My late afternoon bike ride carries me from Tarpon River under the Avenue of the Arts bridge, across the FEC tracks, and onto the Riverwalk (south bank), which takes me past the Downtowner (always populated by T-shirted locals) and the county jail before delivering me into Rio Vista. There I turn around, cross the 3rd Avenue bridge (downtown’s prettiest), and cruise down Las Olas (the sidewalk’s wide enough to accommodate cyclists) before taking a right at the Stranahan House and getting back on the Riverwalk (north bank), which is usually so crowded that I stay on the street until the River House. Saturday it was especially busy because of the Las Olas Art Fair at one end and the Stone Crab Festival at the other. And riding past the people strolling along the river – friends greeting each other by the bar of SALT7, people walking their dogs, young women in short shorts heading to The Wharf – I was struck by how Fort Lauderdale has become a quietly alluring city.
