We flew down to greet a ship. "Have we ever been to Ft Lauderdale?", we both wondered. Don't think so. Anytime we've been in the area on our boat, we were either in the northern ICW or come into southern Fla. skipping most of the coast. Too bad, Port Everglades is quite an interesting port and very busy 24/7. Cruise ships bigger than downtown Camden Me. come in like dinghys to the docks, one right after another. Ft Lauderdale is not foot friendly, it favors cars,so we stayed around the hotel or sat on the little balcony off our room. Just as well, I was fascinated by the massive boat traffic in the outer harbor or going under the draw bridge into the canals that was opening on the half hour. Mostly BIG motorboats down here but lots of sailboats, local racers and a few cruisers.

EXPLORER was the ship we came down to greet. Semester at Sea is a floating semester abroad. Students got on in Halifax and did a 100 day or so Atlantic rim cruise while completing a semester of courses along the way. Quite a sight to see parents, siblings and friends greet the kids they hadn't seen since Halifax. It was bittersweet as everyone had in mind the loss of one student to an accident onshore at the last stop in the Caribbean. We finally got our charge back. There's a lot to tell between learning to play the mandolin in Lisbon and getting mugged in Antwerp but what's the rush, he's home with us in Maine now.