Paul and Peg's Travels: Water taxi day

Today we went into Fort Lauderdale again, and this time we spent the day riding on the water taxis. There are several of them running all day long, and they have 13 scheduled stops, but will occasionally make an unscheduled stop for someone. You pay one amount and can get off and on as often as you want all day and evening.

Several pelicans entertained us as we waited for our first boat.

We saw some amazing yachts, privately owned by some VERY rich people! The taxi drivers tell lots of stories, but I couldn't possible remember them all, so I've just added a few big ones.

The life boat is bigger than ours!

I do remember this one. Owned by Steven Spielburg, supposed to be worth $250,000,000. Of course they don't drive them, and we heard that the captain gets $1,000 per foot per year. Besides the captain, there would also be a very large crew.

And this one, Erin and Megan will be interested to know, belongs to Johnnie Depp. One of your favorite actors, no?

This little wooden house is the oldest one in Fort Lauderdale - built in 1901 - older than Fort Lauderdale! It is so protected that, instead of a bridge in that location, they actually built a tunnel for the street that needed to cross there.

The tan coloured building on the right is the Broward County Jail - note the long skinny windows so the inmates get a nice view of the waterways. The pink bridges in this area are sponsored by Mary Kay - go figure!

Wayne Huizinga, owner of Waste Management, (who has a boat called Work Stinks), had a niece turning 28 and getting married, so he offered to buy her a house. She chose a $7,000,000 piece of property, and had this house - copied from the Harry Potter house - built there.

They call this the White House of Fort Lauderdale, and it is supposed to be the most photographed house in the city. It's owner invented some little part for car air conditioners or something. A pub from Ireland was supposedly dismantled and rebuilt in the house.

There are a lot of wild parakeets in this area and we got to see some today. We can usually hear them but not see them.

These look a lot like petunias, but there are whole trees covered with them.

Have you ever gone to one of those frozen yoghut serve yourself places? There are about 15 different kinds of yoghurt - like soft serve, you serve yourself whichever kinds you want, then there are a couple dozen toppings to choose from. At the end, they weigh it and you pay by the ounce. It was yummy, but way too much and very expensive!

More cacti for you, Erin!

Another flowering tree.

We saw a lot of iguanas today, sunning themselves on the sea walls. We did see one manatee surface as we were eating lunch outside at Shooters - a favorite restaurant and drop-off place from the taxis.