Fort Lauderdale - the Venice of the United States

 All I’ve ever really known about Ft.Lauderdale involved college students on spring break, swimming pools, music and a keg of beer…..Today I can add a few more descriptions to my education. Money, money and more money. 

Water taxis seem to be the best way to get around the many costal waterway areas.  Ft.Lauderdale prides itself on its participation in the Coastal Waterway that stretches from Virginia to Texas.  Today we decided to see just what was so special about the waterway and figured seeing it in an open air taxi boat was the way to go. 

My traveling companions, Albert, Susan and Steve

During the  boat ride we were shown just how much love there is for the waterway and how many dollars it takes to have a place on it.  Besides being the winter home for may gazillionares, the place also lends itself to many movie companies who want to film homes and represent them as Miami.. over 400 movies and TV shows have used houses and yachts from this area to enhance films. 

A few that I thought were interesting.

Interesting that many of these homes had large yachts docked out front. Many of the yachts were in equal or greater value of the house… or should I say mansion? Anyway, there is an unimaginable amount of wealth displayed on the intercostal waterway. If you shop at Kohl’s, Petsmart, or any of a number of businesses you help pay for one of these babies..It was mind blowing to me that these homes are often only used for a few months out of the year.

Downtown Ft Lauderdale

Iguana sunning itself on an e bank ent

When you win a trophy for big game fishing you of course put it in your front yard so the world know how good you are! Then you hire someone to take care of it !

See the small old house? One of the early homes in Fort Lauderdale. Quite a change from todays homes.

Lunch break at Shooters. Touring is hard work so we needed to take a break to replenish our bodies and minds. Tuna Poke and a Cubano sandwich did the trick.! While we ate we watched yacht after yacht go by. 

We returned to our water taxi and continued for another hour looking at all these magnificent homes then walked back to our hotel. During happy hour, we enjoyed  meeting a few other couples who are also world cruisers and spent time discussing our upcoming adventure. Everyone seems so excited and ready to head out into the world. Our evening  ended with eating leftovers, drinking some wine and playing cards by the pool. Tomorrow we leave to board the ship. Boarding begins at 11:00 am. Every minute the excitement builds….I feel like a little kid waiting to open Christmas presents …its really fun to feel that level of excitement again!