Day One by Margot Justes

For the first time, I decided to keep a daily log of my vacation, and I would like to share it with you.

The morning arrival at the airport was uneventful, as was the flight to Ft. Lauderdale, just the way I like it.

The Hilton Ft Lauderdale Beach Resort is lovely, the room had a view of the ocean, and the hotel is hidden and a bit away from the hubbub and incredible loud environment along the A1A. Talk about vibe-the ground shook from the all the people drinking, enjoying themselves and the cars roaring up and down the street.

I will I say, I have never seen so many beautiful cars on parade; Lotus, Aston Martin, Ferrari, to name just a few. The revved engines purred like wild kittens. I have retained an affinity for sports cars, in my youth I used follow formula one races.

We decided to eat at Café Casablanca. I had a Moroccan sampler, how can one go to Café Casablanca and not order a Moroccan dish. I also had a traditional gratinee French onion soup. It was almost as good as the ones I used to have in Paris many years ago, in the old market place known as Les Halles; it no longer exists.  

My Moroccan dish had the best ever roasted eggplant with lots of garlic; nice chunks of eggplant and garlic. I love eggplant and garlic. The vampires stayed away, there was so much of it. Positively yummy. Hummus, tabouleh salad served with warm pita completed the meal. The hummus was rich with olive oil and a tad spicy.

The restaurant is situated across street from the water, and dimly lit, so even the atmosphere was pure magic. I highly recommend it. Did I forget to mention we sat outside? We did, and the view was fantastic.

A short stroll back to the hotel in the evening along the shore was delightful. We decided to sit by the Jacuzzi and dunk our feet, too tired to change. I helped my friend down the stoop, she didn’t want to get wet. Alas, I didn’t have a firm grip on her hands, she missed the step and flopped in the water. No worries about getting wet. Much too late for that.

At first we weren’t sure whether to laugh or not, but that lasted for about a second, after making sure she wasn’t hurt, we burst out laughing.  The water was warm and the bubbles soothed my aching feet. Not a bad day-not at all. In fact it was perfect.

Cheers,

Margot  Justes

A Hotel in Paris

A Hotel in Bath

www.mjustes.com