Exploring Fort Lauderdale and the Everglades

This last weekend we had the chance to play! Since we are staying minutes from the beach we started our Friday with a beautiful sunrise.

Friday night we went to Las Olas Blvd. It is the night life/shopping/dining district. We have (naturally) been eating a lot of seafood and decided on a change. We went to a great Indian place called Bombay Darbar. We are big fans of Indian food and this did not disappoint!

Shops on Las Olas Blvd are open late so we did some late night window shopping. I found a hat I was tempted to buy, but I resisted!

Saturday, we went to the Everglades. I had the expectation of a hot, smelly, buggy swamp. Not at all! The Everglades are beautiful! We took an air boat ride out to see the alligators!

Sadly we did not get out on this boat! (Shout out to my sister’s family!)

After seeing the ‘Gators in the wild we went to a show featuring rescued alligators. Amazingly, the ‘gator whisperer has trained them to respond to their names and even to music. Particular alligators will “come” when called either by his name or by a song!

There were several peacocks and peahens wandering around the visitors center!

After the Everglades we went back to Fort Lauderdale and tried a restaurant with Uzbeki Cuisine. I had no idea what to expect, but it was terrific! I forgot to take a picture of the restaurant, it reminded me of Morocco.

We ended the day at Haulover Inlet. This is a narrow in/outlet from the intracoastal waterway out into the ocean. It gets really rough and boats and passengers often go flying! We have watched youtube videos of Haulover for years as part of prepping for the loop. Although it was a calm day, it was fun to see what we had watched over and over in person. Videos of what you don’t want to do! Look it up!

We have enjoyed a few weeks here in Fort Lauderdale. The marina we are at has many boats that are full time residences for their owners. It is the more affordable way to have beachfront living in Florida. We will keep you updates, but our plan is to move North this coming weekend.

Oh! And one more thing to share, while we have be enjoying beaches, palm trees, and sunshine, Spencer went to Denmark, Sweden and Norway to enjoy 4-6 hour days, frigid temperatures, sled dogs and the Northern Lights.