Honoring women

 International Women's Day is the 8th March, but the entire month is celebrated worldwide as Women's History Month.

We therefore appreciated Tamarac City hosting a breakfast and social on Thursday 26th March, to remind us of the outstanding women throughout the country who had broken through the glass ceilings, making life better for all of us.

It was fun.

Purple is the official color for womens history month.

Joan 1, an ever present volunteer 

Michelle, the dedicated manager

Jakaya (l), the D J extraordinaire

Joyce caught on candid camera

Jaylin controlled the music from the far side.

Carol and I.

It was a nice little session, good food, good music and fun people.

Culturally awake

 While Governor Ron Desantist does everything to downplay/hide black history in the schools in Florida, our city Tamarac, led by activist Mayor Michelle Gonzalez, does the opposite.

So everywhere you turn at the Senior Center, there are reminders that February is Black History Month. Then valuable information about the positive role black activists played in the development of the country, is posted all around.

 The overarching cultural event is the annual Multicultural Festival.

I have been attending these festivals almost every year since I moved to Tamarac in 2016 and really appreciate and enjoy them.

Last night's was not so well attended though.

 Maybe it was the cold spell we have been having. Maybe it is because ICE has been making life miserable for us immigrants. 

I don't know.

I was fully prepared for the cold spell though, carrying 3 jackets/sweaters, one pair of leggings, a scarf and even a pair of gloves. 😁.

All I had to don though was two sweaters as the coldest it got to was 62°.

There was lots for the kids to do. The most popular attraction seemed to be the rock climbing. 

It looked like fun👍.

My favorite was the Maori warrior. He was good as he demonstrated his fighting moves.

Maori warrior 

There were not as many costumed dancers from various countries as normal but what was new was the Chinese dancers/fighters in their colorful costumes.

Costumed Venezuelan dancers.

Then we moved over to the main stage for the star performance by Kevin Little, the Vincentian Soca warrior.

He wasn't bad but when you grew up with performers like the Mighty Sparrow and Calypso Rose, you maintain high expectations😊.

I enjoyed the offerings though.

Murder at the movies.

 It sure was different from the usual Tamarac Senior Center activity.

And it drew quite a crowd too. I suspect that it was mainly out of curiosity, as it was for me.

A full house

Even I was a suspect!

Based on the promo, I thought since it was interactive, we were going to see a murder mystery movie and would have to guess who did it.

 But it was even better. No movie but instead a live production developed by Standin Room only Productions Inc.

A murder was committed and we had to guess why the man named Mo was killed and why.

The interactive part was, some in the audience were randomly questioned by the Inspector of Police and deemed "suspects" if our story sounded suspicious.

The Inspector questions the victim's brother.

In the end, leaders were chosen at each table to fill in a form explaining the motive and who they thought was the murderer.

It was quite an amusing, creative and entertaining production.

 Some talented "suspects" even performed! 

I especially liked the Mack the Knife rendition performed by the brother of the victim who was also a suspect.

And the room was well decorated.

Yup. It was different and it was fun. 

Only disappointment? 

Lunch was lousy😔. But the corn bread was delicious.😋.

The Inspector was quite busy

And Tamarac's Chief Organizer Michelle, got a well deserved award.

Hollywood revisited

 It's not often that I go on the monthly trips organized by the Tamarac senior center, as most are to shopping centers or casinos and I have no interest in those activities.

However today's outing was to Hollywood beach, so I tagged along. 

And it was great camaraderie and lots of free vitamin D.🙂

And we had to do quite a bit of walking as the Tamarac driver Shawn, for some strange reason, refused to let us off at our destination, Margaritaville.

Eric consulting the girls?

Carol striking a pose

A group of us stayed together and as Meredith and I were starving, we headed straight to lunch at Margaritaville. 

It was quite good and the prices were not as exorbitant as one had expected.

Ivy strikes a pose too

Meredith and I 

It was a pleasant day as we only had limited time to do anything else before having to catch the bus back home.

There wasn't much else to do anyway and I don't know if it was because school was back in session or because Trump had scared off the tourists, but the beach was really empty.

Some pics below tell the sad tale about the current tourism situation today at Hollywood beach.

Bikes begging to be rented

We virtually had the beach all to ourselves!👍