Turnover

Saturday, January 31, 2026

Zuiderdam arrived in Miami at dawn.

7:00 a.m.

7:00 a.m.

7:01 a.m.

7:01 a.m.

7:05 a.m.

Today is called Turnaround Day. About 90% of the passengers on Zuiderdam will be disembarking this morning. That’s just a guess. I don’t know the exact number. Their replacements will begin arriving two or three hours later in a carefully choreographed water ballet. By 4:00 pm, ships will begin to sail away from Miami and nearby Fort Lauderdale.

We are staying onboard for the next cruise segment. We could get off for a few hours, but we decided not to for two reasons. First, the port traffic is so chaotic. We didn’t know how hard it would be to get a taxi or Uber into central Miami. There will be about eight ships turning around today at the port of Miami, so we would have to compete with the departing passengers and the new arrivals to get from and to the ship. It didn’t seem worth it to spend two hours sitting in a taxi in order to spend two or three hours on shore. The second reason is the weather. Much of Florida is experiencing an unprecedented cold spell. It was in the 40’s this morning and may not reach 60° by afternoon. It’s windy. It just won’t be very enjoyable walking around outside.

We will have a couple of hours between the time when the last passengers leave and the first crop of new passengers boards. The ship will be extremely quiet and nearly deserted during that interlude. Yes!

After a relaxing morning we decided to visit the library to see if any new books had become available. on the way back we discovered a bar we hadn’t really noticed earlier. The bar wasn’t open, but we chatted a bit with the bartender and perused the menu. The bartender said he would make us a drink if we wanted something. We thought it would be fun to try the Pirate Punch:

Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

We drank about 25% of it and got the rest “to go.” It lasted all day.

When it was time to sail, the Captain announced that the weather would be unpleasant. Once we are 20 miles out, we will hit rough seas and wind. He called it a “bomb cyclone.” The forecast calls for this weather to stay with us for the next two days, or longer. The Captain was right. It was quite chilly in the evening, and became very bumpy as soon as we moved away from the coast.

The ship seemed more crowded tonight at dinner. Maybe we didn’t sail at capacity last week. I think there may have been people on last week’s voyage who planned to arrive on Saturday and were prevented from doing so. Many flights were cancelled last weekend due to snow storms. These passengers were notified that they could join the ship at Amber Cove if they couldn’t get to Miami in time for last Saturday's departure. That would have been nearly halfway through the 7-day cruise. I suspect a lot of these passengers decided it wan’t worth it to spend their own money to get to the Dominican Republic to meet the ship for what was left of the cruse. This scenario illustrates why we always arrive at the city of embarkation at least two days early.

We left Miami in a spooky fog around 4:45 p.m. The ginormous Icon of the Seas was right behind us.

Icon of the Seas is in the center of this photo, taken from our aft-facing balcony

I forgot to mention that the show last night (January 30) was very good. It was called “Hey, Mr. DJ” and featured the ship’s resident singers and dancers. 

Today’s fabric is Cruise Ship Forward Facing Grid with Seabirds and Waves by sueshormanart for Spoonflower.

The Conch Republic

Friday, January 30, 2026

I feel the presence of Jimmy Buffet’s ghost. 

We finally made it to Key West, and it’s love at first sight. This town is full of history and charm. There are restaurants, bars, and restrained gift shops. There are museums, and cigar shops, and tidy white houses, and rock and roll. The ghosts of pirates, writers, presidents, poets and musicians haunt the imagination of visitors. People ride bikes and scooters and drive around in golf carts, as well as cars. It’s busy, but not especially crowded.

The view from our balcony

Coast Guard Cutter Ingham was the most decorated vessel in the Coast Guard fleet. She is now a museum.

Birds stood in formation on a dock for hours.

We started our morning with some geocaching in a small park, the Key West Historic Memorial Sculpture Garden. The garden was full of monuments dedicated to former distinguished citizens of Key West. The centerpiece of the park is a large sculpture called “The Wreckers.” The wreckers were the men who saved lives and cargo from the vessels that were wrecked on nearby reefs. Wrecking was Key West’s first economy. The city became the richest city per capita in the US in the 1800 as a result of the salvage fees earned by wrecking crews.

There were interesting blocks of local limestone throughout the park. I completed an earthcache about the properties of limestone that enabled it to function as an aquifer.

Two very different limestone blocks

Of all the memorials here, the memorial to Sandy Cornish was, perhaps, the most remarkable, and most gut-wrenching.

The photo of the plaque associated with this bust did not turn out well, so I have transcribed it below. Warning: The following paragraph describes self-harm.

Sandy Cornish

C1793-C1869

Sandy Cornish (Uncle Sandie) was born a slave in Maryland about 1793. He migrated to Florida in 1839 where with his wife Lillah’s help he was able to buy his freedom. In the late 1840’s his free papers were lost in a fire. Six unprincipled men captured him with the intent of selling him at the slave market in New Orleans. Uncle Sandie escaped and to prevent recapture he inflicted severe injuries on himself. In the public square of Port Leon, he cut the muscles of his ankle joint, plunged a knife in the other hip joint, and cut off the fingers of his left hand rendering himself unfit for labor and thus worthless as a slave. In the late 1840’s he came to Key West where he and Lillah bought a farm on what is now Truman Avenue near Simonton Street. Uncle Sandie supplied fresh vegetables and fruit to the island’s inhabitants. During the Civil War many Union soldiers visited Sandy’s fruit orchard. He was by all accounts a highly successful farmer, one of the richest men in Key West and a leader of the African American community. In 1864 he established the ongoing Cornish Chapel of the African Methodist Episcopal Church at 702 Whitehead Street. Uncle Sandie died in the late 1860’s, a wealthy, respected, and free citizen of Key West.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After the sculpture garden, we walked around the town center  and looked at some of the shops.

Cute crocheted creatures

There are chickens all over the place here. They just wander around wherever.

Next we found ourselves at the Little White House, where President Harry Truman maintained a home. He made eleven trips here during his presidency. The property is now Truman’s presidential museum (but the main Truman Library and Museum are in Missouri). 

Truman’s 1950 Cadillac limousine

The Little White House

While in Key West, President Truman signed a bill establishing the National Weather Service. The original NWS building is now an Inn.

We walked past a large park where they were getting set up for a big “red dirt” music festival called Mile 0 Fest. We then made our way back to the ship to join a food tour we had booked through HAL.

The food tour was great. Our guide, Mike, provided a lot of historical commentary in addition to shepherding our group of 16 to a series of memorable eateries. We started with some background on two nearby buildings - the Customs House and the Mel Fisher Museum.

The Customs House is a beautiful example of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture. It is now a museum and art gallery.

Mel Fisher was a man obsessed with finding a sunken treasure ship. It’s an interesting story, but too long to get into here. Fisher did eventually find a sunken Spanish ship, the Atocha, in 1975, after decades of hunting. After a U.S. Supreme Court case, Fisher’s company got to keep the treasure, worth over $450 million at that time. If you want to know more, Click here. If we ever get back to Key West, we will definitely plan a visit to Mel Fisher’s museum.

Our first food stop was Garbo’s. This restaurant started out as a food truck, but it now has a nice location on a lot with a large building for a bar and tables inside and outside. We could have a mahi taco or a Korean beef taco. I chose the mahi. The sauce and vegetables were good, but I could tell the fish had been frozen. It had no taste and an awful texture. 

Our next stop was Cuban Coffee Queen where we had a very delicious Cuban sandwich. Sorry, but the photo of the food did not turn out. Here’s the inside of the shop and a photo of Mike, our guide.

At the Rodriguez Cigar Company we watched people hand-rolling cigars. Mike told us an interesting story about the history of cigar production in Key West.

Next door we visited the Kino Sandal Company where they make leather sandals that you can only get if you visit the store. I didn’t think they looked very comfortable, but people that had them raved about them.

Street scenes in the uncrowded town center

Capt. Tony’s is mentioned in Jimmy Buffet’s song, Last Mango in Paris

Inside Capt. Tony’s the ceiling is papered with money

Inside another part of Capt. Tony’s, license plates and bras

Then it was time to go to the Tiki House for cocktails. We could choose one of three types. Most of us chose the Zombie, a rum drink which was set on fire and which the patrons had to blow out. It included a home-made liqueur I had never heard of called Falernum. It had a cinnamon flavor.

Flaming Zombies

The cocktail menu

The ambience

At a place called Bagatelle we enjoyed Florida lobster mac and cheese in a historic house turned into a restaurant.

Finally, the dessert. You have probably guessed what it was. Hint: Our final stop was the Florida Key Lime Pie Company. Yes, we had key lime pie, but it was made without eggs. Mike explained that in the 1800’s sponge fishermen would be gone for a long time on their boats, and they did not have refrigeration, so they came up with a recipe using canned sweetened condensed milk (Borden’s), local limes (Key limes), and bread. And I am glad they did.

I enjoyed Key West so much! We did not have conch fritters, but I didn’t really want them. The food tour was quite fun and interesting and a perfect introduction to this historic town. At the end of the tour we walked back to our ship and sailed off into the sunset. (Sailing off into the sunset sounds better, but we actually sailed to the east, so we sailed away from the sunset, which means we had a spectacular view of the sunset from our aft balcony.)

Shabbat shalom!

Today’s fabric is Conch Shell by tendertextile for Spoonflower.

Pre-Game

Hello! Here I am again. Welcome to the new readers. At the end of this post you will find a short list of things to know about this blog.

Alaska Ice

Below are some photos I took shortly after takeoff from Anchorage. We usually find ourselves on a red-eye flight, so it was nice to be able to see something this time. 

I read The Correspondent, by Virginia Evans, on the plane. Really good book.

Mt. Spurr, slightly right of center, a dormant volcano

Mt. Susitna, the “Sleeping Lady”

Mountains and glaciers

As we flew over College Fjord, I had a nice view of Harvard Glacier. I marked it with a yellow arrow. Yale Glacier is marked with a blue arrow.

Miami Nice, Miami Vice

Friday, January 23, 2026

We arrived in Miami to great weather!

Getting from the airport to our hotel was not a full-on nightmare, but it was definitely a very bad dream. We cycled through three Uber drivers who were supposed to arrive in “15 minutes” each time, but each one took longer and they each were cancelled by Uber four or five minutes before they arrived. The fourth driver showed up, but by this time we had wasted an hour.

During the drive to our hotel, I was struck by two things. 1) The traffic here is really terrible. 2) Miami is a stunningly beautiful city. Modern high-rise buildings, most of them white, most of them residential. A lot of lush tropical greenery. Public art all over the place.

Our hotel was an extremely nice Hampton Inn in the Brickell neighborhood. We used to stay at Hampton Inns a lot, but have had too many disappointing and unpleasant experiences in them, so now we usually try not to choose them. The worst was 4 or 5 years ago, in Boca Raton, of all places. We woke up in the middle of the night because police were banging on the door directly across from us with regard to some kind of domestic disturbance. There was a lot of conversation taking place right outside our door.

The Miami-Brickell Hampton Inn is clean and stylish and has a lot of amenities, including a bar and a pool deck on the 6th floor. It’s very expensive and it’s always quite full. (We have stayed here before.) But we had a free night from Hilton Honors, so we cashed it in.

Within three blocks you can find a grocery store, a Walgreen’s and dozens of tempting restaurants. There is also a greenway, The Underline, a 10-mile linear park under the Metro tracks. 

Around the corner there is a Museums Magnet School. There are four or five of these schools in Miami. The school we saw was described as “a museum-based learning environment focused on exploration, exhibition, and critical thinking.” This explanation leaves me wanting to know a bit more.

Also, we noticed some cute little robot carts on some of the street corners. These sidewalk robots can deliver food, documents, or small packages.

We chose Coyotacos for dinner because it was close by, very casual and had interesting items on the menu, including $6 margaritas. I had a Pollo al Carbon taco and a banana daiquiri. Ken had a birria burrito and a margarita. Service was very prompt. I would go back, but there were a lot of other places there I would like to go to, so maybe I need to stay in Miami for a week. (Sorry, we forgot to take photos of the restaurant and the food.)

Both robots were offering a free cup of coffee, but we didn’t care for any at that time.

All Aboard

Saturday, January 24, 2026

Because of the problems getting an Uber yesterday, I switched to Lyft and pre-booked a car to take us to the port in the late morning. I think there were 8 ships leaving today. It’s always extra busy on a Saturday because most 7-day cruises start and end on a Saturday.

We drove through a part of downtown that seemed to consist of a number of enormous court buildings. It made me think about how overwhelming our legal system must seem to most folks, but also, as a lawyer, I couldn’t help reflecting on how central the legal system is to the smooth functioning of our society.

The port isn’t far away, but it was hard to get there. At one point we had to wait for a drawbridge that was up. When we finally got near the port, we had to go over a causeway, and all the traffic had to funnel into one or two lanes. At the entrance to the port there was something like a toll plaza, and only one booth was open. Six lanes of traffic had to go through. On the other side, we encountered traffic that was just inching along.The signage was confusing because the route to the ships appeared to require following signs pointing to the port exit. We were expecting to have to go past at least four other ships before we arrived at ours, but somehow our driver managed to get a cop to let us go through a parking lot and that probably saved us 20-30 minutes. We came out on the far left side of a road with 5 or 6 lanes. Our pier was on the right side no more than a few hundred feet ahead. Our driver brilliantly got across and we were able to turn off to our ship at the last possible minute.  Ken says he never wants to use the Port of Miami again.

FINALLY, we reached our ship, Holland America’s Zuiderdam. From this point on, everything went like clockwork. Our room was so nice we forgot to take photos. (Will do so later and post on blog.) We wandered around a little. I stopped at the library. The book selection was a little sparse, but much better than most other cruise lines. They didn’t seem to have any books published in 2025. Dinner was delicious.

All in all, we are very pleased with the Zuiderdam. It is pronounced Zy-der-dahm, with a long “I” sound, not Zoo-der-dam or Zwee-der-dam. It is Dutch and means “south dam.”

The ship was recently in dry dock and new carpeting was installed, among other things. The decor of the ship is mostly Art Deco., but there are several quirky features, which we will discuss in due course.

Today’s fabric is Banana Leaf Tropical Palm Pink by dentzdecor for Spoonflower. 

About the blog

1. Please feel free to comment through the Blogger app. I love getting comments.

2. Unless you put your name in a comment or use a Google screen name, I can’t tell who wrote a comment. It’s ok if you wish to post anonymously, however. I also can’t tell who opens a blog post.

3. This is a travel blog. I try to keep politics out of it. Do not assume I am unaware of current events just because I don’t mention them.

4. You are receiving this blog because you asked to be placed on my mailing list. If you wish to stop receiving it, let me know. I understand that reading about someone else's vacation might not be fun for you. However, before you quit (or right now), please look at “Why Do I Blog” for a better understanding of this blog.

5. Most of the photos were taken by Ken. I took a few of them. If someone else took one, I try to give them credit.

Why Fort Lauderdale is Famous

March 11, 2023

Today is Turnaround Day. Most of the passengers will be disembarking. A few hundred are staying on, including us. Replacements for those who disembarked will be boarding soon. Replacements and then some. It’s Spring Break here in Florida.

We decided to do a 5 km volkswalk since we had several hours in Fort Lauderdale. We have done the first half of the 10km walk (mostly along Las Olas Boulevard) a few times, so we decided we do the second half, which includes the beach. 

We took a taxi to the point where the second half starts. We found out there was a huge St. Patrick’s Day footrace in progress, and some of the streets were blocked off. We ended up getting dropped off 17 blocks from where we wanted to start. The footrace should have added at most two block to our walk. The cab driver just didn’t want to be bothered so he said we were one block from our destination, and I think he ripped us off, too. As a result, we had to walk an extra 17 blocks to get to the start of our route. We passed many of the race finishers enjoying brunch at sidewalk eateries or just trying to get back to wherever.

  

In the 1920’s, a series of artificial islands and inland waterways were created in Fort Lauderdale by dredging the area between a barrier island and the mainland.

The barrier island became Fort Lauderdale Beach, and the artificial islands became the ultra-expensive waterfront property that we walked past today. There are yachts everywhere.

We walked over a drawbridge - I think this was the Intracoastal Waterway - but we had to wait for some boats to go by first

Lots of yachts in the background, plus a few sailboats in the foreground

This type of development would not be permitted today. It was very hard for me to find anything on the internet addressing the dredging that was done here and the environmental harm it may have caused. Are we surprised?

The coral in this column (or whatever it is) was probably dredged up when this area was originally developed

A sign of the times: “Trimming mangroves is illegal”

We crossed the iconic A1A to get to the beach

When we reached the beach, we turned right and followed a beautiful walkway south to its end. What a delight! The beach is beautiful, clean, and wide. There are lifeguards, and picnic tables, and volleyball nets. It’s a postcard beach, and it goes on for miles.

Those clouds don’t even look real, but they are

At the point where we were supposed to turn around and return to our starting point, we had already walked 5km. We were thinking about finding a taxi and going back to the ship, but we realized we weren’t “too far” from the ship, so we decided to walk back to the ship.

By this time, I will admit, I was hot and tired, but it really didn’t look far on the map. So we decided to walk. We followed a busy street and we were committed — there would not have been any place for a taxi to stop and pick us up. It wasn’t as easy as it looked. We had a steep climb up another drawbridge.

Approaching the drawbridge

Sky Princess from the drawbridge. Still a long way to to go.

We finally arrived at the ship after having walked about 12 km. Most of the new passengers were onboard. Soon it was 3:30 pm and time for Sailaway.

This is the second drawbridge we walked across. The yellow boat is a water taxi/sightseeing boat.

As we leave Port Everglades, we sail past some amazing houses on the fabulous Fort Lauderdale beachfront

We returned to Sabatini’s for another delicious Italian dinner.

Spaghetti carbonara

Rock Opera was on the program for tonight, but it was cancelled again. We tried to find out what would be substituted. All we could learn from Guest Services was “a singer.” We decided to pass. We later learned that “a singer” was the lead singer from Rock Opera, and that his show was really good. Sometimes the onboard communication is not the best.

In case you are wondering, the normal schedule is to perform Rock Opera on the last day of one cruise and then on the first day of the next cruise, and so on. The set takes almost a full day to set up, so it saves a lot of putting up and taking down when it is scheduled this way.

Today’s color is Warm Sand for the absolutely gorgeous beaches that made Fort Lauderdale famous.