March 11 – Fort Lauderdale. Today we are going to do a little touring and shopping to prepare for our cruise. Inevitability I discover I need some supplies while I'm doing my last minute packing and this trip is no exception. I have to pick up a few sundries and about 6 pairs of white socks. I'm not sure what happened to all my athletic socks but I could only find 2 pair when I packed.
We drove to Pompano Beach to do our shopping and had lunch at the Hard Rock Café in Hollywood (Florida that is). As usual I ordered the Local Legendary burger. For those of you who don't eat at Hard Rock, each of the 150 locations has it's own unique burger called the Local Legendary. At the Hollywood location it's a 10 oz burger with Swiss cheese and a sautéed mixture of spinach, garlic and feta cheese melted on top. I was worried that the sautéed spinach on top would overpower the taste of the beef and Swiss cheese but it did not. They used real Swiss Emmentaler on the burger, not the usual US concoction we call Swiss cheese. The Swiss make many types of cheese but it's the Emmenthaler that is properly called Swiss cheese in most of the English-speaking world. The product that supermarkets label as Swiss cheese bears very little resemblance to Emmenthaler except for the holes. (Can you tell that I really like cheese) The flavors blended perfectly, none was so distinct as to overshadow the others. The other plus is that you can substitute coleslaw for the French fries.
Here again there's a plus. When I was a kid my grandfather would take me to his hunting lodge in the Pocono Mountains. On the way we'd stop at one or another of those aluminum trailer looking diners that have become emblematic of the '40s & '50s. They didn't serve French fries and the most common side with a burger was coleslaw. There are many versions of coleslaw, some are very sweet and some are fairly sour; some are creamy and some are vinegary. The best split the difference on sweet/sour and are creamy. The Hard Rock version is almost exactly the Pennsylvania diner version so it's very nostalgic for me. Does it sound like I enjoyed the lunch?
After that we returned to the hotel and I dropped Diana there and went to return the rental car. It's only a little over a half mile from the hotel so I walked back.
A very low-key day and that's what we wanted. Tomorrow will be a long day of boarding formalities that I don't really enjoy. At least you have the cruise to look forward to on boarding day. Disembarkation day is the worst, all the hassle and none of the cruise anticipation. You'll undoubtedly hear more about that when it arrives.
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