Beach Lightning (#3)

Originally, I said this blog would be about my exciting retirement travels. The retirement has been delayed for entirely selfish reasons having to do with incentives to retire that might be forthcoming.

I do want to share my first trip even though it is preretirement and was taken not with Charley (as in Travels with Charley, the name of my blog) but in an American Airlines jet. Don't want to bore you with details - I'm adding those to the bottom of the post for my own gratification and reference guide.

One of the highlights or scarier moments of the trip was the lightning 0n the beach - I found this fantastic photo on flickr which is exactly what I witnessed while being outside! Another scary moment had to do with a transparent jellyfish floating right in front of my face mask. Didn't know such a small creature could give me such a thrill. Luckily I was on the surface and didn't suck water when I gasped.

Lauder by the Sea was an old school Florida kind of place with some low rise hotels still available and reasonable food prices especially at the diner on Commercial Blvd. The best thing about it was that a coral reef lay a little over 100 yards out to sea; an easy swim for snorkeling. The 4th of July fireworks were right off the beach next to where we were staying. They were beautiful, although I felt for the sea turtles who even thought about laying eggs in the sand that night. A small trail the next morning attested to one actually coming up on the sand only to beat a hasty retreat from all the drunken revelers. I found my perfect retirement job by the way - driving a mule along the beach looking for turtle tracks.

Hotel - High Noon Resort - great place right on the beach. Well insulated, thank God, or the Bumpusses' family reunion would have been hard to bear. Even grandad started drinking beer after or instead of breakfast.

Restaurants:

Aruba Beach Cafe- great Bimini bread and an interesting tomato based conch soup. Beautiful view of ocean

Oceans 234 - down A1A or Ocean Drive as name implies. Right on the beach in Deerfield Beach- great seafood place. Nice but casual.

Village Grill - good omelets

By-the-Sea Diner - breakfast and lunch. Booths only wide enough for 2 people. Lots of bar stools. Delicious inexpensive breakfast.

Zuckerello's & Fish Co - My son, Justin's GPS directed us to Zuckerello's after being too underdressed for Blue Moon Fish Company. Very friendly service with Italian flavored seafood.

Snorkeling highlights - turtle, parrotfish, French angelfish