LauderBlog

If I wasn't in South Florida right now, I'd sure wish I was. The weather is glorious, that perfect balance of warmth and coolness, with little humidity and just a hint of real chill at night. My windows are thrown open wide to embrace this change, which arrived in time for the holidays. My mind was on seasonal decorations this past weekend, when I finally took down the autumnal trappings I'd had out in my condo since late September and put up the Christmas stuff. The gourds and pumpkin candleholders are gone with the last of the Thanksgiving leftovers. The multi-colored lights and gold-sparkled ornaments and my small fake Christmas tree have taken over for the next four weeks. Of course, I'm hardly the only one getting into the spirit around here.

I drove on A1A this morning, with my convertible top down and a glistening flat sea spreading out beside me. As I motored along, I noticed the holiday decorations on the Fort Lauderdale beach, something I enjoy each year. The lamp posts are wrapped in lovely green garlands with red bells - along with huge, lacey white snowflakes. It's very pretty.

And on Tuesday, December 1, downtown Fort Lauderdale officially gets into the holidays too. Christmas on Las Olas, that venerable South Florida tradition, will attract some 40,000 folks for a group party. There will be the lighted black olive and palm trees, and the soap snowflakes and people wearing short-shorts with their Santa hats, as usual. Tell me, where else can you find that, huh? Guests also will have the chance to try skating on an outside ice rink and sledding on real snow and skiing on the Peter Glenn Snowdeck. Not your typical Fort Lauderdale activities, for sure. But to me, the best part of Christmas on Las Olas is simply the people, especially the kids. The crowd is always in a festive spirit and the young children are just overwhelmed with the magic of it all. Expect lots of school and church choir singing, plenty of food and drinks and a wonderful few hours to really get into the holiday mood. Christmas on Las Olas runs from 5-11pm right in the heart of that famous Fort Lauderdale shopping district. Best of all, it's free. Take the whole family and make sure to bring a camera if you're a tourist. Your friends back in New York or wherever will love pics of those short-shorts and Santa hat outfits, trust me.

Life is challenging enough. Why add into the mix the challenges of cooking some huge bird? As I write this, Thanksgiving is just a day away. I suppose most Americans love this holiday just as I do, a time basted in memories of tasting a sliver of turkey stolen from the carving board and hearing shouts from the other room about televised touchdowns. Some of us may even recall adding another dollop of whipped cream to our pie when the pie didn't really need it. Anyhow, we all have warm feelings about this day. So I say, great. Enjoy those memories. Now let's go out to a nice restaurant and make this thing easy.

Of course, I'm usually in the minority and routinely I'm outvoted. So once again tomorrow, I'll make more T'giving memories of sliced turkey and TV TDs - and extra whipped cream when I don't need it. I will be with friends and it'll be very nice and I'll be most grateful for the fine company and excellent meal. A meal that others prepare, for the most part, and that others clean up, for the most part. I try to help, mind you. I'm not one of these guys who think everybody else should take care of the work. But inevitably the main cooks end up bearing the brunt.

Truthfully, I'd prefer to just go to a nice restaurant for the meal. In the past, I've managed to do this a number of times, mostly with my former wife who also liked taking holiday dinners the easy way. On several occasions, for instance, we went to Sage for Thanksgiving or Christmas. This is a very pleasant, quite affordable French restaurant with upscale décor and some delicious food. Like many of the restaurants in and around Fort Lauderdale, Sage dresses up for the holidays with a tasteful tree and Christmas ribbons and everything. Jill and I would ask for a corner table where we felt some measure of privacy. Then we'd start with a glass of good French cabernet sauvignon before ordering. Mostly we went for their traditional holiday dinner, with turkey and stuffing and cranberry sauce and the whole nine yards. And pie, naturally, for dessert. We loved it and I highly recommend the experience for those who can give up the cooking tradition, whether you go to Sage or one of the many other restaurants serving up excellent Thanksgiving feasts. I'm all for tradition at certain times of the year. But I've never understood why those traditions must include a home kitchen full of greasy pans.

I see growing signs that the Green movement is taking root here in South Florida. And I find it encouraging. More of us are driving fuel-efficient cars, more buildings are constructed with the environment in mind. And there are more fresh produce markets too, which I include in the general category of all things green as part of the eat-locally trend. Just in the past few days, I've come into contact with two notable examples of this. Last week I attended the grand opening of an important new building in Greater Fort Lauderdale - the very green headquarters of the Children's Services Council of Broward County. Located in Lauderhill, this building is expected to be certified as LEED, meaning Leadership in Energy and Enviromental Design. That's the nationally accepted benchmark for high-performance green buildings.

The CSC headquarters seems fairly amazing to me. It includes use of recycled building materials and wood certified for being harvested regionally as a renewable resource. The structure also has high efficiency air conditioning, water efficient plumbing, lights that turn themselves off when people leave the room, drought tolerant landscaping. Even a special floor mat at the entrance that does something or other with the accumulated dirt. I didn't quite catch the details but hey, I was impressed.

Then on Saturday, I visited for the first time the Pompano Beach Saturday Green Market. Wow, talk about some first-rate produce, along with fresh smoked fish, boutique gifts and lots more. It's a small market but has just enough booths to make it worth the trip. This thing is open from now through April 24^th each Saturday morning. Just take Atlantic Boulevard to North Dixie Highway, then head north about one block. The market is on the corner of North Flagler Avenue and NE 1^st Street. Many locals make this a weekly stop for high quality local food but tourists come as well to pick up gifts, flowers or fruit for the fridge in their hotel room. I was especially interested in a veggie stand run by two Indian folks, Bill and Lilly. They had some of the freshest looking, and best tasting, vegetables and fruits I've found around here in some time. This included South Florida corn and green beans and summer squash and eggplant, but also locally grown Chinese green beans and chive flowers and many Asian specialties. Mmmmm, really good stuff. I'd like to say I packed all this into the back of my Prius or some other fuel-efficient hybrid for the drive home. The truth is, though, that I don't own a particularly good car for gas mileage. Not yet. But I'm working on it.

I love talking to strangers. I think most of us are too reluctant to do this. Whether having coffee at a table two feet away from another person, or standing in line together at the grocery store or bank, whatever. Why not start a pleasant chat if the other person is open to the idea? I admit that I still don't do this as often as I'd like. But I'm getting better about it and this week my efforts paid a lovely dividend. I ended up conversing with a young couple visiting Fort Lauderdale from Germany. Here's what happened. I was indeed having a cup of coffee at a table two feet away. Outside at Starbucks on 17^th Street, I sat savoring my pumpkin spice latte along with the light breeze. The weather was clear, comfortable, thoroughly delightful.

The couple at the nearby table looked over at me and smiled once or twice and I smiled back. No real connection made yet. Just being pleasant. But when I saw her taking a picture of him at the table, I knew they were tourists. So I offered to snap a shot of them together, which they seemed happy to have me do.

I introduced myself and they introduced themselves back. Honestly, I didn't totally catch their names and there seemed no sensible reason to ask a second time. Their accented English was quite good, though, and we struck up a conversation. These folks had come from Cologne for 11 days in the Florida sun. No cruises on their itinerary, but they had rented a car so they could get around easily. I explained that I'm a writer - and that I write a blog on http://www.sunny.org/ about things to do and see in Fort Lauderdale. Of course, that really got us going. I offered some suggestions, especially urging them to take an Everglades airboat ride. I recommended Sawgrass Recreation Park on Highway 27, about a half hour from where we were sitting. And I mentioned a couple of local restaurants I enjoy as well. They were charming people, open and eager to explore this new part of the world. "It seems very nice here," she told me. "People seem much more relaxed. And of course the weather is much nicer than at home." We chatted about the sunshine here and the German beer there, about alligators here and about the autobahn there. I told them they were much safer with the alligators than with the autobahn drivers. After perhaps 20 minutes or so, I had to get back to my desk and so I bid them a fond auf Wiedersehen. But I still find myself thinking about our conversation fairly often, mostly because we had connected at some level despite cultural differences. You never know who you're going to meet in South Florida or how they may enrich your life unexpectedly in some way or other. Sometimes all you have to do is summon the courage to say hello.

The weekend weather was perfect in Fort Lauderdale. Perfect for gawking anyway. Well ok, it was perfect for many things, really just about anything you might have wanted to do outdoors. But gawking seemed to be the order of both days, as far as I could tell. I've never seen anything quite like this before. Of course, I'm talking about the presence of Fort Lauderdale's newest, biggest year-round resident. Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas is the largest cruise ship on earth so when I say "biggest" I'm not kidding. This thing is 225,000 tons-o-fun. As it turns out, my previous blog about Oasis was right about one thing. They couldn't hide this ship if they wanted to. You can see Oasis of the Seas partially from Federal Highway just north of the airport. I even caught a glimpse of its smokestack as I pulled off I-595 this morning.

But this weekend's cruise ship frenzy happened much closer to Port Everglades. My exposure to the public's intense interest in Oasis began Saturday evening as I headed north on A1A. Drivers were driving and gawking, walkers were walking and gawking - all in the middle of the 17^th Street drawbridge. People actually parked their cars, got out and took pictures. On the bridge. This isn't a great idea, I might add, in case you think it's legal or something. It's not legal, trust me.

The irony was that these folks weren't even looking at the right ship. They were holding up traffic and turning their cameras on an entirely different, if also large, ship from another cruise line. Oasis wasn't in port at the time. But on Sunday I finally saw the real thing for myself. So did a lot of other people who, yes, continued to walk over the bridge in a near constant parade and continued to park on the bridge. Or to simply drive over the bridge at eight miles an hour. I actually clocked the gawking speed of the cars in front of me. Folks are dying for a gander at this ship. As for me, I found a good spot under the bridge to see what I could see. I was maybe a mile away at the time but it didn't matter. Even at that distance, I got some sense of how different Oasis of the Seas really is. More than anything, the hull shape and width stands out. Oasis looks flat on the bottom, which allowed the designers to build a very broad ship for all that extra space. They need it too. Oasis of the Seas carries in excess of 7,000 passengers and crew - more than the population of Broward County's Pembroke Park. Wow. Now that's a party at sea. This seems like a wonderfully enjoyable cruise ship and I hope some day to sail on her. For now, I'll just have to make do with eight-miles-per-hour gawking.

Lots of people already think Fort Lauderdale is a kind of oasis. A place to refresh, replenish, renew - a watering hole where they can escape the parched business of our everyday world. Even for locals like me, South Florida offers many chances to get away from daily worries for a while. There's nothing like a walk along the beach or a sunrise meditation to clear the head. But this popular R&R destination is about to welcome a different oasis of its own. On Friday, Royal Caribbean International will sail its newest ship into Fort Lauderdale's Port Everglades. Called Oasis of the Seas, this behemoth is now officially the world's largest cruise ship. Wow, and I thought Voyager of the Seas was massive when I sailed on her.

But Voyager holds around 3,000 passengers. That seems pretty darned huge, right? I got lost more than once when onboard. Well, Oasis carries - get this - 5,400 people. Plus crew. The new ship has 16 decks and 2,700 staterooms. Personally, I think they misnamed this baby. Oasis, nothing. This sounds to me more like it should be Island of the Seas.

Of course, a floating island requires a dock large enough for that island to tie up. So Port Everglades built something to order. As in the world's largest single cruise ship terminal, which includes a 3,000-square-foot artwork. I would love to see both this terminal and this ship up close. Oasis of the Seas provides something Royal Caribbean calls a "neighborhood concept." That involves seven distinct themed areas, each with a different look and feel to it. There is, for instance, an area the cruise line has named "Boardwalk," as well as "Central Park" and "Entertainment Place" and "Youth Zone." Etc. Royal Caribbean also says that Oasis carries the first park at sea, an aquatic amphitheater, a handmade carousel. And a zip line that whips over an open-air atrium from nine-decks above. Cool, eh? I did the rock climbing wall on Voyager of the Seas and loved the experience. What a blast. An onboard zip line seems like something I also really could get into. I think it's a wonderful compliment that Royal Caribbean selected Fort Lauderdale as the home port for Oasis of the Seas. Among other things, this means I should be able to see the ship often as I drive over the 17^th Street drawbridge. I'm not exactly sure where the new terminal is within Port Everglades. But I figure they can't really hide something as giant as Oasis of the Seas, even if they wanted to. 

One of the great things about living in an interesting place is that it attracts interesting people. That's sure true of South Florida. Tourists and residents, people who come for work, people who come to play. Last weekend, I was fortunate to meet two more of these folks. J.J. Kelley and Josh Thomas were visiting town to present their documentary at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. Called "Paddle to Seattle: Journey through the Inside Passage," the film was a genuine hit during its Saturday showing at Cinema Paradiso, where it won the Independent Spirit Award. I loved it - the most refreshing new documentary I've seen in years, really. (You can find out more about this movie at www.paddletoseattle.com, by the way.) I thoroughly enjoyed the adventure angle of their three-month paddle from Alaska to Seattle in homemade kayaks. But to me, the personality of the paddlers made this flick a charmer. These are two very funny dudes.

Like I said, SoFla attracts interesting people. It's terrific to host up-and-coming directors such as J.J. and Josh during the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, which also attracts some very well-known directors and actors. "Paddle to Seattle" is one of more than 200 movies being shown at this year's filmfest through Wednesday night.

Of course, many other events draw many other interesting people to Greater Fort Lauderdale throughout the year. The just-finished boat show, for one. Then in a few weeks, the Winterfest Boat Parade floats down the New River and up the Intracoastal again. Actually, boaters are one of the big reasons we get so many wonderful characters around these parts. I recall bumping into a small family that had just docked beside the 15^th Street Fisheries early one morning to freshen up from their journey - around the planet. In a very small sailboat. They were Australians, a mom and dad and two young kids as I remember, stopping in Fort Lauderdale as part of their grand sea voyage. See what I mean? Our bars and restaurants are full of wanderers who've wandered all the way to Fort Lauderdale, whether as their home port or one stop along the route. We get salty boat captains and glitzy film stars, local kite surfers and international race car drivers. Sometimes we even get a couple of young guys who put every dime they had into making a film they believe in. If that's not interesting, I don't know what is.

Directions are a big deal in South Florida. This is a reality that few people stop to think about, I suspect. Until they travel east far enough that the reality is in front of them. Yep, suddenly there's a big wide Atlantic Ocean staring you in the face. Or make a U-turn and keep going ... then see what happens. Boom. After about two hours of driving west, there you are again, sitting at the edge of another expanse of salt water. I mention all this only because I was thinking yesterday about how directions are important to life in the Greater Fort Lauderdale area. It's always nice to know if you're moving east or west, north or south, of course. Doesn't matter where you live. But it's different here somehow.

I remember when I first moved to South Florida 20 years ago from Vermont. For some reason, I was constantly turning the wrong direction - and I've talked to other transplants who went through the same problem at first. When I wanted to go north, I inevitably guessed wrong and turned south. Same thing with east and west at night, when I had no sun to guide me and no compass in my car. I'm still not totally sure why.

But as I said, you usually can't go too far here without finding out about your mistake. "Wow, how did I get back to the beach ... again?!!" This is why GPS or maps are good things for tourists. You can find your way around Greater Fort Lauderdale very easily, really, but GPS saves you from those wrong turns. It's not just driving that makes directions so important here, though. It's the weather too, the sun and the wind. They force us to consider which way we're facing. We build our homes so that big picture windows don't have southern exposures that allow Florida's intense sunshine indoors all day long. Smart homeowners also install windows on the east and west sides to bring in crosswinds that blow through the rooms in cooler months. A light breeze shimmering from the east off the sea at night is something we'll seek out in the summer. Later in the year, we'll look for those winds to shift out of the north to bring us our first fresh, brisk air of the winter season. In South Florida, the direction of wind and sun matter more than in other places I've lived. I guess that's because we're closer to them here, in a sense. The hot sunlight and the cooling breezes and the ocean connect us with nature throughout our day. And maybe in our Facebooked, Twitterized world, that's not such a bad thing.

I ate the most delicious dinner the other night. Asian, at a bargain price. Best of all, someone else was buying so it was an extra-value value meal for sure. Really, though, I can highly recommend the Vietnamese cuisine at Basilic, a new Lauderdale-by-the-Sea restaurant. It is delish. I've eaten Vietnamese food in Ho Chi Minh City so obviously I've been lucky enough to taste the real deal. As much as I enjoy all the Asian cuisines that I've tried, I must say that Vietnamese is my favorite. To me, the flavors are more delicate and complex than the others, perhaps because of the French influence. In any case, my experience with the food at Basilic brought back memories of eating in Vietnam.

Three of us last week decided to try this new spot for the first time. And we all had the same reaction - excellent food. We started by splitting Vietnamese filled crepes, which are stuffed with pork loin, shrimp and bean sprouts. One order was plenty for all of us as we carved up the large crepe into bite-sized pieces for our chopsticks. Price: $8. Pretty darned good for such a large appetizer.

I ordered lemongrass chicken for $12, Gwendolyn got the Vietnamese chicken salad, $9, and my friend Hal tried the "shaking beef" for $15. That's about as expensive as the entrees get at Basilic, by the way. (Oh, but I suppose I should describe a dish called "shaking beef," shouldn't I? Sounds bizarre but it's only marinated filet mignon cooked in a wok with red onion and bell peppers. Mmmm.) Anyhow, my chicken was superb - dark and white meat marinated with lemongrass and chilies then grilled and served with rice. Just writing that sentence makes me hungry. I was struck by how fresh the ingredients were too. For our appetizer, for instance, toppings of cilantro and mint on the sprig were placed in a small pile beside the crepe. You toss a piece of crepe into your own small mixing bowl, then you pick off exactly as much of the fresh herbs as you want, drop those leaves into the bowl and splash some fish oil into it all. Then you eat. That's how things were done at the restaurants I experienced in Ho Chi Minh City. A word of warning for anyone allergic to peanuts: the menu states plainly that they "use peanuts in preparing and serving our food." I happen to love peanuts. And the food at Basilic. It's located at 218 E. Commercial Boulevard, phone 954-771-5798. A wonderful addition to Greater Fort Lauderdale's dining scene, whether you've been to Ho Chi Minh City or not.