Enjoying our time in Fort Lauderdale

We are taking the time while we are here in Fort Lauderdale to also have some fun and catch up with people, restaurant hopping and visiting.  We have been dining out a lot and catching up with people in the area, not too mention being able to watch the Rugby World Cup matches.  Tonight we went to John and Lauri's house for dinner (great homemade conch chowder and deserts) and football on TV.  John is Mark's cousin, notice any resemblance? Tomorrow it is down to Miami to see Tom and Pixie, friends of ours from Guam.

At the Bubba Gump Shrimp Restaurant

Pauline, putting herself in the shoes of Forrest Gump

John and Lauri Sobol

Pauline finished her courses!

So proud of Pauline! She finished her 2 weeks of studying and passed all her courses with flying colors! She now has certificates for Superyacht Hospitality, RIB Master, Fire Fighting, Emergency First Responder, Radio & VHF. With her previous First Aid On Board Ship and Coastal Skipper, does anyone want to hire her?

Are we snowbirds?

After Steve's visit, we got busy getting Sari Timur ready for winter.  By Thursday 1500 hours, we were as ready as can be.  We drove up to Anchorage to have dinner with Steve and then to the airport to board our midnight (Alaska time) flight to Orlando, Florida.

After a transfer in Denver, we got to Orlando at 1330 hours (Florida time) on Friday.  We drove to Merritt Island to spend 2 nights with Aunt Anita and Uncle Mike.  We have not seen them since summer of 2014 and it was really great to see them again.  We had a home cooked dinner with them and Aunt Trudy.

On Saturday, we went to Yen Yen, a Chinese restaurant we had been to during our last visit in 2001.  We had a really nice visit with Jeff and Linda, Madison and Aunt Anita and Uncle Mike.  And the food was yummy!

On Sunday, after mass, we drove to Jensen Beach to spend a few hours with Terry (Mark's friend from college) and Charlene and their kids, Dustin and Avery plus their partners.  Dustin has just became a daddy of a cute little boy.  And nice boiled shrimps too, thank you Terry.

Then it was time to drive down to Fort Lauderdale to check into our accommodation.  We met the host and got to know him better during dinner.

Pauline starts her classes tomorrow for the next two weeks, while Mark will be looking for work.  Nothing is cast in stone until Mark finds a job and Pauline gets her certification and land a job too.

Another Visitor

We just had Mark's cousin Steve Sobol come for a visit.  Mark and Steve have only met each other a few times in their lives but always enjoy getting together.  Steve does a lot of projects in Alaska so hopefully this will be the first of many visits.  We also hope to bump into his mom next weekend when we head to Florida and his brother when we hit Ft. Lauderdale.

We went to the Alaska Sea Life Center with him and out to Exit Glacier.  It was raining when we got there, so we will have to hike up the glacier next time when the weather is better.  We also took Steve out by the bike path to show him the whale and the sea otters.  The whale was a bit too far away to photograph but at least he saw it

Steve and Exit Glacier

More to exploring Seward

Well we rode the bike path again last night.  And I guess the other day was nothing special, as the whale, seals and otters were there again.  This time the whale was even closer to shore.  I don't think much more than 100 feet, or else it was a very big whale!  We also confirmed it was seals not sea lions.

Exploring Seward

Seward is a pretty little town with lots to do and see even after October first.  Yesterday the sun was out so we took the bikes for a tour of the town, parts that we hadn't been to yet.  It is true many shops in Seward close for the month of October, if not for the entire winter.  But there were still plenty of shops open to go around and look at and as we have found elsewhere in Alaska, the shop owners are rarely too busy to just stop and have a chat with you.  Pauline learned some neat knitting tips from a yarn shop!  There is a very large sea life center which we didn't get to before it closed for the day but Seward has a nice bike path along the waterfront that starts just outside of it.  We think this is also where the famous Iditarod Trail starts.  This is a famous dog sled race to Nome about a thousand miles away to commemorate the original trail that brought many of the original gold hunters and settlers to the northern and interior parts of Alaska.

As we were riding and enjoying the sites we found many other spectators out and about.  Within feet of shore, we had at one time a sea otter, a whale and several seals (although to be truthful we are not sure if they were seals or sea lions, we are waiting to go to the sea life center to confirm how to tell from just their head).   The whale just gently cruised the coast in front of us as we watched.  We lost sight of him just after he passed close to the marina entrance.  We are pretty sure he didn't go into the marina as it shallows up right before the entrance.  That was quite a distance from our vantage point but would have been a great shot with a long lens if we had it.  We could see Sari Timur right behind his tail flukes as he sounded that last time.

We have booked our tickets to Orlando and will be heading down to Ft Lauderdale where Pauline has a couple of yacht courses booked and Mark hopes to find work.  We are not sure if that will pan out or not but we hope it will as this would fill a void in the cruising kitty and give us the references and experience to work during the winter months while we are exploring N. America.  For you Florida followers we will make it a two night stop in Merritt Island to see and stay with relatives.  We also hope to stop in Jensen Beach for lunch or non alcoholic drinks as we have to be in Ft Lauderdale before dark on Sunday.  We will have to see the rest of you north of Orlando on our way back.  Not sure when that will be.  Probably March if we are successful at finding work, November if we are not.