Well it wasn’t an April Fool’s joke, but we woke this morning to discover that our anchor was dragging and that we were almost to the edge of someone’s dock. It was an abrupt “good morning”, but after we safely moved the boat to anchor again, we had breakfast overlooking North 
Miami Beach with the palm trees and the sky scrapers on one side and the memorial to Henry Flagler on the other. The Flagler Monument was a white tower similar to the Washington monument and was surrounded by tall marble figures.We saw the Miami Herald Building on the edge of the water way with its gigantic red, white and 
blue Pepsi logo banner covering one end of the building. Our first bridge for today was the beautiful old white Venetian Bridge which was the 
first bridge built to link Miami to Miami beach – it was too low to go under so we had to wait for the 10 AM opening to really get underway. This morning we meandered up the Intercoastal waterway at slow speeds under I195 headed north. There were 12 bridges along the way 
connecting the mainland to the barrier islands and the Florida beaches. It was like a highway 
passing other boats and a variety of shore side scenery. We went under the bridge over to Sunny Isles beach and later also the Hallandale Beach bridges. The barrier islands were occasionally thin enough that we could see from the boat in the ICW though a cross street all the way to the blue ocean beyond.
The bridges had their own personalities like the bridge to Hollywood Beach with its cream colored 
balcony railing and octagonal domed towers. Along the way there was an interesting building pattern where there were beautiful two storied mansions built on the water way, with high rise resorts on the beach behind them. It was a beautiful cruise along the way. At one point, the sand bars had shifted out into the ICW, and new floating buoys had been set out along the edge of the shallow water as a warning.
While the population was very dense along the way with no undeveloped land between towns, 
we did pass an occasional park, manatee zone or golf course. We saw boats of all sizes ranging from a tiny kayak to luxury motor yachts over a 100 feet to huge cruise ships loading passengers for the Caribbean. Almost to Fort Lauderdale there was Port Everglades where the Stanahan River cuts to the ocean and the cruise ships come into harbor. It was also a commercial port where they were loading huge containers onto ocean going freighters. It was there we saw the amazing “no wake” sign. While we have seen thousands of no wake signs along the way, this one threatened up to 6 years imprisonment for breaking the speed limit – they were pretty serious!
Nearing Fort Lauderdale, we saw immaculate water front gardens skirting ornate houses with reflecting pools and even a carillon tower. We saw several places with For Sale signs in the yard, but we were not sure who the buyers could 
be. We had a reservation at the New River Marina which required us to turn out of the ICW into 
the New River that wanders under pink bridges and up to the small old historic Fort Lauderdale. We discovered that this marina basically offers tie ups along the water side, so we are now docked at 100 North New River Drive. We are docked near the oldest bascule bridge in the state of Florida. The waterway by us is a constant throughway of tour boats and water taxis along with expensive cruisers on the way to the Allied Marine Yacht Facility for rework.
This afternoon we took our bikes to ride along the River Walk 
bricked trail and enjoyed the lush greenery along the way, including a yucca plant with an 8 foot tall yellow blossom. We found the historical marker for the New River Inn, built in 1905 at the 
crossing of the New River with the Overseas Railroad, one of the first buildings built in the area. We also discovered the Ft 
Lauderdale Science Museum with its three story gravity clock and acre sized grassy geometric 
circle. Tonight we returned to take in the 3D IMAX movie playing: Monsters versus Aliens.
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