Month: June 2022

Posted on

Mansions, Yachts & Fort Lauderdale Air & Sea Show

Scott and I took the Fort Lauderdale Water Taxi to Fort Lauderdale Beach, which included a guided tour of mansions along the way. It was our first weekend together after being apart almost two months and luckily for us, Fort Lauderdale was hosting their annual Air & Sea Show at the beach. I bought special event tickets on the water taxi, which picked us up at Stop 1 at the Stranahan house.

Great way to view mansions and yachts

The water taxi is a very affordable and great way to get a tour in Fort Lauderdale. They offer sunset cruises, regular cruises and cruises for special events. On board, they offer water, soda, beer & wine for purchase. Download their app for easy ticket purchases. There are 10 stops for the water taxi. The water trolley is free and only makes a few stops near Las Olas.

Along the way, a guide will tell you facts about the mansions you pass by. The home below, has a great setup with a corner lot and room for all kinds of water toys.

Another great way to tour the canals, is by Tiki Bar boat! Here you bring your own booze and motor along the way. Scott and I are going to try and hop on one next weekend!

This house was built on stilts because the owner wanted to prepare for sea level rise. Read all about that here.

Yachts and more yachts

As we followed the New River toward the beach, we came upon a large sand bar that folks love to party at. Here you can stand waist deep and stay cool in the hot sun. Unfortunately, the restaurant boat you see here in the middle (Jay’s Sandbar Food Boat) sank a few days after we shot this photo.

Luxury living

There is certainly no shortage of luxury along this tour. It’s amazing the amount of money that is sitting along the canal, from the multi-million mansions to luxury yachts.

The river certainly was a hub bub of marine traffic. If you can imagine, that’s a fuel dock on the right. Those boats were bobbin up and down while trying to fuel. No thank you.

Not sure what to make of this yacht? We’re guessing it’s about 75′ long, but the paint job is something else. If you know the story here, be sure to share it with us.

This mansion is known as the Fort Lauderdale White House – you can probably guess why. It recently sold for $24.5 million dollars and is the most iconic mansion in Fort Lauderdale.

You can also take the Jungle Queen Riverboat down the river.

For those of you who know me well, you know I am a die-hard Washington State University Cougar Alum and our biggest rival are the UW Huskies. At first I thought this 190′ Feadship was a UW yacht, but it’s actually owned by David MacNeil, founder of WeatherTech. That’s probably where the W comes from.

Fort Lauderdale Air Show

Scott and I hopped off the water taxi and walked a few blocks to the Las Olas Beach. We couldn’t believe the amount of traffic that lined Fort Lauderdale Beach Boulevard! We were glad we took the water taxi and walked.

The air show was over the water and the beach, which draws thousands of people both on land and the sea. Check out the line of boats out in the ocean. (Hard to see in this photo – the video does a better job)

The airshow was great, but of course, we’re a bit biased. We love Seafair and the Blue Angels.

This crazy house, was built by Wayne Huizenga who was a very famous entrepreneur and businessman. He owned Auto Nation, Waste Management, the Miami Dolphins and was co-owner of Blockbuster Video. After his death in 2018, the house was sold to Chuck West, founder of a premium pet food chain.

While there’s no home on this lot, they do have a table and a couple of chairs.

A great way to explore

This is just another reason we are glad we moved to Fort Lauderdale. There is so much to see and do, especially on water.

As always, thank you for following our journey. Please be sure to subscribe to our blog and our YouTube channel (video below). It’s exciting to see our channel grow and we’re committed to providing you great content. You can also follow us on social @BoatingJourney #BoatingJourney

Cheers, Ally & Scott

Posted on

Driving through seven states in three days!

In our last blog Scott and I drove from Seattle to Arizona and now we had to drive through seven states to get to our new home in Fort Lauderdale. We left Phoenix, AZ on Sunday morning before dawn and the desert had a beautiful yet eerie feeling as we began our drive on I-10. Today would be our longest day of the entire drive, with fourteen hours of driving before arriving to San Antonio. Unfortunately, we forgot that they were two hours ahead, so it took up sixteen hours of our day.

As the sun rose, it became obvious that this drive would be flat and boring until we reached San Antonio. When something other than tumble weeds passed by, we had to take a photo!

Five states later, we arrive in San Antonio, TX

By the time we arrived to San Antonio, it as 8pm and we were exhausted. Then we had to empty the truck like we did every night. Thank God the hotel let us keep the luggage cart in our room with all of our belongings on it.

Lucky for us, there was a great restaurant just across the parking lot called 54th Street Grill. The food was fantastic as were the drinks!

Our trip was coming to an end and we couldn’t wait to get to Mobile Alabama! This would be one of the shortest legs, taking us ten hours from San Antonio. It would be a direct shot due east from San Antonio.

It was a bit foggy and hazy when we left San Antonio, making the sunrise calm and beautiful. Since we left before the hotel was open for breakfast, we were on the hunt for a place to stop.

Not wanting to waste time at a sit down restaurant, we decided to stop at Buc-ees convenience store. We had heard that all of the Buc-ees stores are huge, so we had to check it out!

As soon as you walk in, you realize this is no ordinary convenience store or gas station.

Outrunning the storm through three states!

Before Scott and I left the hotel, the news was warning viewers about dangerous storms that were headed our way. It was my turn to drive, so my goal was to try and stay ahead of the storms.

Unfortunately, my luck ran out just as I was driving across the Calcasieu River Bridge. Visibility was zero and most cars around me, slowed down to 5mph and limped across the bridge with their flashers on.

Finally, we broke free of the storm and found sunlight again.

Welcome to Alabama

We passed through Mississippi in about forty-five minutes and soon we were on the Gulf of Mexico! I don’t think I have ever been so excited to see water after days of driving thru the desert.

After about 10 hours, we finally arrived in Mobile, Alabama. Once again we had to unload the truck and by this time, Scott had it down to a science.

Fort Lauderdale – here we come!

We were so excited to get “home” and finish the last leg of our long journey across ten states. The weather was warming up, which created lots of fog along the way.

Soon, the terrain started to change and we started to see lush trees and lots of grass. We were not in the desert anymore!

What we didn’t realize was how buggy this leg of the trip would be. We had to pull over about every 45 minutes to clean the windshield. Before we headed home, we had to go to the car wash. Here we ordered a bug remover wash. LOL!!

Five days and ten states later, we finally made it “home”. While we didn’t have any furniture, we were simply happy to be reunited once again and to begin this journey!

As always, thank you for following our blog and our journey. Be sure to following our channel (link below) and follow us on social media @BoatingJourney #BoatingJourney as we begin our search for our next boat. We have a lot to learn about insurance, auctions, hurricane requirements, etc. Next week, we’ll share our first weekend in Fort Lauderdale and we figure out a way to get on the water!

Cheers, Scott and Ally

Posted on

Florida or Bust

At the end of April, I flew home to make the cross country trip from Seattle to Florida with Scott. I was only home a couple of days and then we headed out. It was a bit surreal saying goodbye to the our home for the past three years.

The original plan was to not have a lot of possessions in the truck, as we would need to empty the truck every night at the hotel. Why? Thieves love to target hotels along I-5 looking for vehicles with personal possessions. Well, our plan didn’t go accordingly.

Scott and I began our drive to Florida on Friday afternoon taking the I-5 route. Since it was the end of April, we were not sure how the weather would be going across the Rockies or the Plain states. We left Seattle at 4:30am and it was 37 degrees. Goodbye Seattle, hello Florida!

The Long Road Ahead to Florida

I had driven I-5 to Arizona when I was in college and this was Scott’s first time. Driving through Portland, OR is never exciting. It was rush hour when we drove through and as we got closer to the middle of the state, the fog moved in.

We stopped at one rest stop, Cabin Creek and it was actually a historic location.

The Prettiest Part of the Drive to Florida

Probably the prettiest part of the drive was driving thru Oregon’s Grant’s Pass and in Northern California. There was some construction, so going over the passes with huge semi trucks was a bit nerve racking, but after a few hundred miles, we got used it it. We were also surprised to see snow on the passes! Grant’s pass only has an elevation of 960′. our last home was at 825′.

Our biggest shocker was the price of gas in California. It was over $6/gallon and that was painful. We had decided to fill up every time the tank was only half full, just to be safe.

As we drove towards Mount Shasta, it was sad to see the remnants of last year’s forest fire that devastated the area.

Sacramento Bound

Scott and I had made reservations a few weeks prior for each stop. Our first night would be in Sacramento. We chose to stay close to I-5, as we simply needed a place to grab dinner and rest our eyes. The first leg took us 12 hours.

At the hotel, we lucked out as we were able to use the luggage cart and keep it in our room overnight. That really helped us out.

Great Thai Restaurant near the Hotel

We stayed at a Hilton property and just across the road, they recommended the Manaao Thai Restaurant. Though it wasn’t big, it was family owned and the food and service was outstanding.

Day Two Florida Bound via Phoenix

The following morning, we left at dawn and the drive was beautiful. It was also the beginning of our very FLAT drive to Florida.

Our plan was to stop for lunch just outside Pasadena, once we went over the Grapevine. That drive was uneventful and not windy like it normally is.

After stopping for lunch, I took the driver’s seat. Our goal was to get into Phoenix by 6pm. However, once we reached the city limits, I-10 was closed for construction and we were detoured all of the city. Luckily, it didn’t delay us too much and we unloaded the truck quickly. This time, they would not let us keep the luggage cart. Bummer.

The best part of this leg was our good friends from Renton (who now live in Phoenix), Nick and Michelle came and joined us for dinner. It was the perfect way to end the evening and say a proper goodbye.

Tune in next week, as we finish this epic road trip across the US. As always, thank you for following our journey! Be sure to subscribe to our boating blog and also our YouTube Channel (video link below). You can also follow us on social @BoatingJourney #BoatingJourney. Cheers, Scott and Ally

Posted on

2022 Palm Beach International Boat Show

2022 Palm Beach Boat Show

I had only been in Fort Lauderdale two weeks, when I had to work at the 2022 Palm Beach International Boat Show. The show ran from May 24th thru May 27th. As you know, I’ve worked many shows in the Pacific Northwest, plus Scott and I have been to the Miami and Annapolis boat shows. The Palm Beach International Boat Show was unlike any other show I have attended.  The show is located in downtown Palm Beach along Flagler Drive and it features over $1.2 billion dollars worth of yachts and accessories.  Here I saw hundreds of boats on the water including 8’ inflatables to  Superyachts up to 300 feet in length. There was also a huge display on land, including boats, accessories and food vendors.

OneWater Yacht Group Display

While I’m used to working a very large space with over a 100 boats which are mostly runabouts, this was a very different experience.  OneWater Yacht Group had fifteen yachts on display and we had a large tent with an open bar for guests to relax in.

Chris Craft had a very cool design center at the show, which was a show stopper.

The Sunseeker Predator 65 made its’ global debut during the show and it was awesome to be a part of such a media frenzy. We had magazines lined up to do a feature of this beautiful yacht.

So many yachts at the Palm Beach International Boat Show

Everywhere I turned, there were huge displays and gorgeous yachts.   I did have the opportunity to tour one of our superyachts on display, a 2005  Palmer Johnson 123. You can say we are not in Kansas anymore! You can find a link to the yacht here.

The superyacht marina was massive. One yacht was so big it had a helicopter and submarine on board. I took a stroll over to the super yacht display to meet a mutual friend.

I was stunned by not only the size of the vessels, but also the level of luxury each manufacturer put into their displays.

The Palm Beach International Boat Show also features smaller boats

From the super yacht marina, I headed over to the smaller boat display. Here they had runabouts, towboats, inflatables, center consoles plus cigarette boats and some very unique vessels. It was obvious that speed is a necessity here, with so many boats having four or more outboards.

One crazy thing I saw was a swarm of bees on a rocket launcher. The following day, that swarm must have been swatted at, because they were flying thru the show and it was crazy!

One irony of working the show, was that the Sea Ray display was right across the water from our tent. If you have been following me over the years, you know that I spent a lot of time marketing the Sea Ray L590 Fly that we (former company) had in stock for a long time. Soon after, we brought in the Sundancer 320 and 370 Outboard, which I spent months marketing. Here these three models were staring at me the entire time during the show!

Vendors at the Palm Beach International Boat Show

The vendor tents had a ton of vendors on display featuring everything from shirts, fishing equipment, boat accessories to food and beverage. I wish I would have spent more time checking out the vendors, but I was working the show and didn’t have time to wander.

Working the Palm Beach International Boat Show was a great experience and I can’t wait for Scott to be able to experience it next year. If you have not attended this show before, I highly recommend it.

As always, thank you for following our journey. Be sure to subscribe to our vlog (video link below) and follow us on social @BoatingJourney #BoatingJourney. Tune in next week as we start our five day road trip moving from Seattle to Fort Lauderdale. Cheers, Ally