Breakfast at the Embassy Suites, in Fort Lauderdale, opened at 6 am. By the time we arrived almost every table was occupied. I joined the queue and picked up a freshly prepared cheese and mushroom omelette.
We planned to make this first full day in Fort Lauderdale our ‘shopping day’ at one of the local malls.
Our cruise through the Panama Canal started in Fort Lauderdale and would take us to Aruba, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and finally San Francisco and then onto Monterey.
Day 2 was Tuesday the 10th October and we went to the Sawgrass Mills Mall.
Clear blue skies at the start of the day
We had blue skies when we looked out from our balcony.
After our breakfast I had had a quick look at the Sawgrass Mills leaflet we’d picked up. This claimed to be one of the largest outlet malls in the country and was in a city called Sunrise. In the leaflet there was a number to call to order a $30 round-trip shuttle bus. After finally getting through we were told that the service no longer ran from Fort Lauderdale.
My first technology fail was my inability to get the Uber app working on my iPhone. We had WiFi but no mobile service as Vodafone UK would charge £5 a day to use a US mobile network. Uber wanted to send me SMS messages so that was that for Uber.
I next tried Yellow Cabs who quoted $42 one way to the mall. The hotel concierge service had quoted $55 one way to the mall. To remove some uncertainty we decided to opt for the hotel’s service and we climbed aboard the Chevy Suburban.
Sawgrass Mills Outlet Mall
The ride was over 30 minutes along busy Interstates as wells as other 8 lane State Highways. As we passed the airport perimeter an Antonov cargo plane was being unloaded – definitely something to look for on the way back.
We were at the mall at 9.45 am and walked around outside past all the high fashion brand shops. We walked to a section of the inside mall that contained all the shops were looking for – shoes, jeans and luggage.
The mall was surprisingly empty and we were the first customers in the shops. The outlets in the mall believed in aggressive pricing. For example trainers were all ‘reduced’ and had other offers added such as 40% off or a second pair 50% off. None of the displayed prices included state sales tax at 6%. This practice did lead to some strange displayed prices such as Diet Coke at $1.89 that after tax became a more manageable $2.
After trainers, jeans and a new suitcase we went for a wander through the rest of the huge inside mall. After a couple of hours and no more purchases we asked a shop assistant to call our driver to come and pick us up.
By now the mall was busy and the temperature outside had climbed enough to make being outside uncomfortable. Luckily our driver came after about 30 minutes.
This time when we passed the airport I was ready with my phone and here’s the Antonov, now closed up.
Restful afternoon
Our late lunch was the remains of last night’s pepperoni pizza heated up in our kitchen’s microwave.
Now it was time to sit by the hotel’s pool and relax in the sun for the rest of the afternoon.
At 5.30 pm we were back in the hotel having crisps/humus plus carrot sticks and cucumber to accompany our Merlot and Pinot Grigio wines. The bar was a lot busier than the previous evening and at times the bar even ran out of wine glasses.
By the time we had finished in the bar there had been a downpour of rain followed by rainbow across our part of Fort Lauderdale. After a shower and a change of clothes we left the hotel for the nearby Outback Steakhouse.
Outback Steakhouse
We had eaten at this chain of Australian themed steakhouses many times before in Denver, Cancun and in Las Vegas. As we crossed 10th Avenue the heavens opened again and we had to shelter under some trees hoping that the rain would stop. After 5 minutes the trees were so wet that they were not providing us with any shelter so we had to make a quick dash over the road to the restaurant.
We were seated at the back of the restaurant and once we had caught our breath we ordered drinks. I settled on a small draft Sam Adams and Linda a glass of white wine.
Outback are famous for their ‘Bloomin’ Onion’ starter. This is a large onion, cut so that it is open like a flower with a dip in the middle. So big that it could be a meal in itself. My main was a Surf and Turf made up of a 9 oz steak with large shrimps in coconut butter.
The onion when it came was very greasy and not as remembered in our other visits. My main came with its Aussie fries and Linda’s main came with only half its chicken strips as the others had been lost on the floor as it came from the kitchen. My meal was otherwise OK with the asparagus, steak and shrimp all being excellent.
I perhaps should not have had a bottle of Blue Mountain beer as I had to add the remains of my steak to the chicken strips in a takeaway box. My two beers cost just about the price of the glass of white wine – which by all accounts was not as good as the free wine at the hotel happy hour!
The rain had stopped by the time we left the restaurant and then it was again time to try and beat the jet lag with more sleep.