On The Beaches of Florida

Back in 2007, we flew down to Fort Lauderdale Beach for a long vacation.  A boat ride through the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway floating off to look at the beautiful luxury homes that celebrities own was one of the main attractions I remember seeing.  I have an admiration for art and can only admire these grand homes from afar. This is something we had experienced on our visit to New Bedford and Martha's Vineyard off of Cape Cod in New England, and at the time I wondered who would live in such large mansions and be happy. I think these mansions are more like architectural creations than homes!  So back to Florida....R and I spent a couple of weeks driving from Fort Lauderdale to Miami, Fort Meyers, Naples, Tampa and St Petersburg.

Now talking about Fort Lauderdale, I thought it was more like a Spring break haunt for teens all year around. But it was more a tourist destination with nothing other than water sports and a busy lighted boardwalk lined with colored lighting. The Sunsets off the sighseeing boats are unforgettable!!

The next stop was at Miami Beach with the lovely shops and beachside restaurants. We walked the streets until we found a small place with awesome Cuban sandwiches -delicious grilled sandwiches!!Unfortunately I don't have pics to share:( Miami Beach is as active as you can imagine with beautiful people in swimwear and local people going around in convertibles. The drive from Miami to Fort Meyers and Naples a small town with clean beaches and slower traffic which made us want to stay longer.  Of course, we visited family at Naples before we drove over to Tampa Bay. Here we spent a night with R's brother. Had a wonderful time with the family and everyone spent the next day at St Petersburg, beaches and sightseeing.

The pristine beaches just kept calling us, so on our drive back to Fort Lauderdale we stopped over at Sanibel and Captiva Islands . I would love to go back to spend a quiet weekend on Sanibel Island only because it caught my attention. I see why it was rated the Best Beach in the US that year.

I found Sanibel to be very different from Hilton Head, South Carolina or Nags Head in North Carolina. Here I found one unique, peaceful and non-touristy beach location where you do not find busy crowds, a long boardwalk or even get to munch on boardwalk fries. The serene atmosphere reminded me of the story of Robinson Crusoe landing on a lonesome beach. It may have been a figment of my imagination, or the clean white sand and shells scattered all over that fired up this picture in my mind. In a nutshell, Sanibel beach is definitely the most beautiful in the world. No, we did not get on the cruise this was the big vessel drawing close to land on our last day at Fort Lauderdale. We watched the Celebration Cruiseline up so close and larger than life that evening.  The Celebration goes out to sea from Fort Lauderdale to the Bahamas and is a gigantic beautiful ship. Maybe someday I can get comfortable with the idea of cruising.................