January 14 – Miami to Fort Lauderdale

 Weather – 23º, very overcast

Steps – 8,242

Disembarking the ship with no flight to catch was lovely. We still had to be off the ship before 9, but otherwise had a no schedule. We’ve disembarked and headed straight to the airport in the past and this can be stressful. You do it only because you have to. Fortunately for us, there is no direct flight from Fort Lauderdale to Calgary on Tuesdays, so we are staying the night.

that's a big one!

One issue we had to deal with was an Uber driver who only spoke Spanish and lost his GPS halfway between Miami and Fort Lauderdale. We figured out how to tell him where to go using Chris’ GPS, so in the end it was no big deal.

view from lunch

We arrived at the Riverside Hotel before 10 and got into our room! This is a miracle as far as I’m concerned. Of course, the hotel could store our bags, and we could wander, but it is just so much nicer to just put our stuff into our room and especially our passports into the room’s safe. We aren’t prone to losing things, but it’s nice not to carry passports around.

The Riverside Hotel is an old hotel on Las Olas

lunch

blvd. We came to Las Olas at the beginning of the trip when we were staying by the ocean, so we are familiar with the area. The location on the ‘river’ couldn’t be better. It’s not the swankiest hotel in the world but is old and charming.

The hotel pool is right on the canal, so we sat at the pool for the rest of the morning reading and watching the boats go by. Some of these are massive! We looked one up and it was 16.7 million EUROS! That’s about 24 million Canadian!

charming hotel stairwell

We walked about 30 steps to the hotel restaurant and had lunch right next to the canal and continued boat watching.

After lunch, we picked up a few snacks and some water from the dumpiest CVS I think we’ve ever been in, and it was time for nap-town. I was

Chris settling up

determined to finish the book I’m reading. I started it on Regent from their library, but didn’t finish before we had to get off the boat. Then I found it on a ‘skip-the-line-‘ 7-day loan from the Calgary Public Library. It was going to automatically return this afternoon, and I was almost done…I got to it! In the end I finished.

pouring my dessert

In the evening, we had a drink in one of the hotel’s 2 bars. Then dinner at a very bustling Italian place and that was THAT!

Fort Lauderdale is a nice place to spend some time, pre and/or post cruise. If we ever leave on a cruise from here or Miami again, I’d be happy to spend more
time here.

random building