Ft. Lauderdale - Pompano Bay

He's watching the Michigan game, he had his phone up in the umbrella!

Roll a ball in the sand...a fun game we played on the beach!

The view from our balcony!

On Saturday night we had to be evacuated from our building for about a half hour.  It was 10pm at night, and I felt so bad for all the parents with little kids.  But it turned out to just be that a kid pulled the fire alarm.  It was annoying though!  

 

The water was so pretty on Sunday!

He is holding the alligators mouth open with his face!

We took a short little trip to Pompano Bay in Ft. Lauderdale the day after Thanksgiving.  To be honest, I didn't want to go and I wasn't very excited.  With all the Covid and kids going to school, I thought it would just be too much!  But everything worked out, and we ended up having a really great time!  We flew out of Austin Friday afternoon.  It was a direct flight, so it made more sense to fly from there.  We got there early evening.  Noah, Kayla, Joel, and Brittany were already there.  They all flew together from Indiana.   Our hotel was on the beach, but not very close to anything else.  So we walked to get some dinner and snacks for the beach for the next day.  That night we also got in the pool for a little bit, well some people did.  I chose not to, it wasn't that warm outside and the pool water was only luke warm at best.  Haha but we just chilled by the pool.

Our hotel was on the beach, and we had our own access to it.  There were chairs and umbrellas that you could get each day as well that they set up.  It was super nice!

On Saturday we pretty much spent all day at the beach.  It was really nice to relax and enjoy the warm sunshine without kids!  We played our roll a ball in the sand game...it's a really simple game, but fun!  That night we went out to dinner at a restaurant on the beach, and then decided to walk the beach back to our hotel.  Our hotel was probably a mile and a half away from the restaurant.  We thought it would just be a nice leisurely walk on the beach by the water, but the sand was not easy to walk in at all!  You had to get pretty much in the water to have it all packed down and easy to walk on, so it ended up being not as nice as we all thought.  We were walking so fast just to get to our hotel.  Haha! 

That night we were playing cards in one of our hotel rooms, and the fire alarm went off.  It was so loud, there was blinking lights through the whole building and they made everyone evacuate.  I really felt so bad for the people with little kids, they looked scared.  But luckily, it ended up that a kid somehow pulled the alarm.  So we had to wait outside for about a half hour, while the Fire department came and checked everything before we could go back in!  The crazy thing is that it happened to a neighboring hotel the next night, so maybe it was some sort of drill?  Still not sure!  

Sunday we hung out at the beach in the morning and then we went on an adventure to the Everglades!  We found a deal that would shuttle us to and from the hotel, which was perfect.  We went on an airboat tour and it was cool.  We were lucky enough to see like 6-7 different alligators, which is great, because sometimes people don't see any!  Then there was a little show after with a guy that talked to us about the alligators and did a few tricks.  After that we got to hold a little baby alligator!  I didn't really enjoy holding it, it felt gross, but we did it!  The everglades is huge, and just a fun fact, is not a swamp.  It is a very slow moving river.  It actually ends up in the ocean!  That night we went to dinner at a really nice restaurant on the beach, and it was a full moon!  We played cards again that night.  

We left Monday evening, so we were able to go to the beach one last time in the morning before our flight.  We really lucked out with weather while we were there.  It was perfect 80-85 the whole time.  Rain and a cold front came in Monday night, so it worked out for us!  It really was a good trip, and I'm thankful for Eric's mom for watching our kids.  She said our kids were really, really good and she enjoyed it, so that made me feel better!  I'm grateful we were able to get away and enjoy some time with friends!