April 8, 2024: The Total Eclipse of the Sun
	February 11-23, 2024: Our Trip to Ecuador Part 2 (Brad's Visit)
	Return to the Index for 2024

We spent a few weeks at home after returning from Ecuador, but then we wanted to head down to Fort Lauderdale again- in time to catch the St. Patrick's Day Parade.

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. On most trips, this allows us to take all kinds of things with us- including our two youngest cats, Bob and Cole. Now that our trips to Ecuador won't be from Fort Lauderdale, we have brought them again this time.

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. We used to go all the way to Lafayette to pick up I-10 east, but we have had so many slowdowns on that road leading up to and over the Mississippi River bridge, that we now go a different way.

About twenty miles north of Lafayette, at Opelousas, we take US 190 east. Although there are some small towns and a few lights along this route, we can still move pretty quickly. There is never a delay crossing the Mississippi River on the US 190 bridge, the US 190 bridge, and once we get across we just continue on US 190 until it meets up with I-12 east. Now I will admit that this stretch, a four-lane major urban thorofare can have some traffic, but it is no worse, and usually better, than what we used to encounter on I-10 from the Mississippi River to about ten miles east on I-12.

So we think that on days where there are no delays on I-10, this route takes about as long. But we no longer have to roll the dice on I-10, where backups can (and have) delay us for 30-45 minutes.

From where we get onto I-12, it is 90 minutes or so to Mississippi, an hour across that state and Alabama (passing under Mobile Bay in the bridge/tunnel), and another few minutes to just inside Florida where we usually stop for dinner at Pensacola- usually between 7:30 and 8 pm. After dinner, we have now developed the habit of continuing on to Tallahassee, ariving there about midnight.

I must say that both cats seem to be good travelers. It's true that usually, maybe a few hours into the first day's driving, Bob tends to spit up, he only does it once, and only on the first day. We're prepared for it, and ready to do a "clean-up on aisle 6". Most of the time, both cats can be found sitting or sleeping in their carriers, although both of them will come out every so often, come up front to see what's going on, maybe stay for a little while, and then go right back to their cozy spaces. They hardly eat or drink at all in the car, usually waiting until we get to our motel.

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 boring stretch of 300 miles down to Fort Lauderdale. 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 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.

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 St. Patrick's Day Parade

In the last few years, it hasn't worked out for us to attend the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Fort Lauderdale. We saw it in 2019, but then it was cancelled due to Covid in 2020 and 2021. For the next two years, it just didn't work out for us to be in Fort Lauderdale when the parade was held. But this year, we came down on the 14th and were ready to go see the parade that was held this year on Saturday, the 16th.

This year, with the completion of the Tunnel Top Park, the parade organizers decided to reverse the direction of the parade. This time, the staging area was west over by Huizenga Park and the Art Museum. Then the parade moved east on Las Olas. It crossed over US1 through the new park, and then continued two more blocks to SE 8th Ave where it ended, and the various parade units could go their separate ways.

In previous years, we have invited Ron and Jay to come down to watch the parade, and we did that again this year. Jay, however, was not feeling well, and Ron had too many errands to run since Jay wasn't able to do them. So it was just Fred and I.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

We got down to the parade route quite a bit early, and so we wandered around for a while around the Tunnel Top Park near the Cheesecake Factory. The creation of this park has really opened up the area, and as you can see in the movie I made, it is now an area where people can gather, there is access to the river, one sees the occasional food truck, there is the Stranahan House, and so on.

So use the player at left to watch the short movie I made as we walked around here.

I took some pictures that will give you a flavor of what it was like here in the Tunnel Top Park before the parade began:

When we could hear the parade units firing up right around 11, we went to find a place we could stand. About midway down the block of Las Olas east of the Tunnel Top Park we found a place behind the barriers that was thinly-occupied, so we got some spaces on the rail and waited for the parade units to come by.

Click on the Image Above to View the Slideshow

As I have done before, I have documented the entire parade, taking pictures of all the units as they came by. For some of the units, a movie was better (bands, dancers, and such). Obviously you don't want to open and close some 90-odd pictures and movies, so I've taken all the pictures and movies and put them in a slideshow.

For the first time in this photo album, I have integrated the movies right into the slide show, so sometimes when you go to the next slide you will see a movie player (with a little play button in the middle and/or movie controls at the bottom). You can play the movie right there in the slideshow.

To watch the parade with us, just click on the image at left, and I will open the slideshow in a new window. You will know when you have gotten to the end of the parade when you see the picture of the three riders on horseback (or when the show cycles around to the first slide again). At that point, you can just close the window.

After the Parade

After the parade, quite a few of the spectators and participants gathered around in Tunnel Top Park, and I wandered around taking some candid pictures and movies of the crowd. One of these pictures was of the newly-completed Veneto apartments which tower over the park just north of it on the west side of Federal Highway.

Here are some people patronizing one of the food trucks near the Cheesecake Factory.

Over on the north side of Las Olas, Tunnel Top Park has a performance stage, and of course there was a group performing today.

I made a couple of movies while I was wandering around.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible) Here is a movie of the group that was performing as I was walking around.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible) I also made a movie looking around the area between the Cheesecake Factory and the Icon Las Olas, and I end with our memorial to Ty and Scott.

One of the activities was this small petting zoo for kids.

This view looks north across Las Olas at the performance stage and the new Veneto in the background.

Bob and Cole in Fort Lauderdale

It is always good to be able to bring our two youngest cats with us to Florida. While Bob can be a bit of a pain while we are driving (he tends to spit up on the first day each way), it is nice to have them here.

At left is Bob in one of his typical poses when he is sitting (literally) on the couch. He can hold this position for quite a while. He doesn't usually stay on the couch much; he prefers the seat of my exercise bike.

On the day we came home from the parade, we brought some beads and stuff that were thrown to us from the floats, and Cole seemed very interested in them:

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

As for Cole, he has his own characteristic pose, which we affectionately call his "dead kitty" pose. He will lie in the middle of the rug, balanced on his back, with all four of his feet in the air. We've seen other cats in this pose on the Internet, but not many and not nearly as often.

Boat Traffic on the New River

We could spend all day taking pictures of the huge variety of craft that go up and down the New River, and the first few times we were here we did exactly that. But now, our pictures seem to be few and far between, unless the craft is unusually odd- or unusually large.

One afternoon, Fred saw this boat out the window being tugged up the New River. By the time I got my camera out, it was making the turn just north of the condo.

I wanted some exercise anyway, so I hopped on my bike and headed up the Riverwalk to get a better picture of the yacht, which I did, between 3rd Avenue and Andrews Avenue.

We have actually seen bigger yachts than this one, and yachts that are more extensively outfitted, but this one is pretty nice. We've learned that very few of these very big yachts are actually owned by used by individuals; almost all of them were purchased by consortiums who charter them out. Chartering a yacht like this one can easily run north of $100,000 a week- plus some expenses. Since I'd come upriver to see it, I made a couple of movies, too.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible) This is a good movie showing how the tugboat company carefully takes boats this size up and downriver. No captain would pilot the boat itself, what with all the yahoos on the river.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible) The drawbridges on the New River open on a schedule on weekdays, and as needed on weekends. This was a weekday, so "Liberty" got to the Andrews Avenue bridge a bit early, and had to wait.

On the Riverwalk

One activity that we engage in almost every time we are here is to walk from Riverview Gardens west along Southeast 4th Street to the beginning of the Riverwalk (which officially begins at Laura Ward Park over the Kinney Tunnel, but which can be accessed a few hundred feet earlier). Then we just stroll this amazing city feature- usually all the way to its western terminus near the Symphony Condominiums just past the Broward Performing Arts Center at River Bend. Here's an aerial view of the Riverwalk:

The Extent of the Fort Lauderdale Riverwalk

As always, we usually take some pictures along these walks (and we walked along the Riverwalk three or four times during this stay in Florida). Rather than separate the pictures from our individual outings, I am just going to put them all together in one continuous sequence from Laura Ward Park to the Performing Arts Center- not worrying that they were taken on different days.

Laura Ward Park is always busy; that is one of the Watertaxi stops and there are always people waiting. The actual Riverwalk begins just west of that with a walkway cantilevered out over the river to take it past the Stranahan House and the Icon Las Olas.

This picture of the Stranahan House was taken from that walkway. It actually sits just at the base of the Icon Las Olas, between that highrise and Laura Ward Park.

Just after we passed the Icon Las Olas, we took this picture looking downriver past the Riverside Hotel. Riverview Gardens is downriver, around that bend you can see in the background.

You've seen lots of pictures of the Riverwalk, I suppose; you can see some on just about every album page devoted to a trip to Fort Lauderdale. Today, until we got to Broward Performing Arts Center and the esplanade in front of it, all I did was take pictures of the highrises already constructed or going up on both sides of the river.

This is the Water Garden condominium on the north side of the river.

This is the Las Olas Grand, which sits between the Icon Las Olas and the Water Garden.

Next to the Water Garden, a three-story office was torn down and the Gables Riverwalk is going up. When topped out, it will become Fort Lauderdale's tallest building (for a while).

Across 3rd Avenue from the Gables is the relatively new Alluvion condominium. The approach to the 3rd Avenue bridge is elevated between the two structures.

Further west, past River House and Andrews Avenue, is the Society Las Olas, a cooperative apartment building (where you can be paired with up to three roommates).

On the south side of the river is the new Regatta at New River apartment complex.

This is another view of the Regatta at New River with part of the Nu River Landing complex to the left.

The Regatta at New River is going to be a big complex, and a second tower is going up south of the one already completed.

This scene from the Riverwalk was taken in front of the Society Las Olas. We are just east of the FEC Railway tracks that cross the New River (they also carry the Brightline commuter trains).

On the west side of the tracks is an area known as Old Fort Lauderdale. There are a couple restaurants, a historical library, and an event venue. Here, some ladies are decorating for an event soon to begin.

The Riverwalk is Fort Lauderdale's penultimate tourist attraction, second only to the beach itself. It extends westward from the new Tunnel Top Park to Sailboat Bend and the esplanade in front of the Science Museum and Performing Arts Center, ending by the Symphony Condominiums.

From the esplanade, this view looks back downriver the way we have come.

From the esplanade, this view looks upriver. Harbour Pointe is on the left, and the Symphony Condominiums are on the right.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

One day, when we got down to the esplanade, there was an event going on- with music, food, and stuff- and the sights and sounds were intriguing enough for me to make a movie. You can use the player at left to watch it.

Some Miscellaneous Pictures

Finally, I have a few miscellaneous pictures from this particular trip to Florida. The first was a mural that Fred noticed as we were driving back from one of my eye appointments at the Bascom-Palmer Eye Institute down in Miami. This mural was located in Hollywood, Florida:

Then there are a couple of pictures from around the condo and Riverview Gardens:

About every other day, it's "frozen drink time" down by the dock, and this usually happens around sunset.

Fred wanted me to take his picture with one of the two Gockel artworks I purchased twenty years ago for the condo. This one is entitled "One More Time".

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

	April 8, 2024: The Total Eclipse of the Sun
	February 11-23, 2024: Our Trip to Ecuador Part 2 (Brad's Visit)
	Return to the Index for 2024