Back to the Atlantic and Fort Lauderdale

Before Fort Lauderdale, I thought you might just like to see some evidence of our spaceship trip to Mars when we were at Epcot. What a rush that was!




Fort Lauderdale – Time Share
We now know just about everything one could want to know about time shares and then some. We spent a couple of hours in Orlando with sales people and then most of the afternoon today with a second set of sales people. We did not buy. However, the Fort Lauderdale people were much more pleasant and somewhat more genuine than the Orlando woman. It would appear that time shares are much more flexible than they were in the time when you owned a specific week in a specific location. It could be something I would consider at some time in the future. At least it bears more looking at.
We are staying at a Ramada Inn in a suburb (I think) of Fort Lauderdale. The streets all around here and the areas we’ve covered in the city tend to be wide and spacious. There are medians and grassy roadsides frequently and, of course, since it’s so flat, the streets are straight and regular. Crisscrossing these attractive roads are freeways and parkways and turnpikes all over the place – several of which have tolls. We have pretty much avoided the freeways because they are sometimes hard to get off at the right place. Our GPS allows us to avoid the toll roads and we’ve found that by doing so we arrive at our destination just as quickly. Besides, there’s nothing to look at from the freeway.
We spent much of today at Sawgrass Mills Outlet Malls. There are plenty of stores at this conglomeration of shopping areas – apparently the largest in the US. We walked and walked and shopped and shopped and didn’t even get to all sections, let alone many stores. This morning, we spent a leisurely, pleasant time poking around when there weren’t too many people in the area. By the time we returned after our time share caper, the mall was noisy, crowded, and grubby. I wasn’t all that impressed with the prices – not really much less than any big shopping centre. It was fun to look at some of the stores that are unfamiliar to me, but in the end, I think I’d rather shop at home or in Bellingham/Burlington. We intended to have supper at The Cheesecake Factory and even fought our way into a parking place and walked to the front door of the restaurant. The place was crowded – numerous people waiting to be seated – and the noise of loud music and people talking and laughing created enough of a cacophony to send us right back out to the car. By this time it was after 9:00 at night. We were really quite hungry, but couldn’t think of just what to look for in the way of an eating establishment. We finally decided that “breakfast” would be the best meal for us, so we checked with our trusty GPS friend, Susan, and she directed us to an IHOP. We absolutely inhaled a great breakfast on the way home – good food, good price, good location! We have “de-bagged” our purchases and are about ready for a night’s rest. We’re going to go to Coral Ridge Church not far from here which is pastured by Billy Graham’s grandson. Again, we’re thankful for our GPS friend!