Flowers And Fun In Fort Lauderdale

I'm back at work today after a week and a half off, but I'm going to be reminiscing about our amazing trip for awhile! We left for our March Break trip a couple of days early as we booked a cruise, and the one we liked best left on the Friday our break officially started. We wanted to get to our embarkation port a few days early, so late Wednesday night, we flew into Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Thursday we had all day to explore.

We had only one thing booked this day, as well as a few things we hoped to check out, so we started off by walking to a main area in Fort Lauderdale, Las Olas Boulevard. It took us a little over an hour to walk to our first destination and we enjoyed not only stretching our legs but also enjoying the warmth and seeing the sights.

I had read about Ann's Florist & Coffee Bar online and I absolutely wanted to check it out. On one side is a florist shop and on the other is a cafe/bar. We ate lunch here and it was so beautiful. We had a counter spot looking into the florist shop. The empanadas were really good and the pastries were delicious! This was a stop solely for me and I loved it so much!!!

There was a store on we passed on Las Olas Boulevard which had huge statues. We briefly considered buying this Hulk one as it had been reduced in price to only $60,000! Hahaha! We enjoyed looking around this store.

The only thing we had booked for this day was a tour of the Fort Lauderdale waterways. We took a Carrie B Cruise and really enjoyed it. We got to see many expensive homes right on the water and even got attacked by pirates! It was supposed to be somewhat rainy this day but one of the only times we got wet was waiting to board this boat!

We cruised past the port we were sailing out of the next day and Rachel realized one of her classmates was on the ship we passed on our tour! She SnapChatted him and he sent her a picture of his view from the boat. It was pretty hilarious! Also, the house in the middle is based on Harry Pottter's house from the movies, cost $28 million, and was a wedding present for someone's niece. Let's just say our wedding gifts were not quite so elaborate!!!

See, I told you we got chased by pirates! Hahaha!!!

We enjoyed trying to spot gekkos, or iguanas, or whatever it was we saw running all over the place in Fort Lauderdale. Sam was the best at spotting them.

We made it to the ocean!!! Since we were staying in a hotel, we had no towels, and we knew we were getting other beach days, so we didn't plan on swimming. We enjoyed walking along the shoreline though.

So happy to be at the ocean and not at work or school!!!

A picture of Sam and I strolling the beach to show Sam was there too! He doesn't love being in pictures anymore which I think is pretty typical for teenagers. And no, he is NOT taller than me (yet). We measure almost every day because he's very close.

A playful ray which was swimming along beside us for awhile. We enjoyed walking in the water until we saw him and then we gave him some extra space! You can see his tail coming out of the waves in the middle photo so he was pretty close.

 

After about an hour at the ocean, it started raining and we had to wait quite awhile for an Uber back to our hotel. We'd hoped to eat a nice dinner on the beach but we were all exhausted after a long day of walking and exploring so we headed back to our hotel and ate at the McDonald's across the street. Not quite the nice seafood, ocean view dinner I'd hoped for. Hahaha!

 

That night I was asleep by 7pm, Dave was asleep by about 7:45, and we have no idea when the kids fell asleep. But we'd had a great day exploring Fort Lauderdale.