A visit to Weston just outside of Fort Lauderdale, FL

Vacation Rick sends his greetings once again. Saturday we left the beautiful white sand beach of Fort Meyers Beach. We had a good time and enjoyed the week at the Lahainna Inn Resort. The water was beautiful, the weather was warm and pleasant, very low key, and a time of reflection and connection. The only complaint was voiced by Wendy, it had to do with my smelly watershoes I used to stand in the water as I surf fished. It was a legitimate complaint. Salty wet shoes have a unique disgusting smell about them. Enough said about that.
The drive across Florida to Weston(declared the best kept secret of South Florida, or at least that is what we were told), just outside of Fort Lauderdale, on the edge of the Everglades, was pleasant. It took about an hour and forty-five minutes. On arriving we looked for a place to eat lunch. We pulled into a beautiful shopping center called The Weston Town Center. Very classy upscale stores. We found this Italian ristorante and pizzeria called Tarantella's. The pizza was very good and Wendy’s salad was excellent. She gave the dressing high marks. The service was equal to the food. If you are ever in the area it is worth a visit.
Time to check into the Vacation Village, a time share resort on Racquet Club Rd. just off of Bonaventure Blvd. Typical check in. Welcome you, explanation of the amenities and offers, solicit an appointment for a free breakfast and time share tour with a gift offering for a down payment of twenty dollars, your choice of either tickets to a restaurant or a dinner cruise or a seventy-five dollar gift card. A few other offers and discounts and enough of this, finally on our way to our condo. Settled in and went to Publix for the weeks groceries. Checked out the pools and where things were located in the resort.
Sunday was a day of relaxation. Warm and sunny, a good day to spend at the pool and surfing the internet. In between caught some quarters of the NFL football games for the day. New England, what a blowout. Great game for the Titans. The Browns, nothing to cheer about there.
Monday morning we went to Everglades Holiday Park for an airboat guided tour of the everglades. Typical tourist trap, the airboat ride was nice and somewhat informative, we did see one alligator and plenty of iguana, which I did think was unusual. The iguana were as big as the alligator. We skipped the alligator show, not interested in seeing someone annoy the alligators. The rest of the day we spent at the pool and played cards.
Tuesday arrived and the dreaded time share tour. The breakfast was okay and then, the torcher began and lasted for over three hours. We wanted to be polite but, wanted the gift card even more. The sales person went on and on. I told Wendy, "It comes to the point where a person can talk themselves out of a deal and that is where this salesperson has arrived." We looked around us, the room was filled with people in agony as their personal salesperson barraged them with their presentations. The moment arrived for the heavy handed representative to move in. We had enough and before they could speak I said, "We have been here for over three hours, we have to go, our answer is no." "You don’t want to hear the excellent offer we have for you, just two thousand dollars?" "No we don’t!" It finally ended and we got the gift card. Lunch at Pineras, played cards, read books, and watched television. It was basically cloudy and cooler so, it wasn’t a good pool day.
Wednesday it rained off and on. We took a drive to Fort Lauderdale Beach. The surf was rough, a lot of wind. We had lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. by the Boardwalk. Beautiful view of the beach. Spent some money at the stores nearby. Returned to the resort and played cards, surfed the net, and whatever else to fill the time. Hopefully tomorrow the rain will clear out.
Thursday the sun finally made its appearance. Played "Spite and Malice" in the morning and then went to the pool for a farewell dip and final rays of sun before seeing the movie "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" around 4:00 pm. Thoroughly enjoyed the movie and we could tell the audience enjoyed it too. An older woman sitting next to me at the end asked me if that was a true story or just story from a book. If it was a true story it certainly would be a curious case. I told her it was a story from a book. Tomorrow we will be leaving early in the morning returning to our home in Charleston, SC.
Have a great day!!!-Vacation Rick

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