Wednesday 25 Dec, Hollywood FL day 2: As planned, a relaxing Christmas Day in Fort Lauderdale. Happy Christmas everybody!
We wake up to sunshine, at long last. It’s a beautiful Christmas morning. Lots of whatapps and phone calls to relatives. And for my daughters in eastern Australia, their Christmas Day is already done.
Late morning we depart to the hire car and again moor the dinghy on the rough concrete wall. Only this time we have come armed with our giant inflatable Avon fender – it’s about half the size of the dinghy itself! It looks a bit silly, but there is no way that nasty barnacled concrete is going to touch our new dinghy! So today we feel much better about leaving it here.
Before our Christmas lunch we go to Fort Lauderdale beach and have a walk. It’s very lively area and the beach quite full considering the strong onshore wind. We sit for a beer and watch the Christmas world pass us by in this classic Florida beach scene. We even get to meet Santa Claus who stopped by the bar with his three sexy elves (looking like they’d been hired from a gentleman’s club!). So now Santa is ticked for the day, we just need lunch.
Back on Las Olas Boulevard we get changed into our smart clothes in the car before we head to the Riverside Hotel. The Christmas buffet is all we expected it to be, wonderful food in beautifully decorated room and very pleasant staff. And we feel very human and civilized all dressed up. The only thing missing for me was turkey. In the US, turkey is for Thanksgiving, not Christmas. But they do have lots of other goodies and …. Brussels sprouts 🙂
After the slowest eating we could manage (we had the table for 2 hours only and didn’t want to rush lunch) we left very satisfied and hardly able to walk! A half an hour rest in the hotel lounge was in order, admiring their Christmas decorations.
Keeping “rest” in mind, we then decide to head inland to see the Everglades before it gets dark. It was just half an hour drive and quite surprising how quickly the city ends and the wild Everglades appear, stretching as far as the eye can see to the west. Quite the contrast from the city area. We had thought about taking an air-boat ride. The idea of a small air-boat with just 3-4 people was appealing but all we can see advertised are huge boats that would be crowded with tourists. Not our thing.
Back in Fort Lauderdale we head to the beach for an early evening cocktail. It’s a lively scene but we can’t find a cozy cocktail bar that is out of the strong onshore breeze, which makes us feel very damp and salty. So it’s back to our favorite Las Olas and the American Social Bar. Where the cocktails are just as good as last time.
By 10pm we are back on Cloudy. The dinghy was good, exactly where we left it thank goodness.
That’s Christmas over for another year. Tomorrow we explore Miami.
