2011 - 6/11 - 7/5 - Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

Saturday, 6/11 Ft. Lauderdale in June. It's sunny & hot - in the 90’s. Cruising in Lauderdale & down the New River area is beautiful. Same monster homes & boats. The house above has been there for a long time. They say we're in a recession but up here, they're still building monster homes.

One of my favorite homes on the river

Finally, some adventure, but surely not what I had in mind. We walked several blocks to the bus station. Just trying to find someone to tell us what bus we needed was a miraculous feat as employees don’t give a rat’s ass; took bus #10 to go North on Federal Hwy to Office Depot and returned the dead notebook; picked out a 15” laptop with much more memory/power thinking that the little one was overwhelmed by all the information that was loaded into it; left it there for them to transfer the data. Heaven forbid you can take another bus from there to the next stop - Oh no! you have to catch the same bus back to the bus station then get another bus - we needed bus #1 which took us South on Federal Hwy and to West Marine. We spent countless hours shopping; new sandals; 2 chairs for the fly bridge; paint; backpack; a fold up cart for shopping & I can’t remember everything as I was totally numb at this point. Had to get a cab back to the marina. I was dead meat! We had popcorn for dinner.The 12th turned into a veg day. I’ve been inserting the log and pictures from our 2001 3 months trip to the Exumas & 2007 cruise to the Abacos into this blog. I’m sure I have everyone confused by now.  
I’ll summarize the remainder of our stay in Lauderdale: The A/C guy,Jeff Hawthorn, came to the boat 3 times - he says we have a gremlin on the boat! found & replaced a bad circuit breaker for the forward a/c; he found & replace a bad switch for the aft a/c & I can't remember why he came the 3rd time; the tight steering on the dinghy was evaluated - it wasn't the cable that we hoped it would be - it's still tight; more parts for other things were ordered; installed compass & depth sounder on the dinghy - it didn't work so installed the new transducer; wire in the new portable freezer for a/c & d/c (probably the biggest project); reload all the navigation software into new laptop; shopping for more provisions; replaced elements in water maker, installed a maxi-fan in the forward hatch which will allow the fan to run even if it's raining;
This is INSANITY!  6/13 - 6-30 The remainder of the month was somewhat uneventful for me at least; food shopping, laundry, cleaning, figuring out what to make for dinner - same ole, same ole bullshit. Wayne continued to complete his projects, sometimes with my help. One evening we went to the IMAX theater to see Pirates of the Caribbean- On Stranger Tides. I’m a fan of the series & it was my first time at an IMAX theater- I haven’t been to a theater of any kind since seeing Titanic in 1997!! June 28 Billy Downes, an old friend from MA (also attended our wedding in 2003 & cruised with us afterward), arrived in Lauderdale on business. He wanted to take us out for dinner at a 4 star restaurant at the Hilton where he‘s staying.  No twisting my arm - I’m ready already! It was a Chinese cuisine but like no other I’ve ever been had.  Amazing food & the desserts? To die for! It was great seeing him again. Since he had a car, he took Wayne to pick up 6 gallons of oil for the engine. Mickey & Kathryn went to the cottage for the long weekend & to celebrate his birthday on the 30th.

River walks Sunday Jazz Brunch - Main gazebo with a band

Molly's in her new carry pouch

We decided to stay at the dock till after the weekend to miss the wild boat traffic on the 4th & to attend 1st Sunday, River walk’s Monthly Jazz Brunch (I wish they really had brunch) on July 3rd There are 3 music groups scattered along the walk-way and hundreds of people attend. They set up tents, umbrellas, blankets, chairs, coolers & tables filled with food & drinks & there are lots of dogs of every type. We stopped at the Briny for a yummy Bloody Mary. (actually, Wayne had 2)