Writes of Passage

What do dolphins want: the sound of motor, the companionship of the humans, or simply bathing? We saw plenty of them, jumping around our boat continuously.

Have you entertain the idea to live on a boat? A friend does that on his 44 footer most of the time. Only retrieves to his condo near by during the hurricanes or severe weather.

^{The community} It’s pretty sizable, with four sections: the 200+ slip marina, houses, low rise and a high rise. On top of sectional hoa, everyone pays community’s hoa. There are two swimming pools for the marina, with has bbq grill and tables, all are very clean. boaters on the far end of the marina use bikes to get around. There is a lively restaurant Dockside Social Bar & Grill, with live music.

The design of the boat is really good and considerate. It has a bedroom, two pull out sleeping areas, three open areas and one enclosed space with air conditioning for social. The marina has 220 slips, his was $65,000 in 2018, is cost $160k now, in 2023.

One of the boats at the marina gets the most love: a sleek alloy color cruiser that looks futuristic. In a sea of mostly white boats, it’s sparkling. 码头上最受喜爱的一艘船: 闪闪发光 时尚 充满未来感一艘 cruiser.

^{The green roof house} Legend has it that the husband often came home drunk and couldn’t find their house. So the loving wife painted their roof green that can glow in the dark night. 绿屋顶 传说丈夫经常醉酒后找不到家. 于是, 他慈爱的妻子就把他们的屋顶漆成了在黑夜里会发光的绿色.

One of the mates on board fell off the boat as he was making a phone call. The other mates alert the captain who stopped and went to pick him up. Remarkably, he still has his phone. Falling off any boat is easy …

We’ve late lunch at Floridays, sat at our usual table and tried their sun died tomato mussels, which is really good. There are many jumping fish. I didn’t catch any on my camera: too difficult. One fun fact: the two young men were asked to wear their shirts while the young women could go in with bikini tops. The heavily tattooed husband said, “oh, that’s so not fair. Can someone lend me a bra?” ha ha ha  四老四小 2个女娃 1个男娃光背 为啥 六块还是八块腹肌+纹身 去吃饭时被告知上身需要点什么 失望 性别歧视 能有人借俺个胸围吗

The parking by the restaurant isn’t easy. Many diners have made reservation. One of the attendant is very talkative and told us that this is his 2nd career. His first was working in his family’s hardware business in Ohio (?) He later came up to the restaurant and took our plates away – helping the waiting staff or what?

Between Hernando De Soto (1957) and Green (an old photo; fishing pier) bridges at Manatee River by Bradenton is the railroad bascule / drawbridge 吊桥 Google map labels it as CSX Train Bridge. The boat owner said it’s used by Tropicana and stays up most of the time. This website captions it  “This riveted through plate girder bascule also includes extremely long approaches. Lengths given are extremely rough estimates.”

 
Florida

A few more pix & videos.

This small city is part of Miami Gold Coast, 30 miles north of Miami.

• established: 1911
• population: 182,760
• area: 36.30 sq miles (94 km²)

We usually go there as passing by to Miami.

One odd thing to see is large ads / billboards for syphilis & HIV, it’s everywhere, especially on our way to the Panther’s game. This one is in Roosevelt Gardens according to my iPhone info.

East Las Olas Blvd. has many shops, restaurants, cafes and bars.

Near the water, I saw this big lizard – iguanas, which is often seen around this town

• Vista Park
• Casa Sensi

155 Hammon Avenue
Palm Beach, FL 33480

This pink hotel opened in 1947, was well known for by gone era up-and-coming musicians, such as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr.

It closed in August 2010, after U.S. Bankruptcy Judge K. Rodney May converted the Colony’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization with its unit owners to a Chapter 7 liquidation.

We have our breakfast at their pool side Swifty’s (they’ve Polo Steaks & Seafood, the lobby and cabaret rooms). All are good: ambiance, decor, service and food. Colony breakfast’s bagel is so so – so not New York; the br

This small beach community of 61,047 (2020) people, is northernmost town in Miami metro area.

Roger Dean Stadium

Among 44 notable people in town, 15 are golfers, including Tiger Woods. Dara Torres (1967-; swimmer) and two playboy mates are also residents here.

The baseball team St. Louis Cardinals has their training camp here, in downtown. Compare to Mets at Clover Park, this one looks minor.

A canopy of bougainvillea is pretty grand.

Dinner at Guanabanas is neat and the layout of the restaurant is awesome.

The small red lighthouse charges a fee. We drove by but didn’t visit because of time constrain.

… some photos

44 notable people listed on wikipedia:

1. Robert Allenby, Australian professional golfer on PGA Tour ¹
2. Rick Ankiel, professional baseball player
3. Briny Baird, professional golfer on PGA Tour ²
4. Daniel Berger, professional golfer on PGA Tour ³
5. Matt Bosher, professional football player
6. Don Brewer, drummer, singer, original member of Grand Funk Railroad
7. Tyler Cameron, Contestant on the Bachelorette
8. Shelby Chesnes, Playboy Playmate of the Month, July 2012
9. Philip J. Corso, U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and author of The Day After Roswell
10. Ernie Els, South African professional golfer on PGA Tour ⁴
11. Colleen Farrington, Playboy Playmate, model and nightclub singer
12. Rickie Fowler, professional golfer on PGA Tour ⁵
13. Hermes Franca, Brazilian mixed martial artist and UFC fighter 
14. Drew Garrett, actor
15. Brendan Grace, Irish comedian 
16. Rob Grill, singer (The Grass Roots)
17. Matt Holliday, professional baseball player
18. Hugh Howey, writer
19. Michael Jordan, Hall of Fame NBA basketball player, majority owner of Charlotte Hornets
20. Sarah Kauss, entrepreneur, S’well water bottles
21. Brooks Koepka, professional golfer
22. Debi Laszewski, IFBB professional bodybuilder
23. Daryl Logullo, business executive and ecommerce thought leader
24. Jamie Lovemark, professional golfer on PGA Tour ⁶
25. Shane Lowry, Irish professional golfer on PGA tour ⁷
26. Will MacKenzie, professional golfer on PGA Tour ⁸
27. Steve Marino, professional golfer on PGA Tour ⁹
28. Vincent Marotta, entrepreneur, co-developer of Mr. Coffee
29. Rory McIlroy, professional golfer on PGA Tour ¹⁰
30. Miles Mikolas, professional baseball player
31. Jason Newsted, former bass player of Metallica
32. Cody Parkey, professional football player
33. Charles Nelson Reilly, actor and teacher. He lived in house given to him by Burt Reynolds, who had previously lived in it with Sally Field
34. Burt Reynolds, actor
35. Mike Schmidt, Hall of Fame major league baseball player
36. Justin Thomas, professional golfer on PGA Tour ¹¹
37. Dara Torres, five-time Olympic swimmer and gold medalist
38. Charles Vanik, former Democratic congressman from Ohio
39. Richy Werenski, professional golfer on PGA Tour ¹²
40. Brett Wetterich, professional golfer on PGA Tour ¹³
41. Tiger Woods, professional golfer on the PGA Tour ¹⁴
42. Zion Wright, professional skateboarder, U.S. Olympic Skateboard Team
43. Kyle Kirkwood, racing driver in the Indycar Series
44. Lucas Glover, professional golfer on the PGA Tour ¹⁵

^{The junction of Ave of the PGA & PGA Blvd}
This small city is 70 miles north of Miami on the Atlantic Ocean, with 60,000 population (2020).

It’s perhaps best known for having the PGA headquarter – Professional Golfers’ Association, among many other sports. They have 12 golf courses. PGA National Resort ranks the fifth employer in the city.

.

960 N Hwy A1A
Jupiter, FL 33477

Will return.

The hosts said 35 minutes wait on a Saturday at 3:19pm. However, we’re seated quicker, at 3:49, to the best table in the house, imho.

Diners come by cars and boats. The strong wind makes 89 degrees day comfortable. Live music. The hosts and table server are all very good and professional.

The restaurant is huge with many corners. As we’re airing at the bar, a fellow diner said she’s a bar owner and the bar tender she fired is working here now -:).

We’ve

1. steamers – good
2. tequila lime shrimps – yummy, all three
3. po boy catfish sandwich – tasteless, from the fish to chips, that feels old

The 2021 Sauvignon Blanc by Chateau Souverain – part of Gallo group, is decent.

The low rating is from the hit and miss? The compound is nicely maintained.

Free valet parking – tips only.

2809 S Ocean Blvd,
Highland Beach, FL 33487

… more pix & videos on Google Maps

Will return.

We stopped by for a late night drink and dessert bec dinner at another place wasn’t too good.

This is a pretty classy place with courteous maitre d’ who really made the day for me, and good table serving staff is good too.

They’re on the beach with indoor and outdoor sections, and a bar near the hotel kidney shaped pool.

We’ve vegetable soup and tiramisu: the soup tastes great tomato sweet; tiramisu is ok.

We later moved to the bar for more drinks. One of the bar tenders folds utensils into the napkins. I never give much thought to it – who does it.
“How many do you do? Part of your job?”
“Yes… about 2 to 300 a day.”
Learned one more thing. Thanks.

Their bathroom doors use Vacant/Occupied sign, which is great … trust me, so many public bathrooms don’t use it. You go push every freaking door or wait there patiently… until someone behind you, suggests that stall is empty.

Valet parking is $10.

Boca Raton, FL

Boca Raton is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, with a population of 97,422 in the 2020 census. It’s 45 miles north of Miami, the 23rd-largest city in Florida in 2022. Many New York snowbirds winter here. 

Although it’s a relaxed luxury beach town, but it was credited as “a key city in the development of the early computer industry. The city is the birthplace of IBM’s first personal computer.” 

We’ve a late night drink at Highland Beach’s Latitudes. 

1200 E Las Olas Blvd STE 101
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

… more pix n videos on Google Maps

Will not return. Plastic tableware and subpar food – tooooo sweet. They seat you with a bottle of hand sanitizer. Location is great, on the little Himmershee canal, next to Riverfront consuls tours. Service is slow on a Thur at 1:40pm and our drinks arrives at 2:15; and the food all together at 2:20, with appetizers and our main courses. Bill was paid at 3:15. No utensils and plates even after we ordered. I cleaned the table with the paper from the bathroom. If the table isn’t set when we arrived, I do expect them to finish it shortly after. We ordered – Taco de Casa – pork – ok – Picanha steak – decent – Kimchi rice with bbq beef – tooo sweet and the bbq beef looks like reheating from leftover, ugly and hard. I asked for soy sauce and wasabi – the ultimate insult to their chef. I’m SO SO done with Korean food in Florida. Why do they make them so sweet? Kimchi is salty and spicy. What the hell! Educate the consumers and stay true to your cuisine. With so many interesting restaurants around, I regretted to have chosen this one. Pretty good wine glass.

1605 SW 8th Street
Miami, FL 33135

… more pix on Google Maps

Love their tiles.

… and All you need is wine sign on the wall.

Will return for the location, ambiance and food.

The location is great, in the heart of little Savanna.
The small plates are good too:
– mashed potato
– ceviche
– autopsy

Their house wines are decent and glasses are good too, not high end tho.

The service isn’t bad until the bill time. The service charge is included and the staff is pretty sneaky about it.