intracoastal

Reduce, reuse, and recycle; guilty pleasures (I), bargain hunting.

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I love rummage sales, garage sales, estate sales, and the potential of finding a gem, a bargain. In fact, most of my home was sourced from such sales and Goodwill, Salvation Army, 2nd-hand stores, all those places where you never know what you will find, and treasures await in hiding.

Yes, I am an idealist who thinks we can still fight climate change (how quaintly naïve), and I am a minimalist (you can read about that here) who believes we only actually need the stuff we use constantly.

Briny Breezes is an oxymoron—not the name—the name is fine—but the nature of what it is. Briny Breezes is a retirement community on the Intracoastal Canal, on the water. It is a trailer park, not only is each tiny plot of land where the literal tin cans that their homes are sit, but a trailer park with many residents having boats worth more than their homes—paradoxical indeed. But who am I to judge?

At any rate, every year these nice residents organize a huge rummage sale. There is a building dedicated to clothes, kitchen stuff and jewelry, there is a huge warehouse with art, books, appliances, furniture, lamps, et cetera. This year I went with a couple of colleagues from work, and we had a great time.

The hack, the strategy for this kind of shopping is two-fold: know the sizes and dimensions of what you need, if necessary, carry a tape measure, and have patience, what you need will show up at some point. Also, you can always upgrade if you find a superior product and re-donate the one you got before!

South Florida does have a redeeming quality: the ocean.

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It is a well-known fact that South Florida is a suburban wasteland, with crazy development (Florida does not have income tax, so they compensate it with property tax, thus the constant building…). As you drive through South Florida it is golf course after residential development after shopping strips, again and again, for mile upon mile… However, there is one massive redeeming quality, yes you guessed it: the ocean.

I am privileged to live walking distance from the beach, and I try to go two or three times a week.

If it is my cardio day and the tide is low, I will go for a run on the beach. Alternatively, if it is my cardio day and the water conditions are good -something rare here, since there is usually rip tide warnings, Portuguese Man-O-War, chop, etc. etc.- I will go for an open water swim of about a mile.

On Sunday evenings, before yoga, I will go for a walk/meditation and with a big bucket, clean up the beach. The amount of trash one picks up is crazy, check out my report here.

At the beginning of the year a dear colleague took me Stand Up Paddling in the Intracoastal (read about it here), but recently we have been going out on the beach and actually surfing!! Although I have much to learn and I have only caught baby waves, it is great fun!!

In a very generous act. Fr. George gifted me the board I have been using recently, what an honor!

Finally, occasionally, I will just go for a walk on the beach, no bucket for picking up trash, no running, just a nice walk.

So, as much as I complain about Florida, I do love getting out on the water, or at least running next to it.

Paddle boarding, a wonderful experience

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One of my colleagues is a keen surfer, who nowadays also paddle boards and paddle surfs. The last couple of weeks he has taken me out paddle boarding with him.

What a wonderful experience it is! You get to spend time on the water, working out, and in communion with nature, in a meditation. Already I have seen a spotted ray, a turtle -which was really zooming along! and a manatee (and some pink jellyfish).

We paddle out of the Ocean Inlet Park and paddle around the Intracoastal, checking out mangroves, and gorgeous waterfront homes! I am hoping that he asks me out again and maybe we get to go out to the open sea, I might have to earn my sea legs first.

If you get a chance to paddle board, do not hesitate, like the old commercial said: “just do it”.

West Palm Beach, a celebration

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Within the suburban wasteland that is South Florida, Palm Beach stands out as a beacon of civilization. Developed in the early 20th century by rich northerners who were scaping the cold and snow, it soon became the place for really rich folks to build winter homes (think Post cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post’s Mar-a-Lago). If you were not rich enough to own a home you could always spend a few days at the iconic Breakers hotel. Nowadays, the Palm Beaches boast the Norton Museum which I have talked about already, and great dining venues.

I recently had the chance to explore Palm Beach at night. A colleague’s birthday was all it took to get three guys to go explore, improvise, and enjoy some drinks and a great dinner. Sure, there was some shop talk and some philosophy talk (they are both professors of philosophy, I am just an amateur) but mostly we just chatted and shared and enjoyed breaking bread together.

Pre-dinner drinks were had at the great rooftop Spruzzo bar atop the Ben hotel. The views were amazing, the drinks chilly, and the vibe great!

From there we walked around Clematis Street checking out the fun atmosphere, before settling down for dinner at Elisabetta’s Ristorante for a great Italian meal.

Overall, a fun time was had by all. I must say I was impressed by the cosmopolitan and sophisticated feel of West Palm Beach, I’ll be back.

Jonathan Dickinson State Park

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Taking advantage of my Spring Break, the other day I went with a dear friend to explore Jonathan Dickinson State Park. It is about 45 minutes North of Boynton Beach, but definitely worth the trip.

Since this is a massive park, you can camp, RV, mountain bike, canoe, kayak, etc. But my friend and I just hiked. There are many trails available, but they are all fairly similar in that the vegetation, landscape, etc. is mostly: low pine flatwoods. Although there are also cypress swamps, mangroves, saw palmetto, etc. It made for a wonderful and refreshing as the Japanese call it shinrin-yoku, forest bath, which the Germans call Waldeinsamkeit, although that refers more to the pleasant feeling you get in nature. So more of a resulting sensation than the actual forest bath itself.

The surprisingly beautiful Loxahatchee River crosses the Park. Surprising because it is unexpected and beautiful. There is a little beach for campers to swim, and you can kayak or canoe. If you are lazy there is a little boat that will give you a ride up and down the river!

One must pay attention when hiking to catch little things that would otherwise pass unobserved, like Pink Sundew carnivore flowers, or hawks flying, or a gorgeous woodpecker. We also spotted a nice Gopher tortoise and a copperhead snake (this one was dead, as it had gotten run over as it tried to escape the controlled burning… out of the fire and under the wheel, as the old saying goes…)

Jonathan Dickinson Park, so called for the fellow shipwrecked on Jupiter Island a few miles away from the Park in 1696, also boasts the highest “mountain” in South Florida, Hobe Mountain, complete with its observation tower. It is in fact, an 86-foot sand dune!! Admittedly, the views from the top are cool, since you can see the sea, the Intracoastal, and the massive park. The rangers were doing some controlled burning, which burns dead leaves and brush, but does not kill the bigger trees or saw palmettos.

We also saw the ruins of Camp Murphy, a military radio “school” during WWII.