Florida 2014: Day 3

Alarm goes off pretty early again; I want to be fully awake when EZ Ride Surfschool calls to let me know if we're on for this morning.

When they calls it's bad news: no waves today. It really sucks, but that's surfing for you. On the plus side, we actually have a really nice phone call about surf spots around the world ... oh well, next time!

Meh, I'm pretty mopey now. No surfing has thrown a wrench in my plans. We hang around the hotel for a while trying to decide what to do, before heading out for breakfast.

Bit cool this morning so we have to wear our polartecs, but that means it's so quiet we get a nice spot against the rail at The Deck restaurant. The food is nothing special, just your basic bacon, egg & homestyle potatoes.

We sit and watch the water .. and a gentleman jogger -- quite literally -- streaking by wearing nothing but a THONG! Wow. Just wow. There he goes between the two umbrellas:

Cute dolphin statue out front

When we get out on the beach I spot a dark shape in the water that seems to have changed locations when my attention lapses for a few seconds. Yep, it's definitely moving!

It's a manatee and her baby!! The lifeguard says they're on their way to the (warm) water outflow of the water treatment plant.

Baby coming up for air.

One of the reasons we decided to stay at the Winterset was its proximity to the Hugh Taylor Birch State Park where you can rent canoes and paddle on their canal. Of course I get a bit lost trying to find it at first, luckily my phone gets us back on track.

After paying $2 a piece, we're off to explore the park ... although with my luck today there are no canoe rentals because there's a school trip in the park that's using them. Also, the park turns out to be more of car destination, with mostly paved roads and few walking trails.

At least there's another cute caution sign!

The lagoon we wanted to paddle on :-(

We walk along the side for the road for a while, eventually finding a small trail that dead ends almost immediately -- backtracking, and then having the paved road dead end too. Ugh, it's getting warm to be walking around in our polartecs now and we sit down in the grass by the side of the road for a few minutes .... not a very scenic spot.

Frustrated we head back to the hotel. Not how we'd imagined our last day on vacation at all and time is slipping away from us so quickly. Noooo I'm not go back to reality just yet!!!

Sandy has the brilliant idea to call the rental office and ask if they rent SUPs (i.e. stand-up paddle board) to take out onto the ocean and they do!

This time we drive to the park and even though we've only paid $4 earlier and it's $6 when you come by car they let us back in without paying the rest. Yay, things are clearly looking up!

We drive straight to the parking lots closest to the beach and walk to the rentals, but a family of five is just getting instructions on how to ride a Segway; a nervous teenage boy is clinging to the handle bars with a death grip and we realize .... this, might take some time; we'd better amuse ourselves for a while.

We take the tunnel to the nearly deserted beach and spread out next to the lifeguard tower. I've brought my book, but it feels so good to just lie down in the sun and relax. Sandy actually has to remind me to get the paddle board before it gets too late cause I could've easily stayed like that for a very long time.

I almost get just an hour rental for $20, but knowing myself, change it to a four-hour one at the last second ... except there's less than four hours until closing so would I like to rent it for three hours for only $40? Ha ha ha. Would I ever! What a steal ... he even lugs it down to the beach for me!

Unfortunately, the lifeguard comes over to tell us that we can only use it to the left of the lifeguard station and there's a strong current to the right so we should probably walk one or two stations to the left before getting in the water. If you've never walked with a SUP (heavier and bigger than a longboard) and paddle before, let alone on sand with the wind blowing, let me tell you ... it's not easy!!

The guy that rented me the board is super sweet and offers to get his car to drive us up there, but I think we can make it and he's also been so generous in bringing it out to the beach for me. So instead he tells me it will be easier going if I just walk it through the water. Ah yes! Except there's such a steep drop off that I manage to instantly soak my shirt and the sleeve of the polartec wrapped around my neck. There goes my only piece of warm clothing ... too late now but I pass it to Sandy before it gets any wetter.

We walk about 2/3 of the way to the next station before we decide we're far enough -- I can always walk it back and forth, but it seems such a long way to go all the way over there.

I've only done SUP on a calm river before so this is completely different. Just getting out past the breaking waves is complicated; definitely easier sitting on my knees, but that way the waves are suddenly up to my chest and the force of them hits you like a ton of bricks and pushes you way back so you have to paddle like crazy in between waves and keep a firm grip on the paddle --- learned that one quickly after getting clobbered by it once!! Ouch.

Ok, this is pretty awesome! After a while I start to figure things out a bit better and I even manage to ride a few waves ...woohoo. Only pictures of whitewater waves, but I rode a couple of green waves as well :)

Not sure what was wrong with Sandy's camera but it just wouldn't focus right.

Definitely having fun!

I love how clear the water is, but it's also a bit deceptive when you're not used to it; at one point I fall off the board firmly believing I'm not all that deep but I can't feel the bottom even though I did the perfect pencil dive. Oops!

Brrr it is pretty cold standing up there even with my wetsuit vest on, but there's no way I'm coming in until my time is up so I just paddle in, paddle out, paddle in, paddle out ... quite the workout!

Wow, time goes fast when I'm in the water and all too soon Sandy signals me it's time to go back. Which, btw, is 2/3 stations over because amazingly I can steer the board where I want it to go .... ugh, should have had more confidence in my own abilities before trekking all that way haha.

See, does this look like fun to carry around?

My knees are scraped, red and swollen and look; I cut my hand! It seems it's not vacation until there's blood ...

Brrrrr! Even my lips have turned purple. After returning the board we walk over to the parking lot that has mostly cleared out by now. There's a grassy boarder to the side and we sit in the late afternoon sun for a while trying to warm up, but it's really not warm enough anymore -- or maybe I'm too cold? So we decide to drive the park loop with the heat blasting.

There are some really nice spots along the intercoastal waterway.

Fancy yachts -- sorry, phone doesn't zoom that well. Las Olas Boulevard is lined with some very fancy homes so it's only fitting that the marina is filled with boats bigger than our house.

Cute little lizard back at the hotel, where the hot shower feels soooooo good. There's even a blowdryer!

What to do for our last dinner in Fort Lauderdale? Why, visit Las Olas!!! 17 blocks of quirky boutiques, fancy eateries and cool architecture makes this boulevard one of the Fort Lauderdale's top attractions so it seems wrong to skip it.

It's a bit further than expected and we're not sure where to start so we just pick a random spot and check out Tripadvisor to see what's nearby, which turns out to be a wealth of restaurants of all imaginable cuisines. Choices, choices ... such a cute place to walk around with all the lights!

Cool breezeway leading to the off-street parking lot.

We decide on a place called Mangos, where singer "Not so loud, Bob" (Gatewood) is scheduled to play. He's playing mostly 50s & 60s songs while we're there, promising to move up a decade later in the evening (we missed that) and he's pretty decent.

Sandy gets the chicken pot pie and immediately gives me a scalding hot piece of chicken. Yowza! There goes the roof of my mouth lol. And yes, it would have looked more appetizing if I'd taken a picture before we started eating.

My salmon BLT, good, but could have been a lot better if they'd used the cucumber dill sauce more sparingly. We have a quick glance at the desert menu, but I was looking for something special to celebrate another great trip and this is not it ... of course, I already have just the place in mind!

It's just a short walk to Café La Bonne Crepe where start with creamy hot chocolate served up in large mugs with sugar crystals and it only gets better for there; Sandy gets the strawberry and vanilla ice cream, while I have the nutella and bananas crepe. Yum Yum!

Great service, great décor and the best food on all our trip!

There's even a Wyland gallery on the way back to the car -- makes me think of Hawaii and I'd love to walk around but with four eager sales assistants hanging out at the desk we think the better of it or they might never let us leave without buying something.