bob and Cole to Fort Lauderdale together for the first time last November, and they did so we that we brought them back this month. It's good to bring two of them so each has another to play with or socialize with.

Down Time for Fred and Cole

Bob's personality has changed a good deal in the last year. When he was a kitten, and we brought him down here in 2017, and and his sister were very active and gregarious, and both of them were always anxious to get in a lap and curl up.

But Bob has become more solitary of late. Whether that's due to losing his sister (who went to live with Nancy in San Antonio), or losing his friend Tyger to cancer, or just getting a little older, or perhaps because of the addition of Bob to the menangerie, I don't know. He doesn't go hide out, exactly, but he is content being by himself or with Bob, rather than anxious to be close to one of us.

When we are at home, and in the study, all four cats, including Bob, are usually with us, curled up in different places. It you go to pet Lucky, he will immediately want to get in your lap, and the same is true for Zack (although you don't have to pet him at all for him to want to nuzzle you). Cole is still maturing, but when one goes to pet Bob, he often acts as if he doesn't care for the touching, although he won't up and leave. So maybe he is just the most independent of all four of the cats. Here are a few of the pictures we took of Cole and Bob on this trip:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

Of course, one of the reasons to bring two cats is so they can play with each other, which they do a lot. A couple of times when they went from naptime to playtime, Fred was able to get a good movie:

(Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

(Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

Boat Traffic on the New River (Installment 45)

Over the many years that I and then Fred and I have been coming down to Fort Lauderdale, the boats that go by the condo on the New River have been a frequent subject of photographs that we have taken.

This was one of the first trips in a while where we didn't happen to photograph any mega-yachts, but there was the usual selection of smaller craft, both private and commercial. One was the trawler-type craft being towed downriver. Why it was being towed I don't know, since most of the boatyards are upriver from here. Maybe the pilot was just unfamiliar with or uncomfortable with piloting the boat himself.

Here are the best of the other boat pictures we took during this visit:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

The boats that go up and down the river range in size up to mega-yachts (since there are major boatyards upriver). Oftentimes, these yachts are so big that their owners don't want to risk running into one of the boats docked along the river, and they arrange with one of the local companies to have it towed up or downriver:

"Enjoy the Ride" (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

On the Riverwalk

In this section, I want to put some pictures and movies that were taken as Fred and I walked along the Riverwalk between the Icon Las Olas and the Broward Performing Arts Center. The Riverwalk is basically a wide, brick-paved walkway that goes right along the north side of the New River. It goes under the Third Avenue and Andrews Avenue bridges, and over the Florida East Coast Railway. It actuall goes past the Performing Arts Center and around Sailboat Bend to the twin-tower Symphony Condominiums. Currently, the total length is about a mile. Here's an aerial view of the Riverwalk, on which I've marked some of the locations where we took pictures.

The Riverwalk begins, at its eastern end, at a small plaza right on the river and right over the Kinney Tunnel (which carries US 1 under the river). This little plaza, the Laura Ward Riverwalk Plaza, is right between the parking garage for the Riverside Hotel on the east and the historic Stranahan House on the west.

In the aerial view at left, you can see the area where we took our first group of pictures. The skyscraper at left is the Icon Las Olas, and you can see the new fountains they've put in on the east side of the tower.

On the day we were at the Las Olas Art Fair, I stood in the intersection marked with the yellow star and made a movie, turning 360° around, and this will give you an idea of what the area looks like. You can use the player below to watch this movie:

Las Olas and (above) US 1 (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

For the last year or so we have been watching the Icon Las Olas go up on a site that had been in legal limbo for almost fifteen years (where the old Hyde Park Market used to be). It topped out in 2017 and began renting early in 2018. Over the past year, we've seen it getting filled up, judging from the lights we see at night.

Icon Las Olas (Composite Image)

From the middle of the intersection (which is partially-closed to traffic when the Art Fair is on, we could walk over to the area right north of the Stranahan House where the new building has put in some fountains. It was near the fountains that I tried to get the entire Icon Las Olas building into one image but had to take it in sections, putting them together into the image at left (which is why you see the odd shadow).

The fountains are nice, and there are always people sitting on or near them. Below are a few pictures that we took on and around the fountains:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

As we walked around the south side of the Icon Las Olas to head west along the Riverwalk, I stopped to look back the way we had come, and you can see the new Amaray Apartments a few blocks away to the northeast. And from right between the New River and the Icon Las Olas Fred got a really good picture looking up the side of this recent addition to the Fort Lauderdale skyline; you can look at his picture here.

So as we rounded the newest little section of the Riverwalk (the new walkway between the Icon Las Olas and the river that goes between the Laura Ward Plaza and what used to be the eastern terminus of the Riverwalk), I stopped to let my little camera make a panoramic view looking downriver (towards Riverview Gardens and the Intracoastal, neither of which you can actually see in the view):

Then we continued all the way to the western end of the Riverwalk at the Broward Performing Arts Center at Sailboat Bend. Along the way, we took the occasional picture, and the best of these can be found below. I have marked on the Riverwalk aerial view above some of the locations mentioned in my short descriptions of the pictures below.

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

Going Up!

There has never been so much construction activity in Fort Lauderdale as their is today. About fifteen years ago, there was a boom, and that's when the Las Olas Grand, the Water Garden, and River House were all built right on the Riverwalk. Riverfront Center, between Andrews Avenue and the Florida East Coast Railway line was built perhaps ten years before that. The Icon Las Olas finally broke ground in 2016, and just since then five new 25+-story buildings have begun, Riverfront Center has been demolished and is being replaced, and more low-rise apartments (3-5 stories) than I can count have been built downtown or are under construction. Have a look at some of the completed buildings and others under construction:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

Of course, there is at least one drawback to walking around Fort Lauderdale with all the construction going on:

Around the Neighborhood

Just walking around our area of downtown Fort Lauderdale is always something we do a lot of, and oftentimes one or the other of us will have a camera along. Sometimes, all we have to do is go out the front door for neat views:

The New River by Riverview Gardens

Or we can just walk around the Riverview Gardens property:

One drawback with this visit and, incidentally, with the new Riverfront Center development up along the Riverwalk, is that one of our favorite places to go eat- the Briny Irish Pub- has had to close (temporarily, they say) since the entire area around them is now a huge construction site. Here are a few of the many eclectic pictures we took during our two-week stay this time:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

Lunch With Roger and Moe

As we usually do, Fred and I planned to have lunch with our friend Roger Wilson, who had been very close to our friend Jack Fontaine who died a few years ago. His partner, Moe McDonald, was also able to join us, as he has just retired and moved down to Florida permanently. Before walking up the street from their house in Wilton Manors to The Courtyard restaurant, we took a couple of pictures:

Roger, Moe, and Fred

Myself, Roger, and Moe

Dinner with Tom Harris

Fred, Tom, and Myself

Two of our Dallas friends, Tom Harris and John Evans, moved to Philadelphia two years ago, when Tom took a research jop there. Fred and I have talked about making a trip to Philadelphia to visit them, but as yet haven't done so.

But Tom contacted me a few weeks ago wondering if we were going to be in Florida when he came to Miami on a business trip, and, as it turned out, his trip took place during this trip of ours to Fort Lauderdale. So made plans and drove down to Miami Beach one evening to meet Tom at his hotel and go out to eat in Miami Beach.

We had a really good visit, although the restaurant we went to, Senor Frog's, was almost too loud for easy conversation. We were able to catch up with what Tom's doing. He and John like it in Philadelphia, and they especially like their old suburban home.

Perhaps one of these days we will get up there to visit them.

The Trip Home

We left Fort Lauderdale on the morning of the 16th, and followed the reverse of our route down. It takes us literally all day and almost 700 miles of driving (Fort Lauderdale to Jacksonville: 320 miles; Jacksonville to Pensacola: 360 miles) to get out of Florida. As a matter of fact, when we finally enter Alabama, we are over halfway home.

Following out normal schedule, we typically eat dinner in Gulfport, Mississippi or Slidell, Louisiana. This leaves us a manageable 160 miles before we stop for the night in Lafayette, Louisiana. In the morning, we have a comfortable drive home- 200 miles up to Shreveport and then another 200 miles over to Dallas. We arrived back home at 3:30 this time, and were happy to be back.

And Bob and Cole were happy to see their brothers.

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

	February 23-27, 2019: A Visit to San Antonio
	Return to the Index for 2019