Florida Trip: A Visit from Terri (Mike Racke's Sister)
	Florida Trip: Getting to Fort Lauderdale
	Return to the Florida Trip Index

On this page of the photo album for our Florida trip, I have collected all the pictures taken in and around the condo. I can put them into a few groups.  

Friends at Riverview Gardens

As usual, during the week we ran into all of our friends in Fort Lauderdale. Some live at Riverview Gardens, and Ty and Scott live in a condominium over near the beach. You can have a look at the best pictures of us and our friends by clicking on the thumbnails at left.

The View From My Condo

One afternoon, Fred took his camera outside my door and made a short movie of the view from there (which is also the view from the living room. My living room window faces west, towards downtown, and the view of the New River is upriver. Have a look at that movie with the player at left.

Boats on the New River (on a cloudy day)

One morning is was particularly cloudy, and there wasn't much to do but hang around the condo until the weather cleared. Fred used the opportunity to snap the occasional picture of some of some of the boat traffic passing by the condo on the river. Sometimes there are really, really BIG boats, sometimes we'll see a catamaran, and amid all the boat traffic we will see the Water Taxi docking at its stop next to the condo parking lot, but today there was just a collection of smaller ones. But anyway, you can click on the thumbnails below and have a look at some of the various craft:

The Water Taxi/Water Bus

The Water Taxi Coming Upriver Past the Dock

One of the boats we see most frequently on the river is the Water Taxi and its cousin the Water Bus. Exactly what its name implies, it is a boat that plies the river like a taxi or jitney or bus, stopping at its designated stops to pick up and drop off passengers. It has routes that take it from the Performing Arts Center upriver, all the way down to the Intracoastal Waterway, and then up and down the waterway as far north as Commercial Blvd. and as far south as the 17th Street Bridge.

It is kind of neat that there is a stop right next to our condo; it is the stop for the entire Las Olas shopping and dining area, so there are always lots of people waiting to board or getting off the boat to walk over to Las Olas. In the movie at left, you can see one of the boats coming upriver past the Riverview Gardens Dock.

And, below, you can see one of the taxi boats docking at its stop next door, and then departing that stop to continue upriver.

The Water Taxi Coming Into Its Stop The Water Taxi Leaving Its Stop

New River Scenes (on a sunny day)

As a contrast, on a different morning when it was sunny (but there was lots less boat traffic) Fred took some additional pictures of the river scenery right here at the condo. If you want to see some of these pictures, click on the thumbnail images at right.

At the Dock

One of our favorite pastimes here in Fort Lauderdale is to take advantage of the fact that the condo maintains its own dock on the river, and it is big enough so that a great many residents can make use of the chairs, tables and chaises at the same time. We very much like to take a frozen drink down there in the late afternoon, as we did today, or the early evening, which we do in the summertime, and sit, sip the drinks, and watch the boats go by- an activity that we are engaged in at left.

Below are some thumbnails for a few more pictures that we took one afternoon, and if you will click on them you can view the full-size images:

A Party at the Condo

One evening, I asked Ty and Scott to come over for some cocktails before the four of us went out to eat. It was early enough that I asked Jack Fontaine to walk down from his condo and join us. You can see the entire group seated on my couch in the picture at left (l-r: Scott, me, Fred, Jack and Ty).

I didn't take many other pictures that evening, but Fred did take one nice candid of Jack, Scott and myself, and you can see that picture here.

In the Gardens of Riverview

One of the nice things about the Riverview Gardens Condominium is the lush plantings both around the buildings and in the interior courtyard where the swimming pool is. Actually, only half that area is taken up by the pool; the rest is like an arboretum garden, with all kinds of palms, lush greenery and flowers. At any given time you can find, around the property, a wide variety of plants in bloom, and many of them are quite beautiful. While we were here this week, Fred took a number of good pictures of some of them, and you can have a look if you click on the thumbnails left, above.

A New Piece of Artwork

On Saturday, we spent some time at the Las Olas Art Fair; you can see pictures of it on another album page for this trip. Although there is usually a lot of very interesting stuff, I really don't need a lot for the condo or for Dallas, so when we go to the Fair, we rarely buy anything. But the window at left caught my eye, and, for some reason, I purchased it. It is actually an old casement window from, presumably, an old house. The artist has painted a beach scene on the back of the glass, which meant he had to paint it in reverse. That must have been hard, and it was one of the reasons I liked the piece.

We put it up in the bedroom over the bed, because that is the east wall of the condo and, if there were actually a window there and if we were magically right next to the beach, that would be the view through the window (or something similar). Fred took a couple of other pictures of me and the new artwork, and if you click on the thumbnails below you can have a look at them:

Sunset at the Dock

On one of our last nights here, we made our usual frozen drinks and went down to the dock. It was sunset, and so we just admired the evening while we sat having a drink. Fred took a couple of movies while we were sitting here, and you can watch them with the players below:

You can use the links below to continue to the album page for different day.

	Florida Trip: A Visit from Terri (Mike Racke's Sister)
	Florida Trip: Getting to Fort Lauderdale
	Return to the Florida Trip Index