Saturday 25 Dec, Anchored in Lake Sylvia, Fort Lauderdale, cruising day 28: A Christmas cycle ride.
Christmas Day on Cloudy Bay was a pretty quiet affair. Most of the morning we were in contact with family in England, Scotland, Australia and Romania. And messaging our friends around the world a Merry Christmas.
In England, my son and his girlfriend have Covid, so they are in quarantine by themselves. Poor them. But sounds like they have the Omicron variant with symptoms only like a mild cold. No loss of taste and smell and no fever. Can you imagine, a few years ago, being imposed quarantine because you had a common cold?! Times have changed. The question is, are the symptoms mild because it’s Omicron or mild because they are fully vaccinated? Who knows. But what is clear, UK PLC is taking it on the nose again with restrictions and more threats of lockdowns and again banned from travel to France. Covid disruption in UK seems never ending. Meanwhile, in the USA (at least here in Florida) you would never know Covid existed excepting a few people wearing masks here and there. Yet, the figures suggest it’s raising its ugly head here again too. Time we move along and headed out of here, to the wilderness!
After a leisurely morning we pack our folded Go-Cycles into the dinghy and tootle off to the marina where we set off on a Christmas cycle tour. Our aim is to have the day out on the bikes and hopefully find a nice place to have a Christmas lunch. We had thought about going to a hotel where they might be doing a Christmas special, but we did that 2 years ago and ate way too much! This year we fancy a bit lower key.
First, we head to the Las Olas beach which is pretty crowded, just like a weekend. The bars and restaurants are all busy and the road is a slow crawl as all kinds of vehicles are cruising the scene. Included in these are lots of noisy motorbikes, flashy sports cars, and even some customized cars occasionally burning their rubber with wheel spins. All in good spirits. It’s quite a party atmosphere.
What we are surprised by, a real first for us, is to see zero police. Normally in such a place, on such an occasion, the police presence would be overwhelming. So nice not to see them everywhere you glance, for once.
We soon find ourselves drawn to one of the many cafes, where we sit for a beer and watch the world go by. And we realise this is the first time in many many months that we have actually done such a thing! Relax with a beer and people-watch. This used to be one of our favorite pass-times. And Las Olas Beach is a prime place for such activities. Something or someone unusual to observes every minute!
Following our sporting rest, we continue north along the beach and slowly it quietens down as we get the hotels, bars, and restaurants behind us. Then we come across the Hugh Taylor Birch State Park which is a strip of preserved land between the beach road and the ICW waterway. Its roads and pathways make for shady cycling and give us a very good impression of what this whole coast must have been like before human development. It’s like a jungle. Thick undergrowth with marshy ponds here and there and trees covered in Spanish moss. On the ICW side, there are picnic benches lining the edge of the ICW waterway with lots of families using them for their Christmas picnics. Nice that they have preserved this small stretch, right on the edge of Fort Lauderdale.
Then we cycle west, the length of Las Olas Boulevard and into downtown, looking out for a nice place to eat. It’s much quieter than last time we were here and we wonder if it’s the Covid effect or we are just in a lull before the evening activities start.
We settle on an Italian restaurant which looks to be the best among other Italians along the strip. But once into the meal we find the food really second rate. And we joke that the chef must have prepared all the food yesterday, and taken Christmas day off, just leaving the staff microwave instructions! Well, you can’t win them all.
By now it’s getting dark and we forgot to add lights on our bikes, so we head back to the boat, cycling on the sidewalks only. Passing back through Las Olas Beach we wait for a “Christmas Music” band to start playing at 7pm. But into the 3rd song we realise it’s a bit too religious for our liking, so we move on, back to the marina.
The rest of our evening is quiet, reading and having a few Christmas drinks. Then all too soon, Christmas day is over again for another year, and we are glad we didn’t go to too much trouble preparing for it!