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Monday, May 12, 2008
May 13: Sunny Spaces
It has just been nuts around the Fort Lauderdale beach lately. As in, really busy. That’s great, of course. I’m glad to see so many people enjoying the sand and sun and everything that goes with it. But wow. I thought the “busy season” was supposed to be over now. Guess not. I finally made it to the USA Diving Grand Prix at the International Swimming Hall of Fame, but it took me two determined tries to get there. On Saturday afternoon, I attempted to park at my usual favorite South Beach lot but found a long line of cars waiting to get in. Traffic was backed up on A1A in both directions, though it was passable. So I drove to another lot and joined maybe ten other cars circling like barracuda, waiting to strike at the first vacant space. I decided to hold off until Sunday to give it another go. But even relatively early Sunday morning, my favorite lot already was busy with a line of cars. I ended up finding some open parking spots in the lot at Las Olas and A1A, fed the meter and toddled off to the diving tournament.
The Grand Prix really was even better than I’d expected. The event included some wonderful Asian cultural performances as part of the run up to the Beijing Olympics this summer. Chinese and Japanese singers, dancers and musicians. But the divers were just extraordinary to see in person – and they drew a good crowd.
Even that big athletic meet and that sizable crowd, though, didn’t explain all the people at the beach this weekend. Not by a long shot. There were throngs of people and beach umbrellas all up and down the sand. I don’t know if it was the unusually hot weather that made folks want to take a dip in the ocean. Or if the trend toward more and more summer tourists in Fort Lauderdale is just continuing. Or if maybe more locals are vacationing close to home. I’m not sure. It was Mother’s Day weekend, so I suppose it’s possible that hundreds of mothers decided they wanted a nice beach tan. But probably not. I guess it’s simply the endless appeal of the ocean and the sea breeze and a day spent in the sunshine. When it’s hot, there’s no better place to be than by the water. I’ll be going there often as the summer settles in for real in the coming weeks. I’m even planning my own close-to-home vacation along the beach somewhere. With the price of gasoline these days, no wonder so many of us want to park it on the beach for a while and just hang out.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
May 10: Olympic Preview
I have always loved the Olympic Games. I know there’s usually some controversy or other swirling around the event but I admire tremendously the dedication and perseverance of the athletes. For many of them, Olympic competition is the brief culmination of many years of sweat and pain and struggle carried out in lonely anonymity. I’ve written six books for young people about the Olympics and recently profiled U.S. swimmer Dara Torres for Reader’s Digest magazine. So I’ve seen just a bit of the huge effort these people put into being the best. That's partly why I’m excited that Fort Lauderdale has its own Olympic preview this weekend. If you’re a fan of the Olympics as I am, or if you love to watch graceful divers performing their routines, head over to the Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Complex at the Swimming Hall of Fame.
Called the USA Diving Grand Prix, this competition has attracted the top divers in the world, with Olympic gold medalists and world champions among them. Nations represented at the Grand Prix include China, Japan, Canada, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Great Britain. And the United States of course, as well as 18 other countries. The USA Diving Grand Prix is considered an important tune-up for the Olympics, which begin in only three months.
I expect to head over there to catch some of the action. Olympic divers always have amazed me anyway. The training required to perform these precise, sometimes dangerous dives under intense pressure is impressive. Remember the brilliant athleticism of Greg Louganis, for example? Diving like that takes strength but it also takes flexibility and tremendous body control. I’ve never watched this caliber of diving in person so this is definitely my chance – without traveling all the way to Beijing to do it. The tournament started Thursday and runs through Sunday, with tickets going for $10 for adults and $5 for students, military and seniors. I think that sounds like a pretty good deal. And it’s a taste of real Olympic-caliber competition with great athletes in peak condition just before the games begin. How cool is that?
Monday, May 05, 2008
May 6: Sparkling Water
I don’t think we’ve had a drop of anything other than sunshine for weeks. No rain, not even a serious sprinkle I can recall. So I decided to wash my car yesterday. You know, a real hand wash, with a hose and rags and Windex and paper towels and everything. These days I’m driving that nice PT Cruiser convertible, as you might remember. A sweet cobalt blue with a black top. I even have Sirius satellite radio. I love it. So there I was, down crawling around the wheels on a bright Sunday afternoon. My car wasn’t all that dirty, mind you, but a good buff and polish seemed just the thing to make it sparkle. And that got me thinking about how our great weather here tends to keep our cars a lot prettier than automobiles up north. My car is a 2006 and it looks pretty much brand new. When I lived in places like Vermont and Michigan, a two year-old car already was starting to looked a tad – well, weathered.
True, our air is seasoned with sea salt down here and if you live near the ocean, as I do, the briny breeze can have some corrosive effects. But that’s nothing compared to four months of road salt each year, combined with slush and mud and sleet and generally cruddy weather much of the time. Anyone who’s ever lived both up there and down here will tell you the same thing: cars down here look a lot better.
When I was a teenager growing up in Michigan, I used to hear stories about local folks who would fly down to the Sunshine State for a used car. Everyone called these automobiles simply, “Florida cars.” And everyone understood this meant used cars that looked like new cars. For all I know northerners still may come down here for used cars. We have our share of old clunkers on the South Florida roads, of course, just like anywhere else in the country. I was driving one myself not that long ago, partly because it lasted so long in our endless summer. But when you look around on I-95 or somewhere, you usually see a whole lot of nice-looking, non-rusty cars. Lots of very pricey cars too, like Ferraris and Bentleys and Rolls-Royces. It’s all just part of the experience of living or visiting here. So yes, my PT is one of those sharp-looking vehicles right now. I put a good hour into washing my car on Sunday afternoon and proudly drove it all over the place. Then Sunday night I caught the local weatherman’s forecast: “Tomorrow we may have just a very brief shower, but then it will be beautiful the whole rest of the week!” Of course. If it rains at all, I'm sure it will rain directly over Dania Beach where I live. Just enough to spot up the windows and leave little smudges on the paint. If you get caught in this little storm, all I can say is I’m sorry.
Friday, May 02, 2008
May 2: All Ashore
If you haven’t been down around the Fort Lauderdale beach this week, you should go. The fleet is very definitely in town. The Navy fleet, that is. Along with a fair number of sailors, Marines and Coast Guard personnel. Some 2,500 men and women in uniform are wandering around A1A for a little rest and relaxation during Fleet Week. No doubt their r&r is well-deserved. The military can be a stressful place these days to say the least. We all appreciate their efforts. So it’s nice to see so many clean, well-pressed white uniforms trickling through the crowds along the beach. I was there last night and noticed several Marines, but mostly lots of sailors in groups of twos and threes and fives. From what I saw, they seemed on their best behavior – just on the town for a good meal, some drinks and a little fun. I had the sense that the non-military locals and tourists enjoyed having the military folks around.
I’ve read in the newspaper that a lot of our guests in the armed services are doing more than just kicking back and relaxing while in Fort Lauderdale. Some of them are visiting Broward County schools and hospitals. Others are helping to build houses for low income people through Habitat for Humanity. There’s also a friendly competition to see which unit can donate the most blood.
I don’t know about you, but I’m proud of anyone who wants to give something back to the community. When you see the military using their time and skills to help their fellow human beings rather than destroy them – well, those are people I can admire. Plus, their ships are really cool. I’m still a kid at heart in a lot of ways and so part of me looks at these high-tech vessels in port and just kinda goes, “Wow.” Looking from the 17th Street bridge, you can spot them tied up in Port Everglades to the south. I’ve toured a number of Navy ships in the past and always found this an impressive experience. Though for the life of me I can’t imagine living underwater for weeks at a time in one of those subs, like the USS Pittsburgh that’s here now. Anyway, the Pittsburgh’s crew is topside this week, enjoying our incredibly beautiful South Florida weather. I hope they have a great time, along with all their brothers and sisters in uniform. They sure deserve it.
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