Las Olas: The Waves
08 February 2009 | Ft Lauderdale
74*, partly cloudy, ENE winds 20mph
Wow - we've been in Florida for 2 months now, (and Wayne says "Florida hasn't been the same - it's become part of the cold climates LOL). It's a long coastline with attractive harbors that we've stayed to long in. But there's nowhere we have to be for now.
Once we leave Florida and cross over to the Bahamas, it's my understanding that my phone and Internet service will probably be non-existent to perhaps spotty (spotty as far as Internet). If we had SSB, we'd probably have our email/internet to post journal entries and get email, but since we don't, the postings and contact will probably be spotty. Our limited budget won't allow many non-emergency phone calls (heck our phones won't work there anyway) so family/friends - use the blog comments or email if you need to make contact so when we can access the blog - I'll know to call home.
The marina headquarters was packed this afternoon. All of the Billfish Tournament participants were all standing around waiting for the results of the contest to be tallied up. It was interesting looking at all their questioning faces as we walked past to the showers. It was really a festive atmosphere especially around the main tent were the food was being served up and the beer running freely. Some of the boats that had entered the competition were amazing. They ran from the little fishing boats to the large megafishers. One boat we saw had 4-300hp engines on the back. The people tallying the results had the windows blocked out in the meeting room so you couldn't see into it, and they were also using the laundry room too. I asked one of the guys in the laundry room if they had a good turn out this year and he said definitely better than last year. They have this every year at this marina so he laughed and told me this so I could plan ahead for next year LOL
The trolley driver that took us into town today was a happy soul - singing and joking with us and his other patrons. I asked him if he knew what "Las Olas" meant (we're at the Las Olas Marina off Las Olas Street, close to downtown Las Olas). It feels like it's a term I should know but don't recall from my Spanish classes. He said depending on context it means "the waves". I thought it very appropriate for this area of Ft. Lauderdale with the waves always in motion. You can hear them at night if the ports are open.
We bought a couple more Cubans (love these sandwiches!) and a couple of steaks for dinner. I was going to make some salad and mushrooms to go with dinner but after having the Cubans for lunch, neither of us was very hungry so we just had the steaks and shrooms for dinner.
Time for a little reading before lights out... Tomorrow we head for Miami.