But the Elbow Room is still there - open 24 hours a day on the corner of A1A and Las Olas Boulevard. College kids still come to Fort Lauderdale, although not as many as in the heyday of the '60s and '70s. But if you feel nourished merely by looking at water, that's reason enough for a visit. This Venice of America has 300 miles of navigable waterways. One visitor, who lives near the water in Dunedin, marveled at how beautiful Fort Lauderdale's waterways are and at the number of boats that always seem to be tooling around.
Yards are thick with red hibiscus and lush sea grape bushes.
On weekend evenings, Las Olas heats up with jazz, locals tell us. If the beaches are the same as they've been for a long, long time, downtown couldn't have changed more. Brilliant yellow and electric blue fish swim among the reefs in one tank. A giant grouper named Boomer in another tank gets darker when he's anxious and seems to watch people watching him, Wilkes said. The reefs are just one exhibit in this hands-on museum, as interesting to adults as to children.