Del Boca Vista 2010
Ms. H. and I had a nice vacation in Florida.
Our drive from New Orleans to South Florida was uneventful, other than spotting the Bat-Copter in a motel parking lot in Lake City Florida.
We drove down to Boca Raton, where my Dad and his wife live.
My Dad's wife Marilyn served us ante-pasto.
Ifrog and mshollie atop the observation tower in the "Gumbo Limbo Nature Center", Boca Raton.
Boca is on Florida's East Coast, unaffected by the oil spill. There were lots of sea turtle nests on the beach.
I talked to a Turtle Inspector on the beach one morning, who says 4 species lay their eggs in Boca.
In addition to the beach, one of the nice things about the Boca area is the variety of restaurants-- not just good Jewish delis, Italian, and the other things one might expect, but a variety of unusual ethnic places. We tried out a Peruvian restaurant, "La Rosa Nautica", with lots of tastes and dishes that were new to us.
"Chicha morada", a purple maize corn beverage. One of the appetizers was "cancha", a little bowl of toasted corn kernels that seemed to be the inspiration for "corn nuts" but was much better.
On more familiar ground for me, we also found "Casa Maya" in Deerfield Beach, a Mexican place with Yucatecan dishes too seldom seen in the states.
Taquitos pibil, poc chuc. Yum.
We also spent time in Miami. We got some cafecitos on Calle Ocho in Little Havana, then hung around the Art Deco District in Miami Beach.
We enjoyed the Lincoln Street pedestrian mall for the architecture, people watching, window shopping, and treats at the cafes and restaurants.
"Gee, our old La Salle ranned great."
There is now a branch of the Hofbrau Haus here. I had a weis beer (this is a small) while Hollie watched the end of one of the World Cup games on the telly.
After South Florida, we drove back up the peninsula to Fort Walton Beach on the Florida Panhandle.
It's on the Gulf Coast, but we were fortunate to visit between oil waves. No oil smell in the air, and the beach had just reopened after a batch of tarballs had been cleaned up. The local economy was hurting since it relies heavily on visitors, many of whom have canceled reservations.
We visited our friend Cristina, who lived in NOLA until Katrina and still visits regularly.
"Voyeurism Prohibited". Sorry!
Cristina took us to some nice local places, including "Fish Lipz" restaurant and bar with a pretty waterfront view on the bay inlet, and "Taj Mahal", a recently opened Indian restaurant featuring a belly dancer.
We walked the Okaloosa Pier. People were fishing on it; off to the sides people were enjoying the beach, and I saw at least 3 dolphins chasing fish near shore.
Okaloosa Pier rail-bird.
We drove back taking the coastal route through the rest of Florida and Alabama west of Mobile Bay.
At Orange Beach there were signs warning people to stay out of the water.
There were two rows of booms and a work boat off shore. A fair number of people were set up enjoying the sun on the beach away from the shoreline. Despite the signs, a few people were splashing in the water; again we were there between waves of oil coming this direction, and crews had recently cleared the beach of a previous wave. During the couple of minutes I stopped at the beach here, a little boy who was running along the surf with a net scooping up seashells called out, "Dad, I found oil!". Yep, he caught some small tarballs. Further west, some inlets to the back bay were closed up with sand, and there were several parks and parking lots set up as emergency response camps.
We headed inland through Foley, stopping at the Burris Farm Market in Loxley, which we'd discovered during our Alabama vacation with Ms. B in '07.
Tasty fresh cobblers in the Farm Market bakery!
Back home on I-10. Long delay crossing Mobile Bay; got to the Louisiana Welcome Center too late to get free Luzianne coffee, so I had to wait till I got back to town for PJs.
Miles put on the car: 2,231.1
A pile more pix on Flickr
When I'd scheduled the vacation, I was hoping to be out of town for the worst local effects of the oil gusher, and that they would have had the damn thing capped by now. But nope, it's still just beginning, and Monday morning the smell was in the air here in the city again.
Our drive from New Orleans to South Florida was uneventful, other than spotting the Bat-Copter in a motel parking lot in Lake City Florida.
We drove down to Boca Raton, where my Dad and his wife live.
My Dad's wife Marilyn served us ante-pasto.
Ifrog and mshollie atop the observation tower in the "Gumbo Limbo Nature Center", Boca Raton.
Boca is on Florida's East Coast, unaffected by the oil spill. There were lots of sea turtle nests on the beach.
I talked to a Turtle Inspector on the beach one morning, who says 4 species lay their eggs in Boca.
In addition to the beach, one of the nice things about the Boca area is the variety of restaurants-- not just good Jewish delis, Italian, and the other things one might expect, but a variety of unusual ethnic places. We tried out a Peruvian restaurant, "La Rosa Nautica", with lots of tastes and dishes that were new to us.
"Chicha morada", a purple maize corn beverage. One of the appetizers was "cancha", a little bowl of toasted corn kernels that seemed to be the inspiration for "corn nuts" but was much better.
On more familiar ground for me, we also found "Casa Maya" in Deerfield Beach, a Mexican place with Yucatecan dishes too seldom seen in the states.
Taquitos pibil, poc chuc. Yum.
We also spent time in Miami. We got some cafecitos on Calle Ocho in Little Havana, then hung around the Art Deco District in Miami Beach.
We enjoyed the Lincoln Street pedestrian mall for the architecture, people watching, window shopping, and treats at the cafes and restaurants.
"Gee, our old La Salle ranned great."
There is now a branch of the Hofbrau Haus here. I had a weis beer (this is a small) while Hollie watched the end of one of the World Cup games on the telly.
After South Florida, we drove back up the peninsula to Fort Walton Beach on the Florida Panhandle.
It's on the Gulf Coast, but we were fortunate to visit between oil waves. No oil smell in the air, and the beach had just reopened after a batch of tarballs had been cleaned up. The local economy was hurting since it relies heavily on visitors, many of whom have canceled reservations.
We visited our friend Cristina, who lived in NOLA until Katrina and still visits regularly.
"Voyeurism Prohibited". Sorry!
Cristina took us to some nice local places, including "Fish Lipz" restaurant and bar with a pretty waterfront view on the bay inlet, and "Taj Mahal", a recently opened Indian restaurant featuring a belly dancer.
We walked the Okaloosa Pier. People were fishing on it; off to the sides people were enjoying the beach, and I saw at least 3 dolphins chasing fish near shore.
Okaloosa Pier rail-bird.
We drove back taking the coastal route through the rest of Florida and Alabama west of Mobile Bay.
At Orange Beach there were signs warning people to stay out of the water.
There were two rows of booms and a work boat off shore. A fair number of people were set up enjoying the sun on the beach away from the shoreline. Despite the signs, a few people were splashing in the water; again we were there between waves of oil coming this direction, and crews had recently cleared the beach of a previous wave. During the couple of minutes I stopped at the beach here, a little boy who was running along the surf with a net scooping up seashells called out, "Dad, I found oil!". Yep, he caught some small tarballs. Further west, some inlets to the back bay were closed up with sand, and there were several parks and parking lots set up as emergency response camps.
We headed inland through Foley, stopping at the Burris Farm Market in Loxley, which we'd discovered during our Alabama vacation with Ms. B in '07.
Tasty fresh cobblers in the Farm Market bakery!
Back home on I-10. Long delay crossing Mobile Bay; got to the Louisiana Welcome Center too late to get free Luzianne coffee, so I had to wait till I got back to town for PJs.
Miles put on the car: 2,231.1
A pile more pix on Flickr
When I'd scheduled the vacation, I was hoping to be out of town for the worst local effects of the oil gusher, and that they would have had the damn thing capped by now. But nope, it's still just beginning, and Monday morning the smell was in the air here in the city again.