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I’ve been on cruises to great ports in many countries, from the Baltic to the Mediterranean to South America. I mention this because I’ve developed a system for those one-day shore excursions. You know – eight hours to see Oslo. I’ve talked with other experienced travelers about this, including my former editor Arthur Frommer, and we agree that eight hours is enough to sample a city, letting you decide whether to return and spend more time. I aim for a good mix of seeing key sights and experiencing the people, food and atmosphere of the place. With that in mind, here is what I would do on an eight-hour, first-time shore excursion to Fort Lauderdale:
9 a.m. – 11 a.m.: Grab a taxi from the dock and ride over the 17th Street bridge to Las Olas and A1A. This should be a 10-minute drive. Pick one of the many seaside cafes for a relaxed breakfast, enjoying the incredible view and great people watching.
11 a.m. – 12 p.m.: Take a walk along the ocean. There are shops and the large Beach Place retail complex if you’re so inclined. Or just take time to smell the salt air.
12 – 12:30: Find another taxi for a brief tour of the downtown area. Go west on Las Olas to Andrews Avenue, swing a bit north to Broward Boulevard, then east to tour the beautiful homes in Victoria Park. Head west again on Broward a short distance to Riverwalk. Half an hour or so should be plenty of time for this.
12:30 – 3: Stroll around Riverwalk, then find a Water Bus at the Riverfront shopping complex. Ride the boat to see Fort Lauderdale from the water, the most beautiful perspective of this city. Stop for lunch at Bahia Cabana, a funky very-Florida waterside restaurant with excellent conch chowder. Hop the boat back to Las Olas.
3 – 5: Shop downtown on Las Olas. There are some great stores here, with everything from inexpensive keepsakes to fashionable clothes to very pricey art works. Take a taxi back to the ship: Federal Highway to 17th Street, about 15 minutes or so. And come back to spend more time on your next visit. There’s a whole lot more to see and do, both in and outside Fort Lauderdale. Bon voyage!

The ships are back. Not that they ever completely leave Port Everglades, but winter kicks off the major Caribbean cruise season here. On December 23, as I drove over the 17th Street bridge, I counted nine cruise ships docked in Fort Lauderdale. On Christmas Eve, there were five. As a veteran cruisegoer, I feel a voyage should include a stay at the home port before or after the trip – an exploration of one place on land to complement a journey to many places on sea. With so much to experience, the Fort Lauderdale area is just made for that. So I’m going to offer general suggestions for the kind of pre-cruise or post-cruise visit I’d plan if sailing from Port Everglades. Later this week, I’ll recommend a fun, detailed itinerary for cruising into this town on a brief shore excursion.

Staying here before or after a cruise, I’d definitely book into an upscale hotel. Large or small, it wouldn’t matter to me – there are many first-class accommodations and the list of top choices is growing. Personally, I’d pick a comfortable room along the ocean. Then I’d plan a relaxed day of wandering around Fort Lauderale on foot. Maybe a brisk walk down A1A in the morning, and later a stroll up Las Olas for a meal, continuing on to the Riverwalk area nearby. If I had extra days available, I’d want to rent a car to visit the Everglades for an airboat ride and possibly stop at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino complex for some nighttime partying. Hollywood’s oceanside Broadwalk and downtown would be worth checking out, as would Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, with its unassuming charms. There’s an endless number of interesting attractions to consider, from Butterfly World to the Bonnet House. And there also are endless waterside cafes to sample. With a few days before or after a cruise, I would feel no need to rush. A one-day shore excursion is a bigger challenge, though, requiring more advance planning. So my next blog will outline the itinerary I’d choose if I had eight hours to see Fort Lauderdale. Just wear comfortable shoes if you follow my suggestions – we’ll be covering some ground.

Remember piling in the car with your family when you were a kid, then cruising through neighborhoods to look at the Christmas lights? It was always a special, spontaneous event, something simple and shared with each other, costing nothing. “Wow, look at THAT house!” and other bits of enthusiasm were common comments. Since I’ve never really grown up in some ways, I am not ashamed to admit that I still enjoy doing this. After I first moved to South Florida, I was astonished at how many people put up displays on their homes and businesses. Much more here than in Vermont, for example, where I lived before moving to Fort Lauderdale.

It’s always seemed to me that, let’s face it, you have to work at the holidays a little harder in warm climates. Vermont in December looks like a Currier and Ives print. Florida looks like the travel poster you dream about after Christmas. So yes, lights all over the place help create a holiday mood here, colored strings often hung in some fairly original ways. The palm trees lined in lights – those still make me laugh. Santa meets the tropics.

I’ve been doing a bit of light-viewing already and intend to do more before the season ends. An area I recommend is along A1A in Hillsboro Beach. There are some grand homes with lights, but one spot just off the road is lit with an especially impressive display. Most of the nice residential neighborhoods in Broward offer some good holiday light-peeping, whether in Plantation or Deerfield Beach or Hollywood or wherever. If you don’t mind paying to see an extraordinary holiday lightshow from your car, go to Tradewinds Park, with its Holiday Fantasy of Lights. This runs through New Year’s Day, so you still have time. The park has more than 65 holiday displays, elaborate stuff with millions of lights. (It operates from 6-10 pm daily. The cost Monday – Thursday is $7 per vehicle, Friday – Sunday, $10. For more information, call 954-968-3885.) So why not take a relaxed, slow drive with the family and enjoy seeing all the lights together? It’s a good way to make some Christmas memories.

Now I’m motivated. Like most guys, the thought of holiday shopping never really crosses my mind until about a week before I have to hand out the gifts. So I actually was a bit early when I walked into a store at the Harbor Shops in Fort Lauderdale on Sunday. It’s a pleasant place called Essentials, offering charming items for any women on your list – unusual clothes, handbags, jewelry and more. I didn’t buy anything but I plan to go back and pick something up. The owners were charming too, attractive and helpful. For a guy, those are also good reasons to return.

But where else should I go? At this point, I’ve done some mail order stuff for out-of-town relatives, so the main gifts left to buy are for my girlfriend. She just moved into a new place. That makes me think maybe some things for her home might be good. And no, I’m not talking about practical, unromantic stuff like pots and pans or whatever. She has all of that anyway. But there are some shops on Las Olas that sell really different wall hangings and art works. I’ll swing by some of those stores and probably grab a nice something or other to help decorate her lovely condo.

And then? Well, I always enjoy the Galleria at the holidays, as I’ve mentioned before. But now we’re into the last minute rush and it really feels like Christmas and I actually have fun wandering into the mall stores I rarely enter. Ok, I never enter them. Except at this time of year. I’m talking about the women’s clothing stores, where half the joy for a guy is imagining your girlfriend or spouse in the hot styles you see on the rack. So I’ll hang out at a few quality women’s shops and look for anything else that I think she’d like. And then, of course, I’ll take the guy’s way out and get everything gift wrapped. We love stores that gift wrap. Then I’m done for another year. Last minute buying is the only way to go at the holidays – purchasing with a purpose, deadline shopping. Don’t ask me why. But hey, you guys out there know what I’m talking about, don’t you?

I remember my first boat parade. I had just moved here from Vermont in 1989 as an investigative reporter for the Sun-Sentinel. After 14 years of living like a popsicle, all I wanted was heat and humidity. So of course, that December broke South Florida records for chilly temperatures. With several newspaper friends, I bundled up and watched the parade in amazement from the 17th Street Causeway bridge. I’d never seen anything like it. In later years, the temperature was more comfortable and I wore shorts as we staked out some prime spot in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea to enjoy the passing boats. Once I even got to ride in the parade. This annual event has always seemed to me the quintessential South Florida holiday tradition. It’s charming and funny and laidback and all the things that draw us to this part of the world. And on Saturday, it happens again.

This is the 35th edition, now called the Seminole Hard Rock Winterfest Boat Parade. There’s a new theme: Broadway on the Waterway. So expect to catch more than one show tune and dancing girl. There will be about 100 watercraft of all shapes and sizes, from small power boats to yachts the size of nuclear subs, decked out with strings of holiday lights and other decorations. As usual, some displays will be elaborately designed. Some will be nothing more than a single string of multi-colored lights looped around the bow. But together, they make for a great show. The grand marshal is Frankie Valli, lead singer for the 1960s group, The Four Seasons.

If you go, get to one of the viewing areas early. The parade starts in Port Everglades at 6:30 and by then the 17th Street bridge will be locked open for two hours. Other bridges up the 10-mile route will shut down as the parade motors north to Pompano Beach. Organizers expect around 800,000 folks to watch this thing so you’ll be in a crowd. But everyone is usually in a very good mood and the whole deal just makes for a wonderful holiday treat. And it happens to fall on Hanukkah this year. Two festivals of lights, all in one luminous evening.

History has come to town. Again. Last year, King Tut set up majestic shop at the Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale. I toured that exhibit on New Year’s Eve and it was unforgettable. Now the same art museum is hosting a scroll – as in, Dead Sea Scroll. Along with more than 100 other biblical finds excavated in Israel. They’re all on display from now through April 15 in an exhibition called “Cradle of Christianity: Jewish and Christian Treasures from the Holy Land,” which was organized by the Israel Museum.

Fort Lauderdale once more has emerged as the winter home of a major art show, a very exclusive exhibit that will stop at only two other venues in the United States. I haven’t had the chance to see this one yet, but from what I understand, it offers artifacts that should fascinate all audiences, regardless of religious beliefs. This is a walk through history, not a church or temple. Even if the centerpiece is called the Temple Scroll. Those who study such things tell us this is among the most important of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The section of the Temple Scroll that’s in Fort Lauderdale was restored recently and will be shown here for the first time anywhere.

There’s also the burial ossuary of Joseph, the son of Caiaphas the High Priest, who supposedly sent Jesus to his trial and eventual crucifixion. And there is a commemorative inscription with the name Pontius Pilate. Together, the artifacts represent the only known physical evidence of these two important figures from that time. “Cradle of Christianity” focuses on early Jewish life and the birth of Christian belief, showing how the two faiths influenced each other. As the Museum of Art notes, this show offers the chance for residents and visitors of any belief to learn more about a period of history that still affects the world today. And, really, couldn’t most of us use a little more knowledge about the roots of these religions – and a little more understanding? If this exhibition helps to give us that, all I can say is, “Amen.”

There’s nothing quite like a nice lunch at a good restaurant during a workday. I enjoyed one today with a buddy and it reminded me how much I love doing this – and how I need to make it happen more often. I frequently will grab a bite of lunch somewhere during the week, usually at some pleasant outdoor café by the water and usually alone while thinking about work. I rarely get the chance to have a full midday meal with a friend.

There’s just something about the whole experience that feels a bit privileged, maybe even a tad decadent. Taking time from a workday to meet for a long lunch seems like something well-heeled business people do. I’m not well-heeled and I’m not in business, at least not in the usual sense. Being a writer and nonprofit group president barely qualifies me for financial solvency, much less the title of “business person.” I meet people over an inexpensive coffee or whatever to ask for donations for my organization, not over seafood and salad to close big-money deals. But today, it was seafood and salad (and potatoes and vegetables), all courtesy of my generous friend. We had time to catch up on each other’s lives and talk about people we know – and yes, even chat about our work. It was delightful.

I have to admit that as I write this, I’m fairly stuffed. I always think that’s part of the fun of it, really. That full feeling after a real lunch slows me down a little when working, makes me linger a bit longer over the keystrokes, as if I’m already busy doing something else, like digesting. I don’t get sleepy after a big noon meal, as some people say they do. But I do feel more relaxed. The memory of the lunch and the conversation keeps coming back to me for hours, sometimes for days. And I always seem to end up thinking, as I am now, “I really should do this again soon.”

It seems nearly everyone who spends an evening at the Mai-Kai for the first time, or after a long absence, says much the same thing when going home: “I really had fun!” Usually, they say this with a touch of surprise. That’s the part that amuses me, as if they expected something a little corny maybe. The Mai-Kai isn’t corny. It’s a Polynesian pearl dropped into the hectic midst of Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale. Every time I walk through the Mai-Kai’s large welcoming doors I somehow instantly begin to relax.

Last night, I escaped there again. Among the South Seas décor and the holiday lights, just beyond a twinkling Christmas tree, I also saw something of the past and future of this local institution. The Mai-Kai is 50 years old and they celebrated that colorful history with a special holiday party. There are holiday parties, of course, and then there’s a Mai-Kai holiday party. The mai-tais and Shanghai chicken and crab rangoon and other drinks and appetizers circled among the guests in a parade of trays. As we drank and ate, we made our own circuit, looking over pictures and calendars and other mementoes of five decades. I did not mind that photos of the “Mai-Kai Maidens” were on prominent display – sarong-wearing staffers who were much-preferred to Playboy playmates in a 1967 Gourmet magazine piece.

Then we sat down to watch what lies ahead for the Mai-Kai. The new dinner show for 2007 was unveiled for party guests and I think it’s safe to say we all were impressed with the changes. Choreographer Mireille Thornton, who happens to own this place too, has put together a fresh take on the usual revue of South Pacific dances, adding a spark I hadn’t seen in this show for some years. And I’ve seen Mai-Kai shows many times since 1989. As I worked on a marvelous slice of grouper encrusted with macadamia nuts, chatting with delightful dinner companions and just generally having a swell time, I realized it had happened again, just as it always does. My evening at the Mai-Kai in some way had dissolved all my everyday worries. And heading home, I found myself saying the same thing as the first-timers: “I really had fun!” The difference is that I wasn’t surprised by that at all.

The Holiday Fantasy of Lights beams a welcome as I drive south into Broward County towards Fort Lauderdale after dark, and I smile at the hopeful sign. Last year, the creative decorations lining a mile of road that winds through Tradewinds Park in Coconut Creek was darkened due to hurricane damage. Now, the sparkling and playful displays of Santas, dancing bears, and other holiday cheer are back for the family to enjoy. It reminds me of the surprise treats that await you in this community during the season if you keep an eye out for them - especially the ones with a multicultural flavor. A favorite for my family since the kids were young is the annual Christmas Pageant at the First Baptist Church in downtown Fort Lauderdale. The show is staged like a big-budget Broadway show in several acts. It features secular and sacred aspects of Christmas with songs, ice skating, and a re-enactment of the life of Jesus performed by a culturally and racially-diverse cast of hundreds of humans – plus several live animals who, fortunately, are also just as well-trained. For a production with more intimacy, and a different perspective, the Mount Olive Baptist Church presents The Black Noel. Mount Olive is the largest black church in Fort Lauderdale, and one of the oldest. Free Kwaanza events begin the day after Christmas at the African American Research Library and Cultural Center and other libraries around the county. And, the festivities continue into January with parades for the Three Kings celebration, staged by Hispanic residents from Cuba, Puerto Rico, and various other Hispanic countries. Yes, Virginia, the year-round vacation mecca of Greater Fort Lauderdale has the winter holiday spirit, too – just picture it without the snow.
-Kitty Oliver

I was at Christmas on Las Olas last night as I write this and so today I wanted to work off the drinks and food. (There’s a holiday party on Las Olas each Tuesday until Christmas, by the way. The kickoff event was packed, friendly and fun.) So this morning, I got up early and put my convertible top down and headed to the Fort Lauderdale beach. When I arrived, the strong wind was coming out of the east and beautiful lines of large waves tumbled ashore. I warmed up with a short walk, then headed to the Fit Trail at South Beach Park, where free outdoor gym equipment always gives me a good workout. After three sets of tricep dips, pushups and pullups, and some ab crunches, I was ready for a brisk cardio walk.

I marched quickly north up to nearly the Bonnet House, about 1.2 miles, before turning around and coming back part way. By then, I was ready to find a patch of beach where I could be away from the people and cars for a while. So I sat on the sand, with the wind blowing a pleasant, fine sea mist over me and the sun playing off the waves. After my walk, this offered just the bracing cooldown I wanted. I watched row after row after row of whitecaps, as far out on the ocean as I could see. The water takes on a fresh perspective at such times, a special breadth and grandeur when viewed from shore, and I felt as if I inhaled all of that with the salt scent, breathing in the beauty somehow.

A single coconut lay in the sand, not far from the edge of the rising tide. It was banged up, with a fresh green skin revealed in places beneath the brown husk. I wasn’t sure if it had fallen off one of the palms behind me or been washed ashore, though I suspected probably it was a small offering from the sea. I sat on the beach quite a while, watching the endless waves and the advancing tide and the coconut. By the time I finally left to enjoy coffee at a nearby cafe, the water at last had moved the coconut, but only a little. I felt ready to face a busy work day ahead. The coconut would have to take its chances again with the sea.

THE OFFICIAL SITE OF THE GREATER FORT LAUDERDALE CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU

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LauderBlog

Dec 29: Cruise Control - Part Two

Dec 26: Cruise Control - Part One

Dec 22: Driving Lights

Dec 18: Deadline Shopping

Dec 15: Festival of Lights

Dec 12: Cradling History

Dec 11: A Nice Lunch

Dec 7: Mai, Mai, Mai!

Dec 5: Multicultural Holiday Fun

Dec 1: A Bracing Morning