March 19-26, 2017: Guy Blair Visits Us in Florida
	February 17-20, 2017: A Trip to San Antonio
	Return to the Index for 2017

For our second Florida trip this year, we left Dallas on March 8, intending to stay about 2 and a half weeks. This is a good time of year to stay a long time, as Fred's watering chores have not kicked into high gear. We also want to go to the St. Patrick's Day Parade again this year, as we did last, and it will be held on Saturday the 11th. An added treat will be that Guy will come join us from San Antonio for four or five days. 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 a cat or two. On this trip, it will be Bob's turn. Zack has, over the years become less and less of a good traveler, so we are going to pretty much retire him as the record holder for trips to Florida- sixteen of them altogether. This will be Bob's third trip down with us. 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.

We left about nine-thirty, and by ten were on US 80/I-20 heading east towards Shreveport. There, we take a bypass around town to connect up to I-49 south; 200 miles later we are in Lafayette, turning east on I-10 about three-forty-five.

We're usually in Baton Rouge around 4, just in time for rush hour traffic clogging the Mississippi River Bridge- now woefully underdesigned for four times the traffic it carried when it opened in 1968. Poor design leads to inevitable tie-ups, and so we usually don't get to I-12 until close to 5PM. Then it's 90 minutes to the Mississippi border, another hour to the Alabama state line, and finally Mobile about 730PM. This puts us north of Pensacola right about dinnertime at eight. After dinner, we have about two hundred miles to go to get to our pet-friendly motel in Tallahassee- at about 1230AM.

In the morning, it's a bit over two hours to Jacksonville, where 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. I-295 connects up with I-95 south of Jacksonville and we simply take that south for a boring 300 miles down to Fort Lauderdale. We arrived about five-thirty (late because of rush-hour traffic). We unloaded everything and got Bob squared away and the laptops all set up and then retired to the dock for a celebratory frozen drink. Then, as is our custom, it is dinner at the Floridian. I wish we had transporter technology, but the drive is not a hard one- just long and quite boring in sections.

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

On Saturday, the 11th, Fort Lauderdale held its annual St. Patrick's Day Parade. This will be our fourth time at this particular parade; more often than not it corresponds with our March trip down here, and we attended it in 2014, 2015, and 2016.

The staging area for the parade begins about at the Cheesecake Factory. There is not nearly enough room for all the units right there on Las Olas (unless they closed the street most of the way to the beach). So what they do is use the side streets near the Kinney Tunnel, which runs under Las Olas at this point, and funnel the units into the main parade route as they are ready. Below is an aerial view of downtown showing you how the parade is staged and what its route was:

As you may already know, the condo is situated just a block off Las Olas and two blocks from the Cheesecake Factory, so getting to the staging area for the parade took all of ninety seconds. We walked north from the condo to Las Olas on 9th Avenue, and then turned west for another block to come to the intersection of Las Olas and 8th Avenue.

Las Olas and 8th Avenue: Staging Area Begins

Today, the staging area began just a block north and west from the condo. When we got to that intersection, looking north up 8th Avenue, we had a good view of the new Amaray Apartment tower. This building was just completed last year. You can see that some of the parade entries are already lined up beginning at this intersection.

Fred and I snapped a few pictures as we walked along Las Olas down to the beginning of the parade route, and here are some of them:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

The Cheesecake Factory sits on the southeast corner of the Las Olas intersection that actually sits atop the Kinney Tunnel; Las Olas actually goes over the tunnel (as does the New River).

The Icon Las Olas Under Construction (Click on Thumbnails to View)

Right over the tunnel to the west of the Cheesecake Factory there is a small park, and just west of that is a parcel of land that is shared by the Stranahan House, one of the oldest structures in town, and the Icon Las Olas, one of the newest. This new residential tower, which at this time last year was mostly just a big hole in the ground, is now close to topping out. The tower is being built on the site of the old Hyde Park Market. The market was actually torn down over 15 years ago, but the new skyscraper has been tied up in litigation over the site. The owners of the Stranahan House thought that it would be more than overshadowed by a 40-story skyscraper literally five feet from the house, and in that they were probably right. They wanted the site of the market to become a park, which would have helped them, of course, but, even though I like visiting the Stranahan House, I didn't think that their case should trump the rights of the folks who bought the market and the property it was on.

Looking West Along Las Olas

Heading past the Cheesecake Factory and the Icon Las Olas, I looked back and got a different view of the Amaray Apartment Tower, actually located two blocks north and back on 8th Avenue. All along our walk to meet Ron, we were still passing parade units that were getting in line and getting ready for the parade to begin. So we had a number of opportunities to take some candid pictures of the parade units and parade watchers, all getting ready for the procession to start off.

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

Last year, Fred and I got separated, but this year, that problem won't occur as we are going to walk west along Las Olas until we get to the downtown campus of Broward Community College where Ron Drew will be waiting for us. The three of us (Jay is not feeling well) will watch the parade together. And last year, we were a little late getting to the parade, and it had just started when we got to the Cheesecake Factory. But this year, we should be with Ron Drew before the first parade unit comes by.

Ron Drew and Fred

We did get down to the community college building, waited a few minutes, and then connected with Ron who had driven down and parked over at his office a couple of blocks away. On the way down Las Olas, we took some pictures of the new buildings and construction in downtown Fort Lauderdale:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

As you can see in the fourth picture above, there were fire trucks parked on both sides of Third Avenue, and they had their ladders fully extended to form kind of an arch above the intersection. There was an American flag attached to one of them. I recall that this same thing was done last year, and at that time I constructed a panorama so you can see both trucks. You can look back at 2016 if you are interested.

We actually had a pretty good spot for viewing the parade; people could just stand streetside where we were, while over on the other side of the street bleachers were set up, and it wasn't long before we could hear the parade kicking off back by the Icon Las Olas. Pretty soon, the first unit- some police on motorcycles- came by.

The Police Motorcycle Unit (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

One of the good reasons for watching the parade from this spot is that there is a large intersection right in front of us, and any parade unit that needs an open space to perform finds one here. I know that the motorcycles, for example, did do some circles and stuff further west of here, but in this intersection they can do larger exhibitions.

Last year, I was in "documenting mode" and tried to photograph every parade unit. Having done that once, I'm wasn't inclined to do it again, particularly because it seems that folks will do just about anything to get into the parade, and many of the marchers and units bear no relationship to St. Patrick, or Ireland, or anything. Here are some examples:

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I think that just about every school in the county with a band program marched in this year's parade; I think there were probably five or six of them this year. Here are a couple:

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It seemed to me that the parade last year was a bit longer and also had more interesting units than did this year's parade, but the weather was nice, there was enough to look at, and we enjoyed being with Ron Drew.

The Three of Us at the St. Patrick's Day Parade

Here are some more candid shots of the parade and the onlookers:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

I have two more movies from the parade I want to include here. Last year, I found many bands and floats that were worth movies, but this year the pickings were a bit slimmer. Here are those two movies:

Nothing More Irish Than Bagpipes (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

Any Excuse for a Float (Advertising, Anyone?) (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

Well, that was this year's parade. But the St. Patrick's Day festivities were just getting started. Our next stop, after Ron Drew headed back home, was to go across Las Olas to Huizenga Park and the post-parade Irish Festival.

The Irish Festival

When the parade was finished, we wandered over to the Irish Festival that was being held in Bubier Park.

Bubier Park has been here as long as I can remember. It is located just east and just below Andrews Avenue, which ascends to the Andews Avenue Bridge just west of the park. I might point out that the Briny Irish Pub, where Fred and I go frequently for supper or lunch is just to the west of Andrews Avenue and right on the New River.

There is a large fountain at the north end of the park, at the intersection of Las Olas and Andrews Avenue, where we have stopped frequently whenever we walked to the Briny Pub or to the movie theatre that used to be in the Riverfront Center. The fountain has colored lights that play on it at night (in sequence with the colored uplights that illuminate the trees that surround the main circle walk in the park). You used to be able to control the fountain in some respects by putting your flat palm over various sensors around the perimeter of the fountain, but I don't think that feature works anymore.

Anyway, the entire park was filled with people and vendors for the Irish Festival. The circular walk was lined with food stalls and other vendors. The central lawn had a large tent on its south side with picnic tables underneath for people to eat the goodies they purchased, and the rest of the lawn was open with a few more vendor stalls sprinkled through it. There was a small orchestra in the bandshell at the south side of the park near the river and there were folks sitting and lying on the grass listening.

We didn't take a lot of pictures here at the festival, nor did we stay very long. The park was just full of lots of people, almost all of them wearing the strings of green beads they'd caught during the parade.

A Performance at the Irish Festival (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

I got down in front of the bandshell and made a short movie of part of one of the performances. (Irish and Scottish dancing is quite similar, and I am no expert, so I will assume that this particular performance was Irish in nature.)

Here are the best of the actual pictures we took as we wandered around the Irish Festival:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

In prior years, we've spent more time wandering around the Irish Festival after the parade, so if you think you might be interested in more pictures from the Festival, just look at 2016 or perhaps 2015.

The Evening of the St. Patrick's Day Parade

In years past, we've usually been doing something with Ron and Jay the Saturday evening of the St. Patrick's Day Parade. This year, Jay wasn't feeling well, which is why Ron met us on his own, so Fred and I just went out for a walk along the river after we had our own supper. We thought a good destination would be the Briny Irish Pub and Restaurant on the Riverwalk at Andrews Avenue. It did turn out to be very, very busy, as this movie and picture indicate:

At the Briny Irish Pub (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

The Briny Irish Pub

We continued our walk around to the esplanade near the Performing Arts Center, and then returned to the condo walking along Las Olas Boulevard, where almost all the restaurants, stores, galleries, and pubs were open. Here are two good pictures from our walk:

A View of the Performing Arts Center and the Symphony Condominium at Sailboat Bend on the New River

One of the Galleries Along Las Olas- the One Specializing in Art Glass

Along the Riverwalk

You have undoubtedly seen at least a few of our Florida trips before, and if you have, you undoubtedly know about the Riverwalk- the pedestrian walkway that goes along the north side of the New River from the site of the old Hyde Park Market all the way west to Sailboat Bend near what are now the Broward Performing Arts Center and the Symphony Condominiums. Parts of it were already built when we first got a place here in 1990, but over the years it has been steadily extended westward.

The Eastern Section of the Riverwalk- Andrews Avenue to Federal Highway

In the aerial view at left, the Andrews Avenue bridge and Bubier Park are at the left, and Riverview Gardens is at the right. At the moment, the Riverwalk's eastern end is in front of the Las Olas Grand, which is on SE 5th Street. Right across the street is the site of the old Hyde Park Market, which had been vacant for some twenty years- until the Icon Las Olas started going up in late 2015.

Now the building is close to topping out. When it is completed, the Riverwalk will be extended along the river to the south of it, run south of the Stranahan House, cross the small plaza that is actually on top of the Kinney Tunnel that carries Federal Highway under the river, go another hundred feet or so and terminate in a small parking lot owned by the Riverside Hotel (where a new small park and restaurant are slated to be built).

On the aerial view, I have marked our route home from the Irish Festival, and in this section I am going to include the pictures we took along that walk, and also the pictures we took of the Icon Las Olas nearing completion.

One of the Riverwalk Sculptures

But one word before we look at those pictures. Google Maps seems to think that the river running through Fort Lauderdale is called the Tarpon River (as you can see from the label near Riverview Gardens). This is incorrect; the name of the river continues to be the New River. The name "Tarpon River" actually refers to the neighborhood south of the New River and close to Sailboat Bend. If you look back a ways at earlier album pages for our visits to Fort Lauderdale, you will note that on the maps and aerial views that I used, the river is properly named. Why Google has made this change I have no idea.

The Riverwalk is really quite impressive now- particularly since all the new high-rise buildings have gone up on both sides of the river, from west of Andrews Avenue all the way to the Icon Las Olas.

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

The Riverwalk is a popular place with the locals, a block away from the hustle and bustle of Las Olas itself, and we always walk along it at least a couple of times on each of our visits here. Most of the restaurants are over on Las Olas, as are all the stores and businesses, so that's usually more crowded. The Riverwalk seems largely undiscovered by hordes of tourists, which is nice.

Today, we'll be walking home from the Irish Festival, and at right are some of the candid shots from that walk between Bubier Park and the Las Olas Grand.

As I said above, the road to the beginning of the construction of the Icon Las Olas has been a long one. The old Hyde Park Marked was closed in 1999 and, for a time, the owners of the property wanted the City of Fort Lauderdale to buy the prime parcel and turn it into a park adjacent to the Stranahan House.

Icon Las Olas (from Las Olas Grand)

Icon Las Olas (from SE 5th)

Negotiations dragged on until 2004, when the City finally voted not to proceed with the purchase; the park would have simply been too expensive for its size.

Shortly after those negotiations fell through, a developer came into the picture with an announcement that it would construct, on the site, a 42-story condominium. The developer bought the land from the grocery chain that had owned the Hyde Park Market in 2005, submitted plans to the City, and got them approved in early 2006.

Then the Stranahan House and the Historic Society filed suit to stop the construction, alleging, in sum, that the building would simply overpower Fort Lauderdale's most historic building- the first building constructed on the New River when Fort Lauderdale first became a military outpost (yes, Fort Lauderdale was originally a Fort). These lawsuits, and others carried on for some eight years, until the developer made some small changes to the plans.

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Meanwhile, the developer had been pre-selling the condos, but this was going slowly. Finally, in late 2015, construction began on the tower. (The building was not sold, but if the developer didn't start construction by a certain date, his city approvals would lapse. Shortly after construction began, the building was changed from a condominium complex to a luxury rental tower.) We have been watching the building go up since then, a we have an excellent view of it right from our living room window (although we couldn't really see it until it rose to about ten floors and cleared the lower buildings between us and it). Now, in early 2017, it is nearing top-out (and will, apparently, do so after we leave but before we return next), although much work remains to be done inside, of course.

We walked up 5th Street to Las Olas, turned east, and headed for home. At the corner of the Icon property across from the Cheesecake Factory, the developer has already installed a piece of public art at the corner. We continued down Las Olas Boulevard, which had not yet been reopened to automobile traffic after being used as a staging area for the parade (which just ended 90 minutes ago) to SE 9th Street. There we usually take a pass-through to SE 4th Street; the little walkway is lined with seahorse fountains that have colored lights at night.

With Ron and Jay at Margaritaville in Hollywood

One Sunday while we were here this time, Ron and Jay thought that we might take a ride down to the beach in Hollywood to have lunch at the Margaritaville Hotel complex there. Fred and I had not been there before, so we thought it an excellent idea.

Here's a map so you can see where Margaritaville Resort is located relative to the condo, where Ron and Jay picked us up around eleven in the morning for the 10-mile drive down to Hollywood. From the condo, we just take Federal Highway all the way south into Hollywood, Florida, then cut over to the beach where A1A is called South Ocean Drive. Turning south, we went another half mile to find the entrance to the parking garage attached to the main building of the resort.

I've put an aerial view of the resort above; sadly, the only ones available are a few years old and show the resort still under construction. We had come down just to have lunch at the Landshark Cafe, have a walk through the resort, and walk along the Hollywood Beach Boardwalk for a little while. While we ate lunch, we could look at people on the FlowRider down below us. I've marked the locations of these features on the aerial view.

Although we of course took lots of pictures around the resort, there was no vantage point where I could get a good picture of it now that it's completed, so I've resorted to taking one from the resort's website.

As its name would imply, the resort is inspired by the lyrics and lifestyle of singer, songwriter and author Jimmy Buffett, due to the fact that the song "Margaritaville" was one of his biggest hits. Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort is a destination resort and entertainment complex and is, as you can see, located directly on the Hollywood Beach Broadwalk. Hollywood Beach itself is a classic South Florida beach town that has a long history, having been popular with locals and tourists since the 1920s.

Hollywood Beach is often compared to quaint European and funky California beach towns, and the character of this inviting area is all Florida. Evening strollers, morning joggers, bicyclists and roller-bladers share the brick paved, beachfront thoroughfare with those enjoying the many cafes and bars along the way. This part of Hollywood is located on the barrier island between the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean- an island which, at least in this section, not much wider than the resort itself. On the other side of North Ocean Drive the Intracoastal is lined with small houses, shops, marinas, and boat docks.

The Resort has a wide range of features and amenities- including the Landshark Beachfront Cafe, numerous other restaurants, a lagoon and pool area between the hotel and the Boardwalk, shops, and the other accoutrements of a large resort. And everything is "Jimmy Buffet-themed" with numerous decorative elements that are related to Buffet and his music. You'll see some of them later when we walk through the hotel lobby and some of the other areas.

Lunch at the Landshark Bar & Grill

We've come down to Margaritaville to have lunch and walk around, and here is my introductory movie made from the alfresco dining patio at the Landshark Bar & Grill:

Looking Around Margaritaville Beach Resort (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

Being a resort, you'd expect Margaritaville to have lots of eating spots. We're going to dine outside at the Landshark Bar & Grill, but there are also Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville, the 5 o’ Clock Somewhere Bar & Grill, the Lone Palm Beach Bar, the JWB Prime Steak and Seafood, a coffee shop inside the hotel, and two others.

The Landshark Bar & Grill

Inspired by the traditional beach bars of the Atlantic Coast, LandShark Bar & Grill offered a wide menu, and while the bar got quite busy while we were there (as did the open-air restaurant), the noise was not excessive and we could eat lunch while enjoying panoramic views of the Atlantic Ocean. We also had a prime spot from which to watch the folks using the resort's FlowRider®.

Ron, Jay, and Fred

Fred and I Overlooking the FlowRider

From the alfresco dining area, we could look up at the main building of Margaritaville Resort; as it turned out, the large parking garage for the resort occupies the bottom five floors of the main building, and so we didn't have to contend with the parking along A1A as there is usually very little of it.

The Beach Access Plaza Just North of the Margaritaville Resort

From the restaurant we could also walk to the north side of the upper level alfresco dining area and look out over a plaza that gives access to the Boardwalk. This used to be a street that deadended at the Boardwalk, but now it only goes as far as the entrance to the hotel garage.

Fred and Ron Having Lunch

Part of the Alfresco Dining Area

The FlowRider

The FlowRider at Margaritaville Beach Resort was situated just below the Landshark and so we had excellent views of the people trying their hand. But pictures don't really convey the action, so in their place are three of the movies that I made:

An Expert Shows How It's Done (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

An Expert...and a Novice (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

A Good Start, and then...Epic Fail! (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

The Lagoon

After lunch, we thought we would walk around for a while, and see what the inside of the Margaritaville Resort looked like. From the Landshark Bar & Grill, we first walked by the lagoon (pool) to the hotel entrance. You'd of course expect that any resort like Margaritaville would have a nice pool area, and that was certainly true here. Before we came down from the dining patio at Landshark, I took the panoramic picture below so you could see what this pool area looked like.

The Lagoon Pool and Pool Bar

Outside the hotel, near the pool area, we saw a row of hotel bicycles that I suppose guests could use to tool around the area and up and down the Boardwalk. There were also a number of decorated Adirondack chairs that I thought were worth a photo, (and also a second photo of Fred sitting in one). And, of course, there was a good deal of kitschy decoration.

Inside the Hotel

We came into the hotel itself from the outdoor pool area, and there was a hallway leading towards the hotel's main entrance on North Ocean Drive. Let's first walk all the way into the main lobby of the hotel. Here, just inside the main entrance, was the registration desk, a bar and the JWB Steakhouse, meeting rooms, and so on. I stopped at the point where the hall opened up into the lobby to take a panoramic picture. That picture is in the scrollable window below:

Centrally-placed, right by the registration desk, was a huge sculpture entitled "Blown Out Flip Flop". (If you haven't figured it out yet, almost everything here in the resort is named for or a replica of something in a Jimmy Buffet song, and most of those in his big hit "Margaritaville", naturally.) If you are curious about the sculpture, you should read the descriptive plaque.

Everything, as I said, seemed to reflect "Margaritaville", with lines from the song (and a couple of others) everywhere. And what wasn't plastered with lines from the song was decorated with an obvious "island" theme. I won't try to describe or show you everything, but here is a selection of decorative elements from the inside of the hotel:

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The last place we stopped was just off the pool area- the Margaritaville Cafe. Unlike the Landshark, this restaurant was indoors, and was better set up for large parties in a quieter atmosphere. We just ducked our heads inside to have a look around, and the first thing I noticed were these balloon girls on stilts entertaining the kids in a large party. I thought their outfits very creative, and the kids seemed to enjoy it. Here are three more views of the inside of the Margaritaville restaurant:

Fred and I suggested walking on the Boardwalk for a while, but Jay and Ron needed to get back home to run some errands, so we headed back to Fort Lauderdale. Fred and I did think, though, that we might bring Guy down here next week when he is visiting us, and walk along the Boardwalk then.

At Fort Lauderdale Beach

Usually, I ride over to the beach on my bicycle at least once each time we visit. One afternoon, after we'd thrown the frisbee around for a while, I did just that. I took my camera with me to take some candid beach shots.

The Bicycle Ride to the Beach

Looking Around Fort Lauderdale Beach (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

Here is a panorama of the beach:

Looking North Along A1A at Fort Lauderdale Beach

And some individual candid shots:

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Boats! More Boats!

One of the main attractions of being at Riverview Gardens, right on the New River, is that there are almost always boats of every size and description going by on the river. We can see them from the living room window and, of course, when we are at the dock. Over the years I must have taken hundreds and hundreds of pictures of them going by, and on this trip we added another ten or so to that total.

The big yachts are always interesting when they go by; most of them are actually not privately-owned but are available for charter, and we are always looking them up on the Internet. On one Saturday, a yacht named "Pick Up" went by, and I made a couple of movies.

"Pick Up" Is Towed Downriver (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

Exactly Like Ships Passing in the Night- In the Daytime (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

And here's a selection of still pictures of various examples of typical river traffic:

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In and Around the Condo

Of course we always do a lot of vegetating in the condo on these trips, but we also always walk around the neighborhood and spend time at the dock- in addition to hanging around in the condo itself. One morning at the dock, I put together a panoramic view from the dock; it begins looking downriver at the left and ends by looking upriver at the right:

A Panoramic View from the Riverview Gardens Dock

From the balcony outside the condo, we have excellent views looking up the river and towards downtown- and all the new construction going on. Straight west of us is the new Icon Las Olas, and we have been watching it go up over the last year.

The Dock at Riverview Gardens

The Icon Las Olas

Here are some other views from the balcony:

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We had Bob with us on this trip; it is always nice to have a cat around the condo when we are here, and it is less for our cat sitter to have to deal with. You should probably take a look at this cute picture of Bob wearing Fred's Aggies hat. One morning, the building's maintenance guy was working outside the front door, and I made a movie of Bob interacting with him.

Everything's a Cat Toy (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

A Boy and His Cat

An Odd View of the Condo

Our unit is at the northwest corner of the second floor, so one day I went out to that corner and took three pictures- one looking down the north side of the building, one looking directly at the corner in front of me, and one looking down the west side of the second floor. Then I put them together into the panorama at right.

Our unit has two doors- the first one you can see on the north side, and the first one you can see on the west side. There used to be a second floor breezeway into the interior of the building, but that was closed years before we bought the place, and the space formerly occupied by the breezeway given to our unit. That's the front door we use now. Looking down the north side, the bathroom window is just beyond the first door, as is the AC unit; the kitchen window is this side of that door. On the west, the living room window is just before our front door.

One afternoon, Fred spotted one of the iguanas that wander around the neighborhood over by the river, so I took my camera outside to see if I could get close to it for some good pictures.

Some Neighborhood Wildlife

The green iguana, also known as the American iguana, is a large, arboreal, mostly herbivorous species of lizard native to Central, South America, and the Caribbean. Usually, this animal is simply called the iguana. The green iguana ranges over a large geographic area, from southern Brazil and Paraguay as far north as Mexico and the Caribbean islands.

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They were introduced from South America to Puerto Rico and are very common there, being considered an invasive species. Someone brought some to the United States, and now they are just as invasive in South Florida. (I suspect that some were originally kept as pets, due to their calm disposition and bright colors, but when their owners found their space requirements and need for special lighting and heat proved too burdensome, they released them outdoors.) The green iguana grows to about 5 feet, head to tail; this one was more like half that. They can weigh 10-20 pounds.

As a tourist, who doesn't have to deal with the creatures day to day, I am as curious as anyone and like seeing them wandering around. But I have talked to some Riverview Gardens residents who tell me that they are a pest, and are killed when possible. In the scrollable window below, left, is an article from the Sun Sentinel (January, 2018) about the lizards, and to the right of that are the two movies I made today of the iguana.

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Well, that was pretty much it for our solo visit to Fort Lauderdale- except for the second week when Guy Blair came to visit us. We did a lot during that visit, so I'll be giving it it's own page.

	March 19-26, 2017: Guy Blair Visits Us in Florida
	February 17-20, 2017: A Trip to San Antonio
	Return to the Index for 2017