Fort Lauderdale: Day One

I've been pretty absent from my blog lately. I'm not really sure why; however, I will blog my vacation!

I was desperately desiring a vacation, especially after not being allowed to take a day off for all of June and most of July while the girl who works for me was off on maternity leave. I couldn't decide where to go, but I knew it needed to be the beach. I investigated Virginia Beach, Ocean City MD, Nag's Head NC, Myrtle Beach SC, the Jersey Shore and Fort Lauderdale. I figured it would be more affordable to go to a spot I could drive to but I ended up finding a really great price for Fort Lauderdale that included airfare so last week I booked it and here I am! I'd been thinking of the trip for awhile but it was all kind of last minute. Who knew I would pick the only location where I was actually going to be able to go to? All those other spots have been evacuated due to Hurricane Irene. I totally lucked out! That's a first in terms of a vacation. I've had to deal with hurricanes and bad weather on several vacations.

I was worried that I wasn't going to be able to get out of DC before the storm hit but I left yesterday morning with no problems. We had to change our flight path a bit and it took longer, but the weather today was gorgeous. My hotel room is pretty decent too. It's just an average hotel room but it seems to have a great location and I lucked out in getting a corner room that actually gives me a view of the ocean. I really wanted to be oceanfront wherever I went but when it came time to paying for an oceanfront room, I decided it wasn't worth the extra price. Well, I guess I got the best of both worlds.

The water here is such a beautiful turquoise blue. I've never seen anything like it, even when I was in Miami and the Caribbean, I don't think. I got to my hotel and checked in and unpacked by about 3 or 3:30. Then, I realized I was starving so I went for a walk to try to find a place to eat. There are bars and restaurants and souvenir shops for several blocks past my hotel, so I think I'm in a great spot. I ended up eating at a place called Da Big Kahuna and hit up a CVS to buy some food for my room and the beach. There's a mini fridge in my room. After eating, I came back to the hotel, checked out the pool area, the gym and the restaurants and then decided to hit the beach. It was like 6:30ish when I went down there so I figured I had about an hour before it got dark and it was great. The beach was empty and the water was great. There are a million shells around and once you hit the water, you only have shallow water for about 3 steps before there is a significant dropoff. That takes some getting used to... but overall, it's been an amazing first day of my trip.