Fort Lauderdale has it all.

On our way for a week’s stay in Fort Lauderdale. This Florida boating destination has it all… lots of canals to explore, a beautiful beach to walk on the ocean, shopping on Las Olas Avenue, a beautiful River Walk for leisurely strolls along New River and now we can add one more thing to our ongoing Fort Lauderdale list… the warm and welcoming home of Carolyn and Harry House, (homeport for their Ranger Tug, PourHouse).

We left our anchorage at Lake Sylvia to secure our reserved dock space at Cooleys Landing, on the New River at the head of the River Walk. One of our favorite marinas in Florida. We took our time cruising there as it was a beautiful day and, as you can see, lots of nice scenery on our route.

One of the main reasons we love to stay at Cooleys is we are easily entertained by the parade of mega yachts that slide by our cockpit all day long. They are coming and going from the large marina and boatyard upriver. Add to that the Jungle Queen tourist boat that takes tourists up and down the river.

Carolyn and Harry (below) graciously invited us to dinner at their beautiful condo that actually overlooks Cooley Landing. From their patio, you can see all of Fort Lauderdale in its splendor.

Did you spot Kismet by the bridge (above)? There she sits happily as can be while we dine in luxury with the Houses.

We found out, and always suspected, that Carolyn is very proficient in the kitchen. She made a delicious feast for us and made it look like nothing.

One of our “List” restaurants is Jenkins’ Bar-B-Q, but don’t try to visit on Sunday or Monday… (see sign below-right).

Some of my favorite yachts that cruised by the back of Kismet, especially the turquoise one.

On our to-do list, while in Fort Lauderdale, is a dinghy ride up or down the river. We’ve usually gone up, but this time we dinghied around the canals downriver. We saw alligators, some beautiful houses, and a few unusual boats.

When we left Fort Lauderdale, Carolyn was out on the dock to wave goodbye and take photos. What a doll!

The post Rendezvous with Ranger Tug “Pour House” appeared first on Trailer Trawler Life Blog – Cruising USA & Canada.

We ventured out on a long dinghy ride today – up the New River and into a few side channels. We were just a short distance away from the marina and it was hard to tell we were so close to such a big city as Fort Lauderdale. We must have been gone several hours as there are a lot of waterways to cover on the river with a few little offshoots to explore. As an extra bonus, we got to see all different kinds of boats – old, new, big, small, and some very unusual ones.

Jim said that to venture further up the river we had to go under this old bridge. I was a little nervous as to what might be lurking under there but we just had to go for it to see what was on the other side.

This took the prize for the most unusual, and classy, boat sighting on the river today. I want a tour!

Every time we come here I tell Jim this is my favorite little house on the river.

Looks like a “Son of a Barber” lives here (below). Cute!

We think this is the old Jungle Queen boat (above).

We had to quickly hurry out of the way of this big yacht (above) as it headed up the river. Beautiful! As you can see, lots of nice old yachts docked on New River.

If you like to be on the water and close to city conveniences, it doesn’t get much better than New River in Downtown Ft Lauderdale. Almost everything is within walking distance or a short taxi/bus ride away. Restaurants, the beach, grocery, dinghy excursions, museums, and theater, and if that’s not enough West Marine has recently opened their largest and most grandiose retail store only a couple of miles from the river. One of our favorite pass times was watching large yachts traversing the river, on their way home or to the large shipyards upriver. It was interesting to see that some of the yachts had tenders as big or larger than our Kismet.

The post Idling Up New River – Dinghy Ride – Fort Lauderdale, Florida appeared first on Trailer Trawler Life Blog – Cruising USA & Canada.