Catching up - Fort Lauderdale

Picking up where I left off....Key West was amazing, serene, and absolutely lovely, but it was time to check out a different side of Florida, so this is the next step in the adventure.  The drive up the coast Monday night was fantastic (!) and then I checked in at the resort and grabbed food, but I was pretty tired, so I just came back and crashed - no pictures.

However, the fun started back up on Tuesday at the Museum of Discover and Science! 

It was full of kids and fun; while here I saw an Imax documentary called "Born to be Wild" about orphaned orangutans and elephants that are raised and then released back into the wild.  It was really neat.

Part of the reason I was so excited to go was to see their display about robotic surgery, specifically Intuitive Surgical and the daVinci robot (hmmm....imagine that?! ;) haha).  It was great coverage and super cool to see in such a public forum of admiration.  Kids were around me, saying, "Mom, look how cool that is!" and I just smiled, knowing that it really is - as are some of the employees..... ;)

  More robotics fun....

I thought this was great.  You might need to click on it to get the full effect, but it shows the likelihood of some causes of death - I know, random, but it's trying to demonstrate that more than 60% of Floridians are obsese - and only the flip side, 0.000000026% chance of being attacked by a shark - and even if you do, only 1.5% chance of dying from it.  Made me laugh a little....and eat less candy that night.... :)

 Here are some pictures from the Resort - it was quite beautiful, although nothing like the Key West experience.  Not that it wasn't good, but just a totally different kind of relaxation in a huge resort like this.  Nonetheless, I had a great time on the beach laying out!

 Sunset on Wednesday (it was a little cloudy)

 Reading on the restaurant patio

 On Thursday, I took an airboat ride through the Florida Everglades on an alligator tour!  It was super fun and got to see lots of alligators, as well as other animals in the animal preserve they had on the property.

Here are some pictures of their boats....

 It was so calm and beautiful - you can see the reflection of everything in the water.

 Hello Gator....

 Chomp, chomp baby!

 In the preserve after the tour they allowed us to pay money to hold the alligators.  Despite my panic with the snake/bird in KW, I decided to try it - plus, with my Yankee-pride-shirt on, what could go wrong? ;) (that's for you, Dad - terrible Yankee-hater)  I loved it!  If I could have taken that little squirmer out for a walk, I would have because he was cute and not at all the slimy, scaly, gross-ness I expected.  Of course, they did tape his mouth shut....and told me to hold his tail so he wouldn't "spank" my arm.... :)  hmm....

 And this is how I was feeling after a long vacation of delicious food and lots of laying around on the beach... (from within the animal preserve)

Speaking of, more food! (imagine that)  I found a delicious Thai place about a mile down the road from the resort so I walked down and enjoyed this deliciousness before grabbing my flight home.

And thus wraps up the Florida adventure.  I'm officially checking off "Extended Beach Vacation" from the 30 before 30 list.  It was such a wonderful trip - and the perfect escape from reality that I needed, since there were simply too many things going on here causing me stress.  Stepping away from it all for a nice long break definitely cleared my head and brought a wonderful new focus to some of the issues that were bothering me most.  That is not to say everything is now roses, but definitely a helpful step in the process!