Howllo Fellow Basset Hound and getting back to blogging about the Summer Lily Book Tour lovers…Wow, here we are in late February and I am just now revisiting this.

This was kind of a hard one to write…

It’s now time to pack up and head out from Villa Seaward D, Lauderdale by the Sea.  There is not too much on the internet about the exact layout of this ocean front building so I wanted to go into more detail.  It is not exactly clear when you are booking in this owner owned condo complex what you are getting.  There are 4 condos in the complex and the owner keeps one as their own.  They do not live on the property but did come while we were there.  Their condo is about 1/2 of the bottom floor and is 100% ocean front.  The top floor is Villa Seaward B, also directly facing the ocean.  However, Villa Seaward B only has one bedroom.  To enter Villa Seaward B you will need to go up a steep flight a steps.

So I rented Villa Seaward D.  Keep in mind this condo is not ocean front but has a nice ocean view. To get to Villa Seaward D you must go up a flight of steep steps.  Be careful because they can become slick with the ocean mist.  When we arrived an hour early the maintenance man was just arriving. Ugh… He was there for way too long trying to fix a light in the dining room.  The management woman showed up with flowers and that was very nice but I finally told them we did not need the light to work and we would make do.  Turns out we did not use the lights very much at all.

You can see our front door in this picture.  You pass the palm tree, enter a security gate and go up the steps.  The security gate was extremely hard to open and I had to use most of my might to shut it.  It caused a terrific metal clanging sound which I am sure bothered anyone in the area.  Hopefully they have fixed this by now.  It was a real hassle.  Also, something we did not like was no blinds other than in the bedrooms.  We kept the lights off because we did not want anyone looking in. Another hassle.  That front door is floor to ceiling window so anyone can look right in.  It was just a creepy feeling…

Before you book this place ask the management team if the property you see in this picture with the fence around it is still vacant.  We noticed strange activity at all hours of the day and night.  The place looks like it is condemned or if not it should be.  We had to call the police on one occasion.  Now you know why we did not keep our lights on.

Facing from the other direction (from the condemned dwelling).  The first 2 balcony railings in the picture are part of  Villa D.  This Villa jets out a small amount which give you a view of the ocean.  They call Villa D Ocean Front because the building is on the ocean but I would call Villa D – Ocean View.  The Ocean View is wonderful but the condemned buildings are horrible and they are your view as well.  Yes, I said properties…

Here is another look at the balcony facing the street.

Facing the front…

That walk way is a public access to the beach.

This is a better look at the condemned property. The Police showed up just after this picture was taken.  These guys were inside of the hovel.

This is not the only condemned property.  From Villa Seaward all the way to Fort Lauderdale is condemned or vacant.  There is also a huge old Holiday Inn across the street that is totally vacant with windows broken out.  It was so sad.  We had a wonderful Villa in a horrible section of Lauderdale by the Sea.  I should have done better homework.  For me safety always comes first.

Old vacant hotel directly across the street. CREEPY…

The other thing that we did not care for was that the owners showed up a few days before we left.  It kinda felt weird.  Like you really didn’t want to go to the pool or beach because they totally took it over as they have every right to.  When we heard they were coming we made sure we did our photo shoot the day before and spent time around the pool and beach and had it all to ourselves.  They showed up on June the 15th and we were leaving on the 17th so it certainly did not hamper us too much.

We got up the morning of June the 16th and walked down to Anglin’s Beach Cafe for a huge breakfast before packing up the car to leave the next day.  We love this place.  Our waiter Jack was the best.

Breakfast fit for 3 beach bums…hahaha

That white behind me is the sand.  If I look forward I see this…#lifeisgood

But then it was back to the Villa to pack up our stuff and the car.  The steeps steps really hit you hard when you have to make about 40 trips up and down…twice (coming and going) Plus, I was not a big fan of having to do laundry before we left.  I thought that was asking a bit much for the price they charge.

Good thing I had a hearty breakfast…LOL

I spent some of the day returning phones calls about the Lily Book and dropping off more orders.  We were very thankful for the great response to our precious Lily.

All in all we loved Villa Seward D as a condo but for all of the reasons outlined above we will not be back.  Live and learn.  We much prefer the amenities of a full service hotel vs the Vacation Rental By Owner options.

See ya later Lauderdale by the Sea – you will forever be in our hearts…

More loving our next stop later…Cat, Daisy Lynn, Grandma, (Chaps and Emma ATB eating at Anglin’s every meal!)

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Howllo Fellow Basset Hound and Ted Bundy haters…That guy was about as sick as you can get and Zac Effron is in town shooting Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile…

Zac Efron is getting his Ted Bundy on for his new movie, which is told from the point of view of Bundy’s girl friend, Elizabeth Kloepfer, played by Lily Collins.

It is very interesting that more and more Hollywood movies are picking the Cincinnati area to make their films.  Fort Thomas will be featured in many scenes and according to reports a large portion of the movie will shot in our town.

This local diner in right down the street from #bassethoundtown and is called the Pepper Pod.  It was picked because nothing has changed in this place since the 1970 or earlier.  You can see the off white VW Bundy used to abduct many of his victims.  He confessed to 30 homicides that he committed in seven states between 1974 and 1978. The true victim count will forever be unknown and could be much higher than the number to which Bundy confessed.

Zac posted this on Instagram a few days ago…

If you really want to creep out read the Wikipedia page for Ted Bundy…

There are monsters that live amongst us.

More loving Hollywood in #bassethoundtown.  Maybe Daisy Lynn will be cast as an extra???  Cat, Daisy Lynn, (Chaps and Emma ATB glad that Bundy is in hell…)

 

 

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