January 20-21, 2017: A Wedding- and a Day in Fort Worth
	Return to the Index for 2018

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 tabby cat Tyger. Tyger hasn't been to Florida in a long time, but we thought we would give Zack a reprieve.

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, Tyger situated 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 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 6th and 7th, 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.

Fred and Doug Fountain in His Booth

We were pleased to see that our friend, Doug Fountain, had his booth set up, and we stopped to chat with him for a while. Doug used to do just artwork involving gourds and feathers, and it all had a "Native American" theme, but he has branched out, and now does artwork with an oriental theme as well. He divides his time between Fort Lauderdale in the winter and Colorado in the summer, traveling to art shows and to the galleries that have his work.

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 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 (one of whom was displaying a gull-winged car), the local newspapers and a couple of radio stations). There are usually also at least two or three musicians performing and selling their CDs.

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We took a number of pictures at the Art Fair today, and they are in the slideshow at right (including the 19th image, two small 3-dimensional works that will go to Lynne and Nancy). Use the little arrows in the lower corners to move through the pictures, and track your progress with the index numbers in the upper left.

I also made one movie today at the Art Fair; you can use the player below to watch it:

At the Las Olas Art Fair (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

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 always enjoy walking around the Art Fair when our visit includes one, and this first weekend in January was no exception.

Tyger in Fort Lauderdale

We have not brought Tyger to Fort Lauderdale for at least four years, but we did this time. In the last few months, we have been noticing a bulge on the right side of his muzzle, and we are pretty sure it is a growth or cancer of some kind. Up until December, it just looked odd, but around Christmas it began to seem to be interfering with the movement of his jaw. So, rather than leave him at home, we brought him with us so we could monitor and, if it got really serious really quickly, take him to a vet here. He seems to be doing OK, though, but we can't imagine that the long-term prognosis is going to be good.

Nap Time for Fred and Tyger

Tyger did well on the trip down (sleeping most of the time) and he has been fine here- eating normally, reasonably active, and sleeping a lot- as he and Fred are doing in the picture at left. Tyger usually curls up in the bathroom towel basket at home, but here he was mostly on the bed or perched precariously on the back of the couch:

If It Were Me, I'd Fall Off

We want to be hopeful about Tyger, but we have resolved to take him to the vet for an opinion as soon as we get back to Dallas. We are not optimistic about what the vet might find, but we shall see.

Boat Traffic on the New River (Installment 41)

Usually, we take lots of pictures of the boats that go by the condo, but this time we didn't. Not because there weren't any, though. We did take one picture of the cute floating tiki bar that we see going by fairly frequently.

Around the Neighborhood

In this section, I want to put some pictures and movies that were taken around the property and in the neighborhood. Like these two sunset pictures taken from the dock and looking upriver:

The Icon Las Olas

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 last Fall, and is now being finished out inside. (You can see pictures of it in earlier stages of completion on previous Florida trip pages.) It is quite the addition to the burgeoning skyline on the south side of Las Olas:

The South Side of the Downtown Canyon

Now for two movies. One was taken from the balcony outside our front door. The first one was taken on New Year's Eve and shows the neon lights atop the Bank of America building putting on their show. The other, taken on our first weekend here, is a scene down the Riverwalk by Old Fort Lauderdale:

"Happy New Year" from Bank of America (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

An Afternoon Event in Old Fort Lauderdale (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

The Trip Home

We left Fort Lauderdale on the morning of the 14th, 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 Tyger was happy to see his brothers.

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

	January 20-21, 2017: A Wedding- and a Day in Fort Worth
	Return to the Index for 2018