Not that there is anything wrong with crazy, especially when you are expecting and looking forward to crazy, and crazy delivers. But a slowed-down town with old Florida charm and whimsy, picket fences, historic cottages, art galleries, and plenty of restaurants to keep you happily full, that is quirky and jovial but also quiet and a great place to just...
Whether you call them “madding” like Thomas Hardy did back in 1874 or “maddening” as we modern day people do, most crowds are those words and other terms I usually only use around my husband, my friends, and my kids. (My kids are in their 20’s; it’s okay. One of the best things about having grown children is no longer...
The only warm mineral spring in Florida is found on an obscure back road (our favorite kind) near North Port, Florida. This place is of major historical and archeological note and I’m surprised we’d never heard of it! You may not step out of the water with a younger face, but perhaps you’ll feel you have more verve and zing....
We Floridians are well known for our love of kitsch and color and we make no excuses. Laugh and tease us all you want – we fly our freak flag high and proudly. Our beach bars are some of the best places to find larger than life art. I almost put the word “art” in quotation marks, as if...
When you thought ahead to when you would have kids, didn’t you imagine they’d all be alike? Or at least look alike. Mine were all going to be white-blonds, love playing in the ocean, and tan easily. I ended up with one white-blond, one strawberry blond, and one dark blond. Only one loves the ocean and tans easily, and they...
We watched with heavy hearts as Hurricane Hermine bore relentlessly toward Cedar Key, feeling as helpless as onlookers of a multi-car pileup on the other side of the highway. “NOT CEDAR KEY!” we cried out, as if it would be okay if the hurricane devastated a nearby town not as beloved to us. You’ve seen on the news the bleak,...
With the closest beach being Ft. Myers beach, which sounds pretty crowded and touristy (no offense, Ft. Myers, I’m not sure you’re our kind of place) we were happy to settle in for a few days of R and R and exploring in the boating community of Cape Coral. You probably didn’t know that Cape Coral has more canals than...
Predictable and eye-rolling as it may be, I just had to say that Indian Rocks Beach rocks! Because it does; this little town is brimming with whimsy, kitsch, and straightforward simplicity that reminds me of childhood summers spent at the beach – where the only thing you really had to do was maybe take a shower to wash off the...
