Heron Bay Golf and a day on the beach - Fort Lauderdale

Is there any better feeling than waking up to blue sky, the sun shining and a sandy beach saying "come walk along me", "squish those toes in the sand - let me play before the snow comes".  No there isn't any better feeling and that is exactly what we did, we headed north and found a lovely little cafe basically right on the water.  A little bite to eat and then back down to the water.  Did I say that the Atlantic Ocean was warmer than Muskoka got all year long.  And considering the fact that there was a major hurricane going by Bermuda the water was so calm, barely a ripple.

The above are the views from our room.  Coffee in the morning, wine in the evening.  Life is good.

Next stop is the clublink course Heron Bay.  And finally an alligator or crocodile, haven't figured out the difference yet.  Doing my best not to get close enough to ask :).

It is amazing how close the birds would let you get to them.  This lovely egret finally had enough of me creeping closer and closer and with quite the squawk took off to the other side of the canal.

So graceful, now if only my golf swing was that fluid.  And yes I am on a golf course, thank goodness there wasn't anyone behind us and the 2 in front were really pokey, gave me lots of opportunity to take pictures.

These trees brought to mind the big plantation houses.  The root systems were amazing and so old.  

 The Heron Bay Clubhouse.

This was another gated community with some amazing houses.

A lovely glass of zinfandel as we watched the sunset and then we headed to the Las Olas area and Cafe Europa for a wonderful Italian dinner.  Homemade Gnocchi Sorrentino for me and Veal Parm and Eggplant for Jim - mouth watering.

 

A wonderful surprise as we are having our coffee in the morning, while we were sleeping these gigantic cruise ships arrived.

 Today is beach day, a little walk, a little swim.  The water was a little rougher today.  Still remembering my jellyfish stings from Capri I was being very careful and trying to be very brave.  First dip no problem.  Lie on the loungers with a "coco loco" and notice people are starting to point and sure enough there are a couple of jelly fish.  This little boy actually catches one in his net.  OK, I'm not happy.  But I am hot.  Find a group of people and figure if a jelly fish gets through all of them and stings me than c'est la vie.  The water was heaven.

One final dinner back to Las Olas and Grille 401 for a great steak dinner.  A lovely visit and I'm looking forward to going back in January for a longer time I hope.

Sun and Golf in Fort Lauderdale - TPC Eagle Trace

5 am Thursday morning came pretty quick especially when you don't get to sleep until 1.  Yes, too excited :)  You would think I was going to DisneyLand.  LOL just a quick business trip with Jim.  4 days.  2 games of golf planned and 1 beach day.  Believe it or not we didn't find time for shopping at all.  Next time and I'm taking the car :).

Great plane ride and off to get our car at Budget along with about 100 other people.  Look over at the Thrifty line.  Off I go, 25 minutes later we are in an SUV for $100 cheaper than the quoted Budget price.  Go on my phone and cancel the budget car and off we go.

20 minutes later and we are in the hotel, our room is ready at the Fort Lauderdale Mariott - bonus.  And it isn't even 1 pm.

Quickly unpack and we are off to play golf at Eagle Trace a clublink course.  It is about 30 minutes away from our hotel.  Fort Lauderdale is so cool.  West of the Sawgrass Expressway is Fort Lauderdale and east is the Everglades (they look so desolate but are so full of live).

 

This is a gated golf community with a mix of houses ranging from 500K to 1M+++.  It is very difficult golfing on these courses between the beautiful houses and the amazing birds and the bunkers and the water :).  

This is the 18th hole at the TPC Eagle Trace.  The stands surround it and are grass seats.  Pretty cool.  If you are down in Fort Lauderdale check out this course for sure.  $45 for golf and cart.

I can't believe I made it 18 holes (without a drink, lol just water).  My body was boiling, time to get back to the hotel and into the pool.  Dinner at the Sea Level Restaurant in the hotel, right on the ocean.  Fort Lauderdale is a very busy port so there were lots of boats from pleasure boats to tankers to large Carnival cruise ships.  Also being close to the airport the sky was just bustling with planes coming and going.  A very enchanted evening.

Miami - South Beach - Sunday, October 27

Finally a beach day, and a beautiful day it was.  Thanks to the sake, for some reason Jim wasn't in the mood for doing much more than lying on the beach.  The ocean was still pretty rough and I was still a little nervous after my jellyfish stings in Capri, but we did manage to get in and it was beautiful.

Absolutely loved South Beach there was so much going on, lots of people, lots of shops, lots of cafes, restaurants and bars and oh so colourful.  Would definitely recommend South Beach.  Collins Ave, Ocean Boulevard, Lincoln Ave.  You don't need a car, you can walk everywhere and it felt very safe for young and old alike.  

Miami - - South Beach - October 26, 2013

The day started with a beautiful walk along the beach, stopped for brekky on Ocean Blvd, you could get a full breakfast for $5.95.  OJ was $4.  And most people were having a mimosa, daiquiri or beer with their breakfast.  The drinks were cheaper than the OJ.  LOL  Then we headed back along the beach.  Still very windy and lots of big waves, but the crowds were back on the beach.  A number without their tops much to Jim's pleasure.

In the afternoon we met up with Ed and Sharon and headed to Bayside for a boat trip around the Bay.  Bayside is a lovely little market and shopping area surrounding the main marina.

Lots of bars to quench your thirst while you were shopping.

An open air bandstand, luckily our boat came before Jim could get up there dancing. 

Miami is a major port with lots of cruise ships, pleasure craft and containers ships.

I am pretty sure the canon was in front of a house that Shaquille owned.

This is the house of the owner of the pharmaceutical company that marketed Viagara.  His place is worth more than $50M.  He put in 38 egyptian palm trees at a cost of $10K each. 

 The jumping bunny below was given to Elizabeth Taylor by Michael Jackson to commemorate how she hopped around from marriage to marriage.  lol

I am pretty sure this house has the best air conditioning on the island.  The owner doesn't like to be hot so he even air conditioned his backyard.  It is never more than 65 degrees F.  Crazy money, crazy people.








Back to the hotel to get ready for the Planet dinner at the SLS Hotel South Beach.  Julia makes a perfect French Martini, should be a warning not to drink more than 1.  We ate at the Sushi Restaurant Katsuya, not being a big sushi fan I was very impressed.  The raw tuna was great, the calamari almost ended up in my napkin, but I toughed it out and swallowed it.  Very glad I switched to red wine after my one glass of sushi which was amazing.  Great night thanks to Planet for putting it on.