It's the End of Our Trip As We Know It...

So, Saturday, June 4th was the day we debarked the cruise ship.

So sad.

Luckily for us, we had the foresight to realize that we would clearly need some time to unwind after that big, bad stressful cruise and booked a couple of extra night in Ft. Lauderdale at the cutest little resort ever, Cocobelle.

We arrived fairly early after a surprisingly hassle-free debarking process, and just a quick taxi ride to Cocobelle.

Of course we had all of our luggage, and it wasn't time to check in the room yet, but the guy told us we could leave out luggage int he outdoor corridor for a few hours. Things must be pretty laid back there {or in Germany, where this family is from} because he acted like we were crazy for having some concerns about leaving all of our luggage out in the open. He said we'd be the first in six years to lose anything, and why would anyone want our luggage when they have their own? HA!

Anyway, we loosened up a bit and just took a backpack of essentials valuables with us and hit the beach! It was beautiful- just a short walk, very clean, great weather. Ahh...



We spent a good amount of time at the beach before hopping over to The Deck Restaurant for some lunch- alligator bites and impressive burgers! Then, we returned to Cocobelle and spent the afternoon at the very nicely kept pool. Ahh...

After a great nap and a shower, we ventured out to check out Ft. Lauderdale's night scene, specifically Saturday Nite Alive event. There were great street vendors and live entertainment at every turn, all along A1A, and all FREE! We saw the legendary Elbo Room. Lynzee and I found a booth that had hair feathers, and we each got a couple. We wound up at Da Big Kahuna Restaurant & Tiki Bar. The food was OK, but we really wished we had decided to stop and eat here. Next time!



We had a really nice evening.



Sunday morning {also our actual anniversary} was great. We got up fairly early to get a start on our day on the water taxi. We met an interesting fella who deserves his own post {maybe someday, maybe someday...} named Marc with a "C". He kept us amused the entire 45 minutes we had to wait for the taxi!



We headed to Las Olas Boulevard for some shopping and sight-seeing. And, when we saw one of these, we couldn't resist stopping for lunch. I know, I know. Try something different, right? Well, it was delicious!



Although we skipped cheesecake, we quickly found ourselves at Kilwin's, and all good intentions went down the drain for the most expensive ice cream of our lives! HA! I also couldn't resist picking the girls up some gummy alligators. We did some shopping, saw some amazing homes on the water taxi. A-MA-ZING. Headed back to the resort to swim and chill.

Later in the evening, we took the water taxi our for an evening spin, stopped at Briny's Irish Pub for dinner, and returned home to pack and catch some sleep before our long trip home on Monday.



It was an awesome, amazing trip. We had a blast. But it was equally as awesome to return home to those sweet peas, share about our trip, and get some great big bear hugs!!

Thanks for hanging in there with me on all these vacation posts! Back to regularly scheduled programming posting very soon!