Leap Day, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

It's my last day here in Ft. Lauderdale and it happens to be Leap Day. The year 2008 is a leap year. If you look at a 2008 calendar, you will see that February has five Fridays–the month begins and ends on a Friday. Between the years 1904 and 2096, leap years that share the same day of week for each date repeat only every 28 years. (info from timeanddate.com)

There is a sculpture in front of the Ft. Lauderdale Convention Center of a Sailfish, in three stages, leaping out of the water. I thought this would be a good picture for Leap Day. The name of the sculpture is Magnificent Ascent and is created in bronze by sculptor Ken Ullberg. The main element, the leaping Sailfish, is 31 feet high and weighs 10,000 pounds. Around the base of the sculpture are all kinds of different fish, dolphins and turtles. The way the water runs down the base makes it look like the Sailfish are really moving.

Afterwards I walked up onto the 17th St Causeway Drawbridge to get a great view of the waterway below. They were also testing one direction of the bridge because it went up and down a few times while I was up there. The weather is much cooler today than when I was biking and canoing last weekend so I guess it worked out well.

I head back to California tomorrow morning on American Airlines. I would like to come back to Ft. Lauderdale on vacation sometime. The beaches are beautiful and the water is much bluer than the California beaches.