This is a drawbridge between the condo and the beach. It's only a 15-minute walk, so that's how I usually get there. I'm always scared the bridge will start going up when I'm on it, though.
One of the parking meters at the beach. Four hours doesn't seem like much time. There are a few other pay parking lots, but there doesn't seem to be nearly enough parking.
The beach is fairly empty on weekdays.
Aruba is a restaurant right on the beach. There are also three different bars inside, and it's always pretty full.
I stopped by Barnes & Noble to glance through some tourist books, but they didn't mention many sights that I already knew about.
I was waiting for a water taxi at the stop by Los Olas and noticed these trees with tons of names carved into them.
The water taxi goes up quite a ways and has specific stops. You can get an all-day pass for $13, which lets you get on and off whenever you want.
Since they are illegal, illegal drugs shouldn't be allowed anywhere, so you shouldn't need a sign saying they're not allowed on the boat, right?
The water taxis primarily point out the expensive homes they go by. This belongs to the owner of the Miami Dolpins.
One with brick.
One still being constructed.
Pillars.
Windows.
There were also tons of yachts.
Really big.
Used for Miami Vice.
More pillars.
Lots of arches.
Windows.
The bar at Shooter's Waterfront Cafe, the northernmost stop for the water taxi, had stones making up fish pictures and then laminated, which I though was pretty neat.
An igunana sunning himself by a bridge.
Apparently sea turtles come up on the beach at night to lay eggs.
And somebody marks them off so people don't step on them.
The water is really clear and it stays shallow a fair ways out.
I'm not sure what exactly was going on here, but this was the only time I've seen cops on the beach.
Lint traps are like one of the major philosophical devisions, communism vs individualism. A communist would say we should all clean the lint trap afterward our load so that we help the next person. An individualist would say that just allows people to cheat and not clean their lint traps at all, so it would be better to clean the lint traps only before your own load.
I stopped for lunch at Jack's Bar-B-Q one day. It's on Oakland Park Blvd, which seems to be a mainly black area, so I figured the BBQ would be good. There were a bunch of white people eating inside, though, so I was worried they sissified all of the food, but it was actually really tasty.
It looks like this woman was taking her daughter fishing, which is pretty rare considering their genders.
They need to upgrade Google so I can find the exact type of beans I'm looking for in the grocery store; I looked for about three solid minutes and I still didn't find them (I don't even know if they have them).
That's not an official parking space, but since it was in the shade, that didn't stop this guy. Actually, that's exactly where I would have parked.
I've never seen a cop car like that before.
This was by a carwash. The made a little path here, and what did they use instead of bricks? Car floor mats, of course.
I also went to Butterfly World for a few hours. They have one building with bugs from all over the world. That thing is a wasp, which just reinforces my plan to never go to a rainforest.
Some big beetles.
And some pretty butterflies.
More butterflies.
Oh, that's wonderful.
These things are giant cockroaches. Four-inch long cockroaches.
It was raining on and off when I went, so they kept shutting down the outdoor exhibits, but thankfully they opened them back up.
Parrots.
OK, so that little girl fits in here better than I do, but I'm too much of a science nerd to not stop by.
There were a ton of butterflies flying around.
This is at the Swap Shop, a giant flea market and drive-in movie complex. I like how they didn't bother to smooth out the parking lot; there are plenty of spots where a small car would get high-centered.
They had some neat cars near one building.
There were some stores indoors...
...and some outdoors. It had been raining, though, so the outdoor ones were almost all shut down.
This exits right into something like 35mph traffic, you can't see a thing because of the fence, and if you try inching out to see, you're in the lane. I'm surprised they still have an exit here at all considering the likelihood of accidents.
Almost every single cab has this ad on it. I wonder how much the ads cost and how much money they actually bring in?
I really hate how the cabs and cop cars look so much alike. If the cops wanted to be sneaky, they could put ads on their cars, too.
It started to pour one day when I was at a strip mall, so I decided to eat there and see if the rain would let up. I ate at Tower Pizza, and the guy on the phone was hilarious; he didn't take crap from any of the whiny customers. All of the staff kept joking with each other, too, so it was free entertainment.
Thankfully, the rain stopped, but apparently not before these guys hit each other. It had actually been coming down so hard in some places that I'd drive through a giant puddle and not be able to seen anything for a few seconds.
Sunday morning I went out with some of Monnie and Peter's friends on their boat. A lot of boats anchored by this house, which is right by the edge of the waterways and is owned by a pro football player.
We went snorkeling and there were lots of fish under the dock.
Another neat house.
There are some volleyball nets on the beach, but unfortunately I haven't seen anybody playing. There were also a lot more people, but since it's Memorial Day weekend, that's no surprise. Actually, this area had relatively few people; close to the pier there was barely space to walk between them.
Just south of the pier kids like to try to board. People also go snorkeling straight out from the beach.
A single small rain cloud came overhead and some people headed to their cars, even though there were only a few drops of rain and it was gone in under a minute. Um, you've been swimming in the ocean; what difference does a little rain make?