Then we had dinner at a restaurant called Steak 954. It was a walk of just ten minutes or so from our hotel. The weather was nice and lots more tourists were out and about.
For those of you who follow our travels you likely know that we often eat seafood and poultry and rarely (no pun intended) have beef. If we chose the restaurant based on name only, we would not have selected this one. However, after reading about it, checking it our earlier in the day and looking at its menu we thought we would give it a go and we were pleased with our decision.
We enjoyed the ambience of the restaurant along with the cuisine and the service.
This was a tank full of Jelly Fish. The width of the tank is about three times this size.
Some emphasis on Steak when you are seated with steak knives on top of a napkin at each place setting. As soon as you ordered your meal, the steak knives were placed with other eating utensils.
The restaurant is not affiliated with the W Hotel but is located on the first floor level of W.
We each enjoyed the same type of salad. The photo does not do justice to the salad.
So here we are at a Steak Restaurant and knowing what you know now, what do you think we ordered? You guessed it. Seafood. We asked the waitress about what percentage of the people order steak? Answer, was about 80% but she did recommend not only the seafood but the poultry.
We each had different seafood entrees. That way we could also taste each other's entree and both turned out to be great choices.
Keith had the Halibut. Cooked to perfection; cooked sufficiently but not overcooked or undercooked.
Anne Marie had the Salmon and it was cooked the way it should be as well.
Right before the entree came, Anne Marie looked up and saw a familiar face. She said to Keith. I know this man and he is wearing a jacket that had San Francisco on it and Keith said that is Stan. Stan owned a major travel agency in San Francisco which for the last several years was run by his son, We knew Stan and his late wife because after they both represented one of the large travel consortiums (our TA is not part of that consortium) and had been an escort on eight different Crystal World Cruises, of which, we were on three of them. We met them early on the first of the three we were on together and as they say the rest is history.
He was a pioneer in the Travel and in the Travel Agency, and he was traveling world-wide when so very few people traveled outside the United States. He will actually be on half the Silversea World Cruise which boards today. We were sorry to learn that his wife passed away in May from Lung Cancer. She never smoked in her life so we assume the cause was second hand smoke.
Stan told us that he thought he would pass well before his wife. Another reminder for us to enjoy each and every moment and that none of us know when it will be our time.
Stan came back up to our table a few minutes before we left the restaurant. He is a very nice man. The last few years his memory was not like it was but ask the man for a recommendation on where to dine in Buenos Aires, or where to find a good tailor in Mumbai, or what to see in a particular port and he could give you solid recommendations.
Learning of the passing of his wife, is just another reminder for us to enjoy each and everyday knowing that in the scheme of things that life is short.
We then walked back to the Hotel. With the sun now set it was on the cool side but we were prepared.
We returned to the Club Room for breakfast as we did yesterday and had cereal and fruit to start off another wonderful day in Fort Lauderdale.
Our plan was to walk this morning. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had something else planned called rain. Instead of first starting off with a walk we went to the Fitness Center instead. Anne Marie worked out on the treadmill. Keith planned to use an Elliptical but as it turned out there were spin bikes (indoor cycling) available and Keith has several playlists that he has compiled for spinning so he just made use of two of them and was able to Spin for a little over an hour. On average, he takes eight to nine Spin Classes on a weekly basis at home.
Afterwards, we took a walk outside and the good news is that the rain had stopped but Mother Nature was still not fully cooperating with us as it was rather windy. So, we just walked for as long as we could take the wind but it was too windy for photos.
This afternoon dear friends Anne and Larry drove to our Hotel to meet us for a late lunch. There is an irony to how we first met them in 1991. They along with their son lived in a nearby neighborhood and they were visiting friends of us who had three children and who lived diagonally across the street from us. Keith was out of town on business and our son was playing kickball outside in the street with their son and the three children of our neighbor friends when there was a knock at our door and Anne Marie learned that our son had kicked the ball into the rear window of their luxury car and of course the windshield shattered. Our insurance paid for the replacement of the window and as they say the rest was history. Because of that event, we ended up getting to know them and we became dear friends. In many ways, Anne became a second aunt to our daughter and son and Anne and Larry became family to us often celebrating at our home for some holidays such as Thanksgiving. They move to Florida a few years ago and this was the first time we had seen them in person in three years. It was fun to catch up with them.
We had lunch in a nearby restaurant called H2O. The restaurant worked out perfectly as it provided lots of time for us to talk and it was not crowded so we stayed several hours.
Keith & Anne Marie
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