Even though we are back to Fort Lauderdale and staying aboard our great ship for another week we had to be up early; for our tour and to clear immigration. Breakfast this morning was being served in
the Lido at 6:00am for full but continental started at 5:30am. We went to breakfast shortly after 6 and then back to our stateroom to collect our Passport's and money for our Harboor Tour.
Everything
went very smooth getting on and off ship today. This morning after walking out of the Pier Terminal we only had about 50 feet to go to our tour bus. First we started touring the City by bus and then transfered to a Harbor Cruise our boat, then back to
the tour bus again.
It was a very interesting drive thru the city to parts which we haven't been to before.. However halfway through this part our bus driver pulled over to stop on a bridge for
us to look up the waterway at all the beautiful sail boats, cabin cruisers and multi million dollar homes. This was when things got very interesting and delayed. The tour company has permission to stop on this bridge and have done so for almost 7 years,
even though it is on a bike path.
You guessed it, we hit a cyclist, even though our signal lights were on the cyclist kept coming and got hit by our bus. He (the cyclist) was not hurt, he was
probably going much faster than us as we were almost stopped. This incident held us up by about 25 to 30 minutes while we waited for the police to come and then we transfered over to another tour bus. Actually it must have been 2 tour busses as this
one already had some passengers from the Alure on it and we still didn't fill the bus. Plus I believe that if all had continued on our original tour, there would have been some who would not have gotten to the airport in time for their flights home.
After continuing on this bus and a new tour guide we finished our land tour and then went to a Marina where we boarded the "Carrie B" our Harbor tour boat. Even though it was a hot day we choose to
go directly up to the top where we would have a better view. They do three Cruise tours a day and we were the first for the day.
We toured in and out of so many waterways that if i had to show
you where we went i would get lost in the first 10 minutes. We saw probably 1000's of all kinds of boats from small sail boats to million dollar cabin cruisers. And the homes, Wow, These were something else again, I just looked at all those expensive
homes and toys those people have and i bet they are no happier than you and I. Maybe not even as happy. Also I just think of all the good they could do with some of that money if they put it towards feeding the hungry of the world or finding cures for our
many diseases. Oh I'm sure they do contribute but I think they could do a little more and live a little more like normal people. Ok, off my soap box for today.