We’ve been coming here for a long time, We used to come down for a week or two in the winter back when we lived in frigid snowy Boston. I was doing it before I met Elaine. We loved going to the old Gulfstream when it was a beautiful race track. Now it’s a casino with a race track outside. It lost all its character. Anyway, there’s not a lot new to see in the area, so we just relax. In the morning we took a walk on the beach. The grounds of the hotel are massive, and few people were up and about yet. It was windy and red flag warnings were posted all along Fort Lauderdale’s beaches – no swimming! There are dangerous rip tides and currents all about, I guess. And there were purple flags out as well – Portuguese man-of-wars, jelly fish and sting rays out and about. Made the pool look like a better idea. We stayed out of all water (except the shower).
Reminder
Click on the galleries below to bring up scrollable windows with full size pictures – the gallery previews may show just thumbnails of the pictures. By the way, the pictures look much better on a tablet or a computer than they do on your phone. Just saying.
After our walk, we retrieved our car (2025 Mazda CX-30) from the valet and took a ride. We drove all the way the coast road from the hotel through Fort Lauderdale, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Pompano Beach, Hillsborough Beach, and Boca Raton. Then we turned around and backtracked down, stopping in our old stomping grounds at Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. A visit to the Village Pump is mandatory here. It’s a Boston bar through and through. In the old days we almost always ran into someone we knew when we were here. Not so much anymore – lots of those people have died. We had drinks (beer for Elaine, Cape Codder for me) and lunch. Elaine had a patty melt, I had six delicious Blue Point oysters (from Connecticut) and a Cuban sandwich.
Back to the hotel and I napped. Elaine read on the balcony. At cocktail hour we headed to the bar for one pina colada each (with massive rum floaters) followed by Coronas. (Eat your heart out, Tim.) No dinner required after our big lunch.
Tomorrow we turn the car in just down the road from the hotel. We can walk back to the hotel on the beach. We have have a car picking us up at the hotel to transport us to Port Everglades to board the Viking Sky. More on that tomorrow.
It’s tomorrow morning now. A couple of pictures: one from our balcony at night before we went to bed and two from our balcony early this morning.
Be back later from the ship.
Yum, oysters, nice bar!
Enjoy embarkation day, always so easy with Viking! CHEERS!
I remember the old Gulfstream. Jeff and I went a few times with Dad, also Hialeah. It must have been a nice ride up and down the coast. I love the Patriots sign at the Village Pump. Good idea to opt out of swimming. Great pics of you again, Elaine, on the beach.
Can’t wait to see the Viking Sky.
You guys will live forever treating yourselves so wonderfully!
Looking good in the shorts you two. Like Sue, looking forward to seeing the ship. Take care….