Dad's 96th birthday was later in June, and with Bob's encouragement, I steeled myself for my first trip away from home without Mandy in a long time. Bob and Dorothy and I all flew together from Denver, connecting through Houston, to Ft Lauderdale, then drove our rental car up to BallenIsles to meet up with Adele and Dad at her house.
Jennefer gave us a ride to the airport, in plenty of time to have breakfast at Pour La France.
The Three Musketeers, fellow travelers, after boarding our flight to Houston.
Shortly after arriving in Houston, we discovered that our 90 minute layover had changed to an 8 hour stay. Here's Bob, posing with a few hundred of our new friends at Houston airport.
We found a nice table to wait for the schedule to update, eat our lunch from Pizzeria Uno, and charge our phones.We were there long enough, that all our devices were charged to 100%, and we had still had time to scarf down a Fajitas dinner, just before boarding the plane to Ft Lauderdale.
Arriving at Ft Lauderdale, I shot this picture out the window of the plane. They usually don't come out this nice. I love seeing the lights of a big city from the air.
Knowing we were supposed to arrive in the late afternoon, Bob booked us a room at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Ft Lauderdale, near the airport. That turned out to be a really great choice, since with the additional delay, we didn't get settled in, until almost midnight. The next morning, I wanted to find someplace besides the hotel buffet for breakfast, so I looked on the Yelp app, and found The Harbor Cafe, which sounded nicer, and not far from the hotel. It turned out to be exactly what we were looking for. Good food and nice service, without the inflated hotel prices. Bob laughed at the "nautical theme" description on Yelp, so I just had to take a pic of him with the ship's wheel in the background.
Dorothy and me taking a selfie at the Harbor Cafe.
We met up with Dad and Adele at her house. She has such a nice, clean, spacious feeling place. We "kids" stayed at her house, since she has much more room for visitors than Dad does.
We had brunch at the BallenIsles Country Club, several days we were there. They had a really nice selection of healthy foods, and Bob especially liked they way Adele had the chef chop up his salads. Dad and Adele would often run into their friends there.
We visited with Dad at his place, and then walked next door, to visit with my Uncle Bill, who's a year older than Dad, and although he's alive and kicking, he's not doing as well as Dad at getting around on his own. Here's a pic of the three of us Hushing men.
Dad and Adele habitually have their weekend bagel-and-coffee breakfast at the Club. It's clearly more about the socializing. The way people came and went, visiting with them at their table, reminded me of my college days, when a bunch of us would do something similar with a table at the snack bar. People would come and hang out, go to class, other people would come and hang out, and usually at least one of us would be at the table for most of the morning.
The landscaping around Dad's condo is so lush and green.
Uncle Bill called to report a tree branch down, and the possibility that the driveway was blocked, and we were all trapped there indefinitely. We all went outside to check the damage, but it was limited to Bill's yard. Dad says Bill's world is very small these days, and he tends to project what he sees in his backyard, out into the the rest of the world.
I insisted on dinner at the Waterway Cafe, because the last time I was there for Dad's 80th birthday, I had the most amazing Key Lime pie. I thought it wasn't as good this time, so Bob and Dorothy and I decided this week was going to be the "quest for the best Key Lime pie." Dad and Adele are looking pretty good in this pic!
Dorothy looked pretty cute, in the T-shirt I got her from Waterway Cafe.
We "kids" insisted on going out for breakfast every morning. Adele and Dad don't eat breakfast, so we were on our own.We found a great breakfast at Cafe Bistro, not too far away.
Bob thought I was still taking the above selfie. Caught him doing something silly. He liked this picture so much, he made it his profile picture.
Dad and Bill's condos on the north shore of Lake Worth have beautiful landscaping, and there's even a marina right offshore from the condo. We went for a short walk around the property with Dad.
Spoto's Oyster Bar in Stuart earned our award for Best Key Lime Pie of the trip. They also had a delicious oyster plate, potstickers, and crab cakes - everything was awesome. And there was a beautiful water view of the St Lucie River going under Highway 1.
