Ft. Lauderdale (FEB 23)

Sunrise came later than it does at home thanks to being further west. We looked forward to seeing it set later, an event compromised yesterday evening by rain. 

The forecast for today is partly sunny,  the chance of a passing shower and breezy. 
After a late and leisurely breakfast outdoors at Riva on the ground floor of the hotel, we walked out to Route A1A and a long at, crossing over the Intercostal Waterway.  At the top of the bridge we could see seven large cruise ships berthed. Rotterdam will be in one of those slots tomorrow.
After picking up some suntan lotion, batteries and a few other things, we started back over the bridge. As we approached the control tower near the top, bells rang, lights flashed and a booming voice over the PA system announced that the bridge was about to open.  The voice advised pedestrians to wait in the observation platform area until the bridge had been lowered again.
We were already quite high above the water.  We were intrigued to see what sort of megayacht was requiring this opening. The gates rose towards the sky and a dinky little sailboat came chugging through. We and our fellow pedestrians kept waited patiently for the large boat to pass throw. 
The sirens sounded again, the lights flashed again and the booming disembodied voice announced that the bridge was closing. Very anti-climatic.
We had thought about walking down the beach watch the cruise ships coming out through the inlet. We decided instead that we had a great view from our hotel balcony. It proved to be a good decision given the time lapse between departures. 
Saturday and Sunday are especially busy days at the cruise terminal because it is when most of the weekly mega-ship cruises depart.  Pam counted eight cruise ships and researching each calculated a combined passenger and crew manifest of over 25,000 people. Individually and collectively, the logistics of, in a matter of hours, disembarking and embarking so many passengers along with refueling and reprovisioning each ship is impressive. 
For dinner we walked a short distance to the Naked Crab. We'r had a good meal. The decor was casual, fake pseudo-South Florida, ironically attached to a hotel with modern minimalist decor. 

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