March 2 - 9, 2011
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The inspiration to take a short winter sojourn in south Florida came from our local paper a year ago. There, a travel writer had described flying from State College to Fort Lauderdale as “easy”. Well, not everything one reads in the papers is precise. The truly easy way is a 3-hour non-stop flight from Harrisburg Airport, which can be reached by car in 2 hours from State College. Impressed by the Harrisburg Airport as clean, quiet and attractive, we hope we will find more reason to use it in the future.
By mid-afternoon, we were lodged in our beachfront hotel room with plenty of time to explore areas close by on foot. Like most days here during our stay, this one was sunny, about 70 degrees and quite windy:
The Fort Lauderdale beach faces the Atlantic from a coastal barrier island; the Intracoastal Waterway is to the west, behind our back in this picture. The famous “Wave Wall”, depicted on our homepage, is along the street in the foreground.
Our first venture into downtown Fort Lauderdale was made by bus. While not having a car was convenient as far as parking was concerned and the often heavy traffic congestion, the buses were not convenient either. They run infrequently and are, perhaps, prone to breakdown. (We experienced two such incidents during our short stay.) The touted water-taxi no longer has a point-to-point fare --- it is only available with an expensive “all-day” ticket, which few would choose to use daily. As in any big city, taxis are plentiful though pricey --- too bad the city has no metro lines or light rail. It would make travel around town so much more pleasant if it did.
After checking out the downtown Tourist Bureau, we enjoyed the “Vatican Splendors” exhibit in the Museum of Art. There, rarely displayed treasures from the Vatican were presented and explained in a very attractive way. Then, walking past this fountain, we headed for the Riverwalk:
Downtown Fort Lauderdale is several miles from its beach, upstream on the New River. Along that waterway for about a mile is a pretty walkway, aptly called the Riverwalk, from which the photo below was taken:
The waterways in and around the city accommodate much boat traffic and consequently, there are many drawbridges such as this one:
It was fascinating to watch how these two little tugs managed to maneuver this giant around the bend:
Even this rail line had a rustic drawbridge:
Another outing took us to the Bonnet House, so-called after the bonnet lily that grows here. With its lagoons and nature trails, an old tractor and a 1941 Cadillac Deluxe Convertible, it made for an interesting visit:
If you guessed that that is the Bonnet House in the distance, you lose. The house is shown below, looking out on the lagoon:
This house was built in the 1920’s by an American artist named Frederick Bartlett and gifted to Florida by his widow in 1983. It is furnished much as it was in the 1930’s and 40’s when Frederick and his spouse lived here.
South of Fort Lauderdale is the town of Hollywood, Florida. It has a pleasant small-town feel with an innovative traffic circle between its old town and the beach:
This grand circular park contains five extremely large baobab trees, one of which is shown behind Patty. Though massive, these trees are not ancient. They were planted here in “Young’s Circle” sometime after 1940.
What is particularly likeable about Hollywood is its well-planned beachfront. Here is an Internet photo of it on a sunny day:
Unlike the beach in Fort Lauderdale, heavy vehicular traffic is kept away from the beach. Instead, this beautiful promenade extends for about 2.5 miles, providing an excellent place to bike, jog or walk. For much of its length it is lined with low-rise apartments and rentals.
The day of our visit to Hollywood Beach started out clear but by the time we made it to the beach, the clouds were looking ominous:
Whether it was wisdom or just intuition, we rented a quad-cycle with a canvas roof instead of bicycles. Was that ever a good decision! Otherwise, we would have been soaked by the deluge that arrived midpoint in our ride.