Morning. Sun is shining and the odd cloud. Temperature a pleasant 80 degrees with no humidity. It was time to introduce Elizabeth to one of my old haunts from the past for breakfast. It is called the Floridian or Flo for short. It has been located on Los Olas Blvd since 1957 and is an institution in these parts. Its decor is what I would call breakfast bar. For all intents and purposes its decor is casual with the walls plastered with iconic famous people like  John Wayne, JFK, the Beatles and hundreds more. From the ceiling are hung potted plants. There are the usual tables of 2 and 4 but many are for 6 or 8. They have a section with stools like you use to see in the local Woolworth fountain bar. You look right into the kitchen. The waiters and waitress are in black slacks and black T-shirts noting on them that you are at Flo's that has been featured on the Food Channel. This is American so the wait staff are friendly and warm with their casual manner of greeting you and kidding with you as you order. Unlike the French wait staffs in France we experienced last summer who were arrogant and indifferent to your dining at their place.

The menu is four pages long for breakfast with some clever sayings and items on it. Here is one of the sayings;

 " Enjoy our new wine list and our chocolate desserts and remember, Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention or arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways--Chardonnay in one hand --chocolate in the other -- body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming, WOO HOO, What a Ride!"

The item you really want for breakfast is as follows;

 "FLORIDIAN "FAT CAT" BREAKFAST. New strip steak and two eggs any style, home fries or grits, toast or biscuit and a bottle of Dom Perignon (for two)...$359.79. or FLORIDIAN "NOT SO FAT CAT" BREAKFAST. Same as above with a bottle of our finest el Cheapo Champagne...$69.69."

Clever, humorous positive note to start your day off.

The food is gargantuan. Elizabeth had a western omelet that could feed a Posey. It must have had 4 eggs, tons of Mexican sauce on top and sourdough bread. I had two egg whites scrambled with a tuna steak, tomato juice, and coffee. Different but tasty. The coffee was refilled continuously the food was wolfed down since we ate early in the evening the day before.

When we went to leave there was a Christmas present from Flo's to those who dined with them set out a table. You had a choice of a small am/fm radio with ear phones or an unusual flashlight . It had no batteries and ran on your energy. You shook it and a sliding interior piston generated energy that was used to power the flashlight. Why hadn't the inventor of this item shown up on the Dragons Den and sought funding  to market this product. It was a good idea that worked.

When I compare what you get in food, what you get in ambiance and what you get in service it is miles apart from where I usually have breakfast in Toronto. Maybe I will talk myself into looking for another place for breakfast.

Let me as "editor" put in a note at this time to admit that a lot of our trips focus around where we eat. Two primary reasons for that. We enjoy the social and physical satisfaction of dining and it is one of the few times we have slowed down to get pictures taken.

Next we headed for the Swap Shop one of Ft Lauderdale's premier places to visit. It has a permanent building with shops selling socks, memorbilia, shoes, watches, lingerie, luggage and more items you really don't need but feel motivated to buy because they are such a bargain. Usually they have a one ring circus in the middle of the building with elephants, trapeze artist, clowns, ladies jumping up and down on horseback and all of this is free. Next door is more of the same but three times the area located under a permanent roof but open on the sides.They also have an area selling fruits and vegtables.  In addition where the Drive In is located in the evening  about 200 people selling either what would normally show up in Garage Sales or items imported from where every the merchant had come from be it Indian, Chinese, Haiti and on.

My computer wasn't working and I noticed a place that would repair computers. Elizabeth cautioned me that they could cheat me but I am not as cynical as she was on this point. Turned out I should have listened later when I double checked with another computer techy he pointed out that half the memory had been stolen during the repair. Ain't that a kick in the teeth.