It has been over a week, so I thought I would add a few words on what is going on with us and a little about what we have seen and done over that period of time.
We made our visits to Palm Beach, still beautiful ...and expensive; West Palm Beach, where we saw a few new buildings and developments; Okeechobee Blvd. is still a major commercial drive with little change, but some updates and a couple of our 'old favorites' out of business (like our first 'Roadhouse' experience with the peanuts on the floor, and the Texas Land & Cattle Co., both no more); the large regional mall, The Palm Beach Mall, appears to be closed down, but since it is a prime property in a prime location, I cannot imagine that it won't return, newly refurbished and better once the economy makes a positive turn for the better).
We made a visit to PGA National (the location of PGA of America headquarters, and one of our prior places of residence before our home in Jupiter). Of course we could not get into the area where we had lived since it is tightly controlled with gated security, but did have lunch at one of the great restaurants there at PGA National. The properties and golf courses look as nice as ever.
We drove over to Riviera Beach (part of West Palm Beach) to have dinner at one of our 'old favorites' (yes, we do have a good number of them), the old and rustic "Crab Pot" located on the water with their excellent crab and shrimp dishes. Well as luck would have it, there is no more 'Crab Pot'! Auwe! But there is a fairly new 14-15 story condo now located there. So I needed to know if the Crab Pot had relocated, so I stopped in at Premiere Liquor Store (actually an old time convenience store located about one-block away. In brief, the owner sold out about six years ago, took his million$ and retired all the way to the bank. The condos are are about four years old, and less than 15% sold (that real estate market is a jungle out there).
We had breakfast one morning at Loggerhead Park (as in the Loggerhead Turtles that frequent the local beaches; and speaking of beaches, one of our old favorites (...again) The "Lazy Loggerhead Cafe" is located in the park and overlooks the beach and the park.
We did a drive-by at Bert Reynolds Park (also close-by), where we used to make our boat launches.
The old, former "Bert Reynolds Theater" has been remodeled and is now the "Jupiter Mantz Theater", where live productions are performed.
And speaking of ol' Bert, we drove out to Jupiter Farms where the Reynolds home and Museum and Gift Shop (along with some acreage) is located, and you know what - yep, no more! I mean you cannot even tell where it used to be it is so over-grown. It appears that all structures are no longer there. It is all back to nature, if you will. (I guess those bankruptcy courts are hard on your real estate holdings). We did see a Bert Reynolds Museum located just to the east of the Intracoastal Waterway on Indiantown Road and U.S. 1 in Jupiter. Did not visit it though (not a real Bert fan I guess), and I would guess that it is a private endeavor outside of Bert personally.
We did a drive-by of the old workplace - NPPC/Sunsource Int'l Corp. located off of I-95 in the West Palm Beach Industrial Park behind Nicklaus Golf Equipment (still there by the way). Saw no name on the old workplace, but there were a number of cars there.
Went around the corner to Pete's Place, a local watering-hole and polynesian themed eating place that caters mainly to the Industrial Park lunch crowd, but we were a little too late. It was still in business, but closed at the time we were there.
We saw noticeable changes all along U.S. 1 and A1A from Jupiter/Tequesta north to Ft. Pierce. Many newer strip-malls, business buildings and home tracts. Noted also was the item mentioned before - more auto traffic up through Hobe Sound, Stuart, Jensen Beach, Port St. Lucie, and Port Salerno areas. But then again, isn't this just another by-product of growth within nice areas to live, anywhere.
We were in Cocoa Beach and went to see the "Worlds Largest Surf Store" (...or so they say anyhow...) "Ron Jon Surf Shop". Well, it is rather large. They have about a block and a half, of which the actual surf shop covers about 2/3 of a block itself (and next door is another fairly large establishment - the "Cocoa Beach Surf Complex".
We once again made a visit to the Kennedy Space Center, noted a good number of changes since our last visit there in the 90's. Very nice and well done (I will not fill pages here on the Space Center, just let it be said that it is a very nice visit on the Space Coast of Central Florida).
We have also visited Orlando area, where we drove out to Disney World. We did not go in as neither of us were really in the mood to do the 'Disney thing'. but I did want to see the complex. It has changed since our last visit in the 90's, but still "Disney" (...and 'yes Walt (Disney) you made an excellent and foresightful decision when you purchased all those thousands of acres of brush, trees and swamp south of Orlando 40+ years ago!)s
Coming back we went by Sea World Orlando and Universal Studios Orlando (there is a great Bubba Gump's Seafood House located there at the Universal City Walk; There are few of them, but they have a great one on the water in Long Beach, CA where we have also had a great seafood dinner).
And if one is in Orlando, then that means one is close to Windemere, where one Tiger Woods lives, so hey, curiosity made me make a visit to IsleWorth (but not through the gate of course, as it is controlled), and it is nice, but ya know, not really overly impressive. (of course, da Tiger does have a premium property located on Jupiter Island in Jupiter in South Florida. Now that in itself is impressive (living alongside Greg Norman, Chi Chi Rodriquez, Dan Marino, and a good number of other celeb's).
Downtown Orlando and the outlying areas especially to the south of Orlando have growth ex-potentially, and what I remember to be virgin land and swamp is now hotels, restaurants, clubs, and a lot of other growth throughout the area.
Tonight we are just north of Titusville in a very nice RV park in the very small 'burg of Mims, Florida. Tomorrow we continue north to Daytona Beach area for a day, and then on up to St. Augustine.
And oh yea, it has been warm again! Yesterday it was in the upper 60'sF and today was 76F with nice, mild nights. Now this is more like the old Florida that I remember.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment