|
I'm
back home from a delightful four-day visit
to
South Florida that started with the South
Florida Domainers group meeting
at Secret Millionaire John Ferber's house
in Boynton Beach on Thursday night (March
31, 2011). As I told you Friday, we spent the
following day visiting Ferber's Domain
Holdings Group LLC office in Delray
Beach and touring that beautiful oceanside
community (Delray Beach is also the city that
hosted the first
ever T.RA.F.F.I.C. conference in
October 2004). The
next
T.R.A.F.F.IC conference will be held
Oct. 16-19, 2011 at the fabulous Ritz
Carlton in Ft. Lauderdale Beach and
if you plan to go I would highly recommend
spending an extra day or two in Ft. Lauderdale
to enjoy the spectacular scenery in that
part of the world (T.R.A.F.F.I.C. will have
their cabanas overlooking the Atlantic
Ocean open the two days before the show
(Friday and Saturday, Oct. 14 & 15)
so you can get in some networking as well
as enjoy the sunshine before the main event
opens on Sunday, Oct. 16). 
The
view from inside one of the Ritz Carlton
cabanas that
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. will take over during
their next show in October 2011. If
you have just one extra day for sightseeing I
would recommend spending it on one of the city's
Water Taxi boats that will give you a stunning
view of the city's magnificent multi-million
dollar waterfront homes and yachts. The Water
Taxis traverse the Intracoastal Waterway
both day and night and one $20 ticket
lets you get on and off at more than a dozen hot
spots as often as you want (if you never get off
the boat, it covers the entire circuit in about
three hours with the operators providing details
on who owns or lives in the most palatial houses
along the way). My
wife, Diana, and I spent Saturday
(April 2) doing the Water Taxi tour with four
fellow industry couples who live in the Ft.
Lauderdale area (Rick & Alina Schwartz,
Howard & Barbara Neu, Michael
& Judi Berkens and Ray Neu and
his girlfriend Kimberly Ann). Below are
some photos and highlights from the day that
will show you what to expect if you decide to
take advantage of the Water Taxi service when
you come to T.R.A.F.F.I.C. next fall.
T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Co-Founders Howard Neu (left) and Rick
Schwartz on the balcony of Rick's
penthouse condo on Ft. Lauderdale Beach (the
building over Howard's left shoulder is
the
Ritz Carlton Hotel where the next
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference will be held Oct.
16-19, 2011.
The
day started with everyone invited to meet at
Rick Schwartz's penthouse condo on Ft.
Lauderdale Beach, which sits just south of the
Ritz Carlton and has a spectacular panoramic
view of both the ocean to the east and the
Intracoastal Waterway to the west (this is a
vacation home for Rick whose main residence is
in Boca Raton).
View
of the Intracoastal Waterway from Rick's
wrap around balcony. There
is a Water Taxi stop a short two-block walk
west of the Ritz Carlton. In the photo above you
can see one of the Water Taxi boats (just to the
left of the building in the foreground) leaving
the dock. The boats stop at each designated
location every 30 minutes or so throughout the
day and into the night. On a perfect,
sunny South Florida day, our group walked to the
nearby stop (#4 on the map you can pick up at
any stop) and a boat arrived just a few minutes
later. We bought our tickets on board and were
quickly on our way.
The
domain industry group who toured Ft.
Lauderdale by water on
Saturday April 2, 2011. Front row (left to
right): Judi Berkens, Barbara Neu,
Howard Neu, Alina Schwartz and Diana
Jackson. Back row (left to right):
Michael Berkens, Kimberly Ann, Ray
Neu, Rick Schwartz and Ron Jackson.
Above:
One of the Water Taxi boats we boarded to
get an up close and
personal look at Ft. Lauderdale and its
amazing homes and yachts.
Below:
Judi and Michael Berkens on board as the
trip gets underway.
The
boat passed a seemingly endless line of eye-popping
mansions with accompanying yachts that cost
as much or more than the homes they were docked
at (the houses all fall in the seven or eight
figure range). Many are owned by some of the
world's most famous names in business and
entertainment and who owned what was pointed out
by the captain's mate.
One
of the hundreds of mansions and yachts
you will see while cruising the Intracoastal
Waterway. At
mid day we decided to disembark for lunch at a
popular waterfront restaurant, the 15th
Street Fisheries (see the photo below).
After lunch, we waited just a few minutes for
the next Water Taxi to come along, then
re-boarded to continue the tour.
Above:
Another one of the showplace homes lining the
Intracoastal Waterway. Below:
Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen's
yacht Meduse (one of several he owns)
was
among the big boats we passed (there is a
covered helicopter on the back of Allen's
yacht). 
Before
we returned to our original boarding point we
disembarked one more time for refreshments at
the Briny Riverfront Irish Pub in the
popular Las Olas district. Judging from
the photo below, we may have to limit Judi and
Barbara to soft drinks next time!
After
regrouping at Rick's condo for some enjoyable
conversation we decided to walk over to the Ritz
Carlton for an evening snack before everyone
headed home. This day was a perfect way to wrap
up our South Florida visit and left us looking
forward to coming back in October for
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. (if not before). We
headed back home to Tampa Sunday but
couldn't resist stopping at the famous and
unbelievably massive Sawgrass
Mills outlet mall (located in Sunrise,
just a few miles northwest of Ft. Lauderdale) on
the way. Howard and Barbara (who live just
minutes away) joined us there for what we
thought would be a three-hour excursion. It ran over six hours instead and we still
didn't see it all! Yet another, reason to
plan on spending some extra time in this special
part of the world next October. We hope to see
many of you then as well.
|
