LauderBlog

I like kids. So does Greater Fort Lauderdale, it seems. And kids sure do seem to like Greater Fort Lauderdale right back. This time of year, I see them everywhere, sometimes with family or friends in tow, sometimes in small posses of their own. A couple of kids riding together on bicycles here, a few kids wandering through the park there. Hanging in the malls, lining up for museums and movies. To some extent, of course, this is true anywhere in our country during the summertime. Kids out of school means kids looking for something to do. Hey, I remember what it was like to be that age. A couple months ago, I even blogged specific suggestions about some of the many great family friendly activities in this area. There's no shortage. I also write a weekly blog for teens on this website, which has fun fictional stories for younger readers along with ideas about places to go and things to check out. Just CLICK HERE for our kids blog. 

But what struck me the other day was something else. Because our pretty beaches are a special magnet for kids and families in the summer, tourists and locals alike. And those folks give our shorefront a different feeling for several weeks each year - even more laidback than usual, even more casual, even more playful.

There's something about seeing a group of kids waiting to cross A1A, holding a SpongeBob float and a couple beach balls, that just makes you smile to yourself. And makes you think, "Hey, this is what a beach is really all about." Going to the beach is about having fun. Period. At least that's true when it's kids who are going to the beach. They're not worrying about meditating or about taking in sweeping cloud vistas. They're not thinking deep thoughts or even showing off their new bathing suits or watching everyone to see who's watching them. They're just having fun. Without being self-conscious and without pretension. I think that's a nice thing. It brings a fresh dimension to the beach experience for the rest of us. There's nothing like looking at a bunch of kids splashing in the waves to remind you about energy and exuberance. And yes, fun. We've still got a few weeks left before the students head back to their classrooms. If you need a little tonic to brighten your life, I highly recommend taking in a good dose of childplay at our beaches. It just might help to cure whatever ails you.

The Ritz-Carlton, Fort Lauderdale is reaching out to corporate executives, meeting planners, and conference attendees to encourage the scheduling of meetings from educational seminars, incentive trips, customer appreciation events to annual retreats. "It's Not Extravagant, If It Produces Results," is the hotel message which highlights the added value proposition of selecting a luxury property, even during the current challenging economic environment.

The company is targeting the third and fourth quarters of 2009 to encourage new meetings, as well as the rebooking of events cancelled in the wake of the recession. "Meetings Within Reach" includes value-added components such as daily continental breakfast, general session meeting room, high speed internet access in one meeting room, 20 per cent savings on audio visual needs and select suite upgrades for groups booking ten or more nights. Meetings must be booked by September 30 and held by December 31, 2009. Rates start from $159 to $199 (rates are subject to availability and certain restrictions may apply). For additional information, visit www.ritzcarlton.com/meetings.

-Tatiana Lora, Public Relations Manager
The Ritz Carlton, Fort Lauderdale

Lots of us have sailed on water. But how many have sailed on air? You can do it here. In the Fort Lauderdale area, at spots up and down the beaches, you can tack through the winds, pulled forward by a motorboat but suspended only by the air itself. I'm talking about something called parasailing. You'll actually find an animated version right on http://www.sunny.org/. Just go back to the home page on this website to see a parasailer emerging from the upper left corner, hanging beneath a rainbow-colored parachute. This could be you under that chute. Or you and a friend, if you prefer. These parasailing companies often offer tandem harnesses so you can share the experience. But whatever. Tandem or solo, it doesn't matter. I've tried it myself in a solo harness and I can tell you - parasailing is a blast.

Here's how it works. Just find one of the many outfits that sell parasailing trips, such as Aloha Watersports in Fort Lauderdale. After you pay, you're whisked out to sea in a fast motorboat and then strapped to the parachute in a harness. Then you kinda stand on the boat ... and wait.

But not for long. The chute is attached to the boat with a long cable and the moment the driver guns the motor, you take off. It's a rush really, a sudden launch into the air. As the breeze billows your chute, you rise quickly until the cable is fully extended. Now you just relax. The boat does all the work so the only thing you have to worry about is enjoying the impressive view. While you speed above the ocean, you watch the waves far below you and the boaters and the ships crisscrossing your path through the water. The coastline looks lovely from the air, with the hotels and condos and shops stretching out along the beach. You'll notice swimmers too and all the sunbathers spread out on the sand. The wind cools your face and tangles your hair and you won't want to come down when they begin to reel you back to the boat at last. Parasailing is one of those water activities that we do 12 months a year in South Florida. Lucky us. But I think summer is an especially good season to try it as well as some of the other watersports in this area - it's not as crazy-busy along the beach, the sea water is pleasantly warm, the ocean breezes cool you down. Besides, what better time to try something like parasailing than in July or August, which seem to call out for something new and different? In the next couple of weeks, I'll tell you about some of the other seaside adventures that are worth putting on your Fort Lauderdale summertime list. Like, maybe, jet skiing anyone?

Every now and then I can't resist writing a Top 10 list. And I definitely can't resist a "staycation" in the Fort Lauderdale area whenever I can swing one. I've packed my bags and stayed home during each of the past few summers. Right now I'm starting to make some plans for another staycation, probably in August. These stay-at-home holidays are a great idea - IF you're lucky enough to live in a major travel destination such as Fort Lauderdale. It's summer, with lots of hot tropical sun and beautiful beaches and great bargains. A staycation would seem considerably less appealing if I lived some place like Chicago, where they've been wearing sweaters at times during July. Yikes. But here? Bring on my week in a beach hotel! And so, with deepest apologies to David Letterman and his talented writers, I offer my own summertime list: "Top 10 Reasons For A Fort Lauderdale Staycation":

10) Two words: No snowbirds.

9) You can bring friends to the new W Hotel's jellyfish aquarium and just snicker when they go, "THOSE aren't real!!"

8) You'll sweat so much on the beach that you can totally justify two frozen margaritas at Happy Hour. Along with salsa and chips - ya know, to get your body's salt level back to normal.

7) Two-for-one summer deals all over town. Ok, it's not funny - but these days, who can afford to laugh when some place is giving away free stuff?

6) Without all the French Canadians crowding the beach in Speedos, those major bikini babes are easier to spot.

5) Visiting the Bonnet House with your significant other, pointing at a tree full of wild monkeys and saying, "Wow! It looks just like Christmas at your mother's house! Haha."

4) Watching northeastern tourists walk from their beach towels to the ocean: Hot sand + northern feet = big laughs.

3) Ever heard of $25 airline baggage fees, for Pete's sake?

2) Posting the same tweet every hour all afternoon to drive your friends at work crazy: "Yes, I think that IS Cindy Crawford sunbathing on the beach! Wow - even more beautiful in person!!"

And the number one reason for a Fort Lauderdale staycation:

1) Asking other locals on the street, "So where is this place called ‘Los Olos' anyway??"

All joking aside, a staycation sounds lovely to me right about now. I could use a break. But at least we all have a nice weekend coming up soon. I hope yours is a pleasant one, wherever you are. And if you're here in Fort Lauderdale, so much the better. Enjoy!

It's nice to start a new week with sunshine. That's one of the things Fort Lauderdale can do for you. Summer or winter, spring or fall, you usually can look outside first thing in the morning ... and smile. Smile at the bright wash of light when you open the blinds. Smile at the warmth when you reach outside for the morning newspaper. Smile at a world that somehow seems to be smiling back at you. This is what it was like for me on Monday morning as my work week began. In some ways, I'd been dreading the return to the daily grind after a pleasant weekend - coping again with the deadlines and phone calls, the tweets and status updates and all the routine tasks. I don't usually feel that way on Mondays but this week was an exception. I just wasn't particularly enthused about getting back into it.

But South Florida helped me get back into it anyway. When I stepped outdoors around 8:30 Monday morning, the air felt pleasantly warm and the sunshine reflected off the sidewalk and the driveway, the bushes and grass and trees. Everything radiated light.

This was just a brief trip out to the parking lot for something. I work at home and had to get back inside my condo to send some early emails and update web pages. But before really settling into my desk for the day, I sat on the patio with the ceiling fan on medium and stirring up enough breeze to keep me comfortable as I watched the morning sun play off the foliage and water in my backyard. The palm fronds and oval leaves of the Hong Kong Orchid tree were colored by the brightness, their strong greens muted by a smear of white light that was spread over their surface. The leaves flickered just slightly in the morning air, gradually changing to deeper greens as the sun rose. The small lake was quiet, unbroken by fish or turtles or birds this morning. Only that intense sunshine coming off the flat surface in a glare. I stayed there for a while, enjoying it all, still smiling to myself a little, I think. And then at some point, I simply folded up the newspaper, picked up my coffee cup and went inside to my office. Yes, all the sunshine had helped me deal with a minor case of Monday blahs. I felt ready now to face my week.

Some good music is coming to town soon. Including the Boss. And a group of Beatles imitators who are capable musicians themselves. And the Jonas Brothers, for the younger crowd. And whoever else. It seems there's almost always some good music coming to town, now that I think about it. Beyonce was just here a couple weeks ago singing in Fort Lauderdale. I like the variety of musical entertainment available in South Florida, even if I may not attend all of the big concerts personally. It's nice to know I can go if I want. And to know that many thousands of others do enjoy these shows. There's something very special about hearing a top-notch musician really nailing it in a live performance. I was thinking about this after Michael Jackson's death because I had been lucky enough to catch his spectacular Thriller tour in Montreal. I'll always be glad I was there.

That's how it is with a great concert, isn't it? You really do treasure the memory the rest of your life. Sure, it costs some money. And yep, you have to deal with the crowds. But the money and effort entitle you to be part of an experience no one else on earth will enjoy in exactly that same way.

So I must admit I'm feeling very tempted by the September 13 concert at the BankAtlantic Center. Bruce Springsteen takes the stage and I've never seen him live. Just to hear some of my favorite Boss tunes hammered out in person would be a treat. Though I probably wouldn't be able to stop humming "Born in the USA" for a week. My deepest regret about a lost concert opportunity remains the Beatles, who played Detroit when I was a kid growing up there. I really didn't get any chance to go but have always wished I had somehow. Since moving to South Florida, though, I've seen both Paul and Ringo live and they were great. For fans who may want to hear the Beatles' music performed in concert by others, the Fab Faux seems a good bet. This Beatles tribute band takes the stage at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, offering faithful renditions of those great songs. And as for the very popular Jonas boys, look for them to pick up their mikes next month at the BankAtlantic Center. If none of these acts is to your personal liking, just wait a week or two. Other big names will follow them soon. Maybe we won't have the chance to catch the Beatles or MJ again - but we can make darned sure some other amazing talent doesn't come and go before we ever buy a ticket.

When it comes to artistic works, there are the tastes of most people. Then there are my tastes. Sometimes they're one and the same. I'm most definitely not a snob. At least I hope not. But often, too, there's a wide gap between the mass commercial appetite and my own. This is true in music and in plays and in books. And in movies. That's why I won't be going to "Transformers 37: Revenge of the Avenging Revengers" when it's released in July 2021 - though I have no doubt that it will make loads of money and probably star a still-very-sexy Megan Fox. Just not my particular thing. Not that I don't enjoy well-done box office hits. I plan to see "Public Enemies" sometime this week, in part because a friend has a small role. (My friend informs me that Johnny Depp is a warm, down-to-earth guy, by the way. Just a little nice insider gossip for a change ... )

For movie fans with tastes like mine, and there are many of us, the trick is finding the films you really want to see. One of the few movie houses with a reliable rotation of high-quality independent and foreign films is Cinema Paradiso in Fort Lauderdale. In fact, it's the only theater in Broward County dedicated entirely to arthouse cinema.

I was there on Friday to catch a documentary that wasn't shown anywhere else around the county, to my knowledge. I went with a friend and we both enjoyed the movie a lot, leaving with a sense of having been enriched by the experience. That's the kind of theater that Cinema Paradiso is, one that celebrates the film as a form of art. As it happens, this year is its 10^th season. Cinema Paradiso is operated by the Broward County Film Society and will be the base again this autumn for the annual Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. The arthouse really is a gem for our community, a wonderful place for locals and tourists alike to get cool on a hot summer day while savoring some of the world's best movies, past and present. A case in point is Cinema Paradiso's July 20 showing of one of my all-time favorite movies by my absolute all-time favorite director: "2001: A Space Odyssey," Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece. It will be shown that day to commemorate the 40^th anniversary of humanity's first walk on the moon. Now that's very hip and I hope to be there for it. And for a lot more great flicks, uh films, in the years to come.

Looking for a real summer? Come on down! Wow, I've been talking to my mom in Chicago and she keeps telling me about this rotten weather they're having. "It's like we're being cheated out of our summer," she told me yesterday. Not just in the midwest either. It's been so bad in the Northeast that at least one major network newscast, NBC News with Brian Williams, recently ran a piece on the miserable New York summer. Folks, I feel for ya. As an ex-northerner, I've been through this and know how disappointing it is. I remember at least two or three summers in Vermont when the calendar seemed to jump from a prolonged spring directly into a prolonged fall. When you're in a climate with essentially six months of winter, you live for those hot, sunny days of June, July and August.

Out of curiosity, I checked the current temp in my old hometown of Burlington, Vermont just before starting to write this blog. It was 69 degrees during what should be the heat of the afternoon. In July, remember. Yuck.

Well, I have a flash for you. It's hot down here. As I look out my office window, there's a hazy sunshine with a pleasant breeze. The temperature right now is 90, which also is the expected high today. The low tonight should be around 79 - warmer than Burlington's mid-afternoon high. If I were a northern resident who could swing the trip somehow, I'd be looking for bargain air fares for a South Florida summer escape. As in, an escape to a real summer. Hot sun, pretty beaches, frozen margaritas. The airfare deals are out there too, judging from what I saw online earlier. Southwest just finished a huge special but still has some great prices. So does Spirit and I'm sure other airlines do as well. I worked out a quick Internet price quote from Chicago to Fort Lauderdale for two people, round trip, leaving on July 21. I pulled up prices of $378 on Spirit and $343 on Southwest. So that's only about $170 or so per person. Not too bad to save a piece of summertime for yourself. And maybe preserve an extra bit of your sanity at the same time. Those chilly northern autumn days, after all, are right around the corner.

I've always found it challenging to find really, really top quality espresso in the United States. There are many "good" cups of this strong coffee available, of course. But I'm talking about serious espresso, as they serve it in Italy and other parts of Europe. It's typically powerful without bitterness, smooth without weakness. I can actually remember specific cups of coffee in specific cities - an exceptional cappuccino one brisk morning in Antwerp, Belgium or a fabulous espresso sitting by Venice's St. Mark's Square on a gorgeous afternoon. I'd more or less given up the hunt for anything comparable in this country, quite honestly. I'm telling you all this back story only because it leads to a little tale about right here and now in the Fort Lauderdale area. Because, yes, I've discovered a shop in Dania Beach that serves European quality espresso.

Tuscany Caffe is not the easiest place to spot the first time you go there. No doubt about it. I'll give directions in a moment, but for now I'll just say that it's a small restaurant tucked on a quiet street off Federal Highway. It's the real deal, though, a café run by Italians - real Italians. Like, Italians from Italy rather than Boston or New York.

So far, I've mostly just been grooving on their coffee. For me, Tuscany Caffe is often a stop during a mid-afternoon break from my work. But I've tried their food a couple times too, and it's been quite good so far. Their menu is about to expand and already includes pasta, pizza, ciabatta bread sandwiches and lots more. Plus the folks who run Tuscany Caffe are delightful people, warm and welcoming Italians who do everything possible to make your visit pleasant. Ok, so back to its location. To find this little gem, take Federal Highway to Dania Beach Boulevard, then turn west for one very short block to NW 1 Avenue. Make a right, heading north, for just a few paces. You'll find Tuscany Caffe on the right side of the street with a couple of tables sitting along the sidewalk. Their phone number is 954-921-1953. Absolutely, I think it's the best espresso and cappuccino I've tasted in South Florida. A friend of mine from Milan agrees with me. That's a big thumbs up from two people who've sipped espresso all over Europe. If you decide to give it a try, let me know if you think we're right.

A few months ago I met a woman who is planning a bi-annual family reunion for more than 450 relatives - a small city as far as this only child is concerned.  They certainly have what sounds like a government structure.  An executive branch is making policy decisions like where, when, and how the weekend will be organized.  Regional managers are handling the flow of people like paperwork pushers.  Program and site coordinators will keep everyone busy while they're here and make sure they are reasonably comfortable - the human services department, I suppose.  And, promotional materials are provided  by the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau to help make the event fun and memorable. 

In addition to the meals and hotel ballroom activities, the group will spend a lot of daytime hours at the parks and beaches of Greater Fort Lauderdale, which offer space and activities that have intergenerational appeal for most families.  Their plans are typical of many families this summer.  However, what about some alternative low-cost and free choices in this culturally-diverse area? 

Family fun is offered, 2-for-1, for attractions such as Butterfly World, the Museum of Discovery & Science, and the International Game Fishing Hall of Fame; for tours of the Everglades offered by Billie Swamp Safari and sightseeing along the scenic banks of Fort Lauderdale's Millionaire's Row with Duck Tours; and for kayaking or snorkeling in a living coral reef and ship wreck.

For free, groups can visit the Old Dillard Museum or the African American Research Library and Cultural Center for an excursion into Black and Caribbean history with art displays and artifacts as well as occasional musical performances.

Also they can tour the traveling exhibition, "Women Collared for Work," an homage to American women across cultures who pioneered work and social change from 1898 to1998 in the U.S.  It runs through Aug 15 at the Coral Springs Museum of Art before heading to art centers in Frederick, MD., Wilmington, DE, and Philadelphia, PA through 2011.

-Kitty Oliver, Ph.D.
 Oral Historian