Nadines Travel Blog

Location location location.  This particular Marriott is across the street from Fort Lauderdale Beach.  It is in the heart of the action if you like spring break in Fort Lauderdale.  (I don't)  We lucked out and got an eighth-floor double balcony view of the Intercoastal Waterway and all of the 20,000-square-foot mansions (and larger) that have waterfront access.  We later stayed a second week at this resort and lucked out and got an 18th-floor view of the Intercoastal Waterway and of downtown Fort Lauderdale.  The view is so good that we could see cruise ships and military ships when they were in Harbor. To the right, you can see the many large mansions that have waterfront access.  Their yachts are usually parked in the canals beside their homes.  There is no shortage of money in Fort Lauderdale.  It is kind of obscene how wealthy many of these people are. We had a couple of friends Jimmy and Sandra who stayed with us the first week that we stayed at the Marriott.  We had a two b

Flamingo Gardens is located approximately 30 minutes from our timeshare in Fort Lauderdale Florida, the Marriott Beachplace Towers.  It is a 60-acre botanical garden and everglade wildlife sanctuary featuring tropical and subtropical plants from around the world including some of the largest trees of their species in the State of Florida known to Florida as Champion Trees.  The highlight for me was the peacocks which are everywhere. To the left is a showy peacock who was just as interested in the cute little girl as she was with him. You can see Darren in the bottom right-hand corner to give some perspective on how large this tree is.  This is one of their Champion Trees. Most of the wildlife here have been rescued and are permanently injured and or non-releasable and would not survive if released back into the wild.  There is a Florida panther on the property and he is 120 pounds, so quite large. We went to the wildlife encounter at 1:30 and we had three animals introduced to us. The

Charter Club of Naples is a nice small little resort right on Naples Bay.  It was once a Diamond property but now it belongs to Hilton Vacation Club.  We had a nice relaxing time at this resort and it was made even better because my oldest sister joined us for six nights. The surrounding area of where it is located is prime.  Not only are you right on the water and in the marina area but you're surrounded by prime pieces of real estate.  My sister and I walked every day up and down the different streets to gawk at all the beautiful homes.  It is approximately a 10-minute walk to the beach/Naples pier or about 1 mile.  You can also walk to 5th Avenue which takes less than 10 minutes. As mentioned the resort is small and that does come with some drawbacks such as NO fitness center to work out, which was a drag.  They did have complimentary bikes and helmets to use if you wanted some exercise.  There isn't a 24-hour front desk or staff member there, but this did not cause an issue

My sister and I visited the Holocaust Museum & Cohen Education Center of Naples.  This shocking but beautiful mural of Anne Frank is located in the front entrance area of the museum.  It is made up of thousands of photos from the holocaust. We have both been to Holocaust museums before and are fairly familiar with the history of the Holocaust.  Everyone should be familiar with this incredibly dark part of our human past.  I personally never miss a chance to educate myself on Holocaust history. When we entered the building there was a tour that was just beginning so we decided to join the hour-and-a-half tour that this gentleman ran.  He was highly knowledgeable about the history of the time and had a very strong passion for delivering the truth and the message and the history of the Holocaust. It is a small Museum and if you decided to go through the museum on your own and read all of the information that's up on the walls etc it would still probably take you about an hour and

While staying at the Charter Club Resort of Naples, Florida my sister and I decided to take a Dolphin tour.  This was my second one in two weeks.  We went with a company called napleswatertours.com  The boat left directly from the property where we were staying.  We had a great captain, Perry, who was very informative and fun.  Needless to say that I had a great time, I mean who is not mesmerized by dolphins?  We chose the two-hour tour.  40 minutes of that was a sea shelling trip.  Perry dropped us off at the beach and there are millions of shells for the taking.  The beach was beautiful and the water was so calm that it looked very inviting but we did not have our swimsuits with us. We spotted many dolphins but they have to be in the mood to play.  They will follow the boat and play in the wake that the boat creates.  Below is a video and they stayed with us for the entire length of the video which is 90 seconds.  At one point they were on both sides of the wake but I did not capture