Holiday Get Away - Ft. Lauderdale

This morning the husband and I are headed to Ft. Lauderdale for a week (instead of giving each other Christmas and birthday presents, etc., we go on trips)!  We are looking forward to warm weather and seeing many friends who either live in the area or who, like us, like to vacation there. We will be staying at a gay guest house and using it as our base of operations. We will have Christmas dinner with friends from Newport News who have a gorgeous home in Ft. Lauderdale.  We have at least two dining events planned for the Lauderdale Yacht Club with clients of mine and the husband (our Hampton Yacht Club membership provides nice reciprocal benefits!).  We also hope to do some shopping and find some special tuxedo jackets to wear to the Inaugural Ball in Richmond on January 13th in Richmond (we will be going up to Richmond on the 6th to give the governor elect a haircut).  

On the home front, a friend will be staying at our home and house sitting and dog sitting for us. It works best all around.  On the blogging front, I will be posting to the extent our social engagements and relaxing by the pool/on the beach permits.

Ft. Lauderdale - Day Four and Five

Our trip to Ft. Lauderdale continues to be most enjoyable.  We have met some great guys at the Coral Reef Guesthouse and what has been interesting is that of the older guests, many were married to women in the past and, like me, have children and grandchildren.  In every instance, the biggest issue for all of us was admitting to ourselves that we were gay.  Getting to the point of looking at yourself in the mirror and saying, I'm gay, and that's OK" is the big first step.   

New Year's Day, we pretty much stayed around the guesthouse after staying up until well after 2:00AM.  Yesterday, we spent much of the day at Sebastian Beach before going to have drinks with friends at their home in Wilton Manor and then heading to the Lauderdale Yacht Club for another great dinner.  I could easily move here but for not wanting to be so distant from my children and grandchildren - after July, we will have 5 of them.  Time will tell, I guess.

Today we are meeting my nephew from Miami and his girlfriend for lunch and then will see what we are in the mood to do.  Weather wise, it has been perfect: Lower 80's every day and sunny!

The husband being distracted by the "scenery"

Ft. Lauderdale July 2013 - Day Two

Today was a great day even though it started out with me dealing with office e-mail and drafting documents for a couple of hours.  Kudos to my youngest daughter for holding down the fort at the law firm while we are out of town.   After lunch, we went out on our hosts' beautiful Intrepid 40' boat from which we flew the Hampton Yacht Club red and blue pennant (shown in the photo above).  Cruising around Lighthouse Point and parts of Pompano Beach, I was struck by (i) the wealth in this area and (ii) how much of a backwater Hampton Roads is in comparison.  The image below is looking down the creek from out hosts' dock, followed by a shot of one of the  boats we saw on our cruise. 

To thank our hosts for their hospitality, the boyfriend and I took them (and a friend who they are also hosting) to dinner at the Lauderdale Yacht Club in Ft. Lauderdale proper.  Through our Hampton Yacht Club membership, we have reciprocal benefits with yacht clubs around the country (and other parts of the world).   The dinner and the club facility were both amazing.  Thankfully, our guest membership is good through the day we head back to Virginia. :)  A photo of the club's pool and pavilion complex is set out below.

Tomorrow's plans include a visit to Sebastian Beach - the "gay beach" in Ft. Lauderdaler - followed by a get together with friends in Wilton Manor for drinks and dinner.  On Saturday, we will be throwing our traditional gay house dinner/party at our hosts' home.

Again, I hope local readers will drop me an email at michaelinnorfolk@gmail.com in the hope that we can perhaps meet for a drink or something.