It was an early wake up call, 5:30am. Robert, our Mr Uber, his second day on the job, like most native New Orleans was full of tales of Hurricane Katrina. Twelve years on and the impact of this terrible natural disaster is still fresh to those who live here.
For some obscure reason we had been tsa approved (a security clearance for US citizens who travel frequently), this meant we bypassed the security queues and so had a two hour lounge wait for our 9:15 flight to Miami.
It was a pleasant two hour flight but the best part was being fetched by my BFF at the the airport. Jean and I have been friends since we were 6 years old, we sat next to each other in Mrs Brett’s class in Grade 1. From the airport she took us to the Miami Dolphins Training Centre. The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team and her husband, Wayne, runs the sports science department. He took us on a tour of this amazing facility with indoor and outdoor fields, gyms, conference rooms, an ice chamber, power nap pods, a salt water flotation pod and so so much more. It was mind blowing and we were so fortunate to have been afforded this experience.
We settled down in their beautiful home, had a bite to eat and got some washing done. It is so nice to be in a home environment after living out of suitcases and hotels.
In the late afternoon we went for a boat cruise along Fort Lauderdale’s riverfront and marina. Wow, this is the home to the rich and famous. On both sides of the waterways are big and beautiful mansions with huge ocean going yachts. I got a chance to skipper the boat, it was great fun and bonus – I didn’t crash into anything.
After the cruise we went to Pelican Landing restaurant for a sunset dinner. The restaurant is situated in the harbor amongst these amazing boats and yachts and is in the perfect spot for the most spectacular sunsets, which we were fortunate to see. Our fish taco’s, pelican burgers and Chardonnay were pretty great as well.
Pandas in Africa 