The historic Elbo Room- the Bryant College meet up spot during spring break 1980

We experienced a Ft Lauderdale connection during early February. First, our cruiser/RV friends John and Katy drove down from their Lauderdale RV park to hang out for a few hours and thanks to FB was able to help them connect with our mutual friends on Traveling Soul who happened to be in a Lauderdale marina for a few days. Then we had the chance to drive up there when our (chilled to the bone) CT friends, Linda and Thom flew to West Palm for a much-needed R&R break. They wanted to spend time in Lauderdale, so we agreed to meet on Beach Blvd.

I’ll spare you the details of some stops we wanted/needed to make along the way; but the best was Mojo Donuts. Thanks again Eva!! The cool retro box reads, “You deserve a Donut” and yes, we did.

Our donut six-pack

Two down, four to go. That’s a Cronut on the right.

We were curious about Ft Lauderdale; Russ had never been and my Spring Break 1980 visit was memorable but so very long ago. We always sailed offshore past this area for several reasons, so no boating visits either.

The parking lot we were headed to (how DID we ever survive without GPS and Google Maps?) was just off S. Lauderdale Beach Blvd and we turned at the corner where the Elbo Room sat holding its own among so many new tall buildings and missing hangout bars. Yes, I can confirm that Ft Lauderdale is no longer the wild college spring break destination of years past.

Awesome Happy Hour and Dinner at Coconuts with our friends

Linda and I- happy ladies at Coconuts

Once we recovered from our first crazy drive out, nature called and we opted to head east to the edge of Biscayne Bay and the very small (and free) National Park located next to Homestead Bayfront Park. About eight miles east of SoCo, we passed the Homestead Miami Speedway- go NASCAR!!, several schools, gated communities and many nurseries.

Headed to a garden center or luxury estate?

Remains of old causeway at Convoy Point in Biscayne Nat’l Park

Everything is in two languages down here- too bad I only know le petit Francais!

Castellow Hammock Nature Trails was the perfect “short trail with info”  aka, Interpretive trail walk with a butterfly and hummingbird garden out front. Google maps took us close, but we had to engage our brains and go over one block to the entrance. With all the roads crisscrossing and who can tell SW 162^nd street from SE 126th street, each with names and probably another number, listening to Missy jr. rattle off directions like, “turn right on SW 344^th, NE 344^th, Getlost Drive” is almost comical if you weren’t panicked at trying to figure out where to turn while not getting rear-ended as you slow to 40mph! But enough of the driving dangers in one of the top ten high crime small cities in the country!! Sorry honey, I had no idea!

Who cares about getting lost when such beauty lines the roadside!

We found the trail

Bet the path went purposely under this- duck!

The Strangler Fig shown below is huge and it has covered nearly the entire tree it chose for its host. The word “fig” is deceptive as you think “small”, but the Strangler is determined to live and it grows around and up whichever tree it chooses. This pair had begun growing in the normal “up” mode but then the host tree fell and still the fig continued to grow up toward the sun.

A humongous Strangler Fig covers a fallen host tree

The 7ft deep hole was probably a tidal pool back when the sea covered much of south Florida. The Gumbo Limbo Tree is also known as the Tourist Tree because its red, peeling bark is like those who bake too long in the sun.

Solution hole dating back 150,000 years

Gumbo Limbo tree