Recently in Tour Category

I joined an Outdoor Adventures Klub (OAK) outing, biking Sanibel Island. Sanibel is a noncommercial island between Sarasota and Naples, Florida. It's also the home of J.N. "Ding" Darling National Park -- a wildlife refuge. OAK is a social organization where people get together for adventure activities. You never know who you'll be with. We were 8 strangers sharing a day of new experiences.

Sanibel is 12 miles long with bike paths criss-crossing it. After a couple miles we stopped at a lighthouse for a photo op. The real find though came a little later when we passed a primitive, yet tropical cemetery. Seemingly for the disenfranchised, one gravestone said "Unknown Man Found Near Lighthouse." We wondered if the dead were in coffins. Sorry.

Riding down the path to our right were homes, condos and tennis courts embedded into the flora and fauna. It dawned on us that they were predominately vacation rentals. It hadn't been obvious because there
was no commerce. No hotels, no restaurants, and no outfitters lining the roads. Even the one restaurant we past and ate at was an oasis.

To our left were obscured sand dunes and wide beaches. We stopped at Tarpon Bay Beach, where everyone shell-shopped in the sunny bright white sand. I was struck by an oddly looming sky behind me, and the eeriness of the fog in the dunes. Spooky.

Collective hunger set in. We ravaged a list of restaurants. I wanted to pick one that sounded irreverent, like Island Cow, but no way -- that one meant backtracking. The most convenient was the tired sounding Doc Ford's Rum Bar and Grille ("Doc Ford" is a protagonist in Randy Wayne books).  It promised to be a sports bar with "gourmet cuisine" - an oxymoron. Apparently not, because instead of grouper on a bun, I ate panko-crusted basa fish on a role with a romoulade. Twas delicate, satisfying, and humbling.

Ding Darling (I keep wanting to say Ding Dong) was a refuge for wildlife and for us! We followed a group of people with telephoto lenses the size of telescopes. One man allowed us to put my lens to his and snap a picture of a Roseate Spoonbill bird close up -- an event for us wanna be orinthologists. At the bottom of the mangrove estuary were multiple species of crabs. Below the water were Sand Sharks, translucent Needle, and other tropical fish. Black ducks swooped below the water, while Long-feathered Craines shook their booties on land. Most were scoping prey.

After 6 hours or so, I started to put out some harmless whines about my baking skin and sore bum. I knew I would get over myself. Despite me others remained upbeat and flexible. Nothing mattered to my new travel companions. Everyone was in the moment. Thank you OAK.

Outdoor Adventures Klub www.geocities.com/outdooradventuresklub/
Sanibel Island Chamber of Commerce www.sanibel-captiva.org/
J.N. "Ding" Darling National Park www.fws.gov/dingdarling/
Sanibel Beaches www.sanibel-captiva.org/play/beaches.asp
Tarpon Bay Beach www.sanibeltrails.com/tarponbay.aspx
Doc Ford's Run Bar and Grille www.docfordssanibel.com/

My mother and I drove to West Palm Beach to see Susan -- my old professor, boss, landlord, and friend visiting from Pittsburgh. We made the trek. She made the plans. We were to visit her brother and sister in-law at their "jack and jill," vintage stores, Donovan Gray. Then lunch at a café, which Susan promised to please.

First the Jill - It was rich with elegant couture clothes and jewelry from the 19h through the twentieth centuries. The entry tickled us with its playful vintage window display, which changes periodically. Apparently Sandy, the mannequin, and her environs have a cult following.

This shop impresses the best. Michael Kors and Donna Karan have come for inspiration. My mother and I oogled over Pucci, Christian Lacroix, Bergdorf Goodman and more. When we commented how skinny the wearer and bearers needed to be, Louise, the in-law, observed that they must live on alcohol and cigarettes. That made sense.

We moved next door to the Jack.  This was Susan's brother John's domain. Susan quickly pointed to the breakfront made top-to-bottom of mercury etched glass and featured in Architectural Digest. We also talked "Nakashima." John lauded Nakashima as the hottest furniture designer out there. My mother shared that a coffee table recently sold for 43k.


A little back-story: George Nakashima was a Japanese furniture-maker based out of New Hope PA. Fifty years ago my parents went to his studio and had him custom build pieces. At the time they were the same price as  mainstream furniture. Then considered artful, now as art, some pieces are displayed at museums like the MOMA in NYC. Who knew then?

My parents bought a HiFi cabinet (now used as a buffet); a coffee table (now my sister's); and a dining room set, which is now mine. I had left my set with my sister when I moved to Manhattan in 1990 -- the home of the itty-bitty apartment. She kept it during her family-rearing years -- need I say more about the condition?


We talked about him finding a buyer. It was a potentially lucrative day for both of us.

Next, Susan led us down this unlikely long, 2.5 foot wide café entrance. I'm not sure how they painted murals on both walls! We squeezed through the alley into a hidden gem, The Little Tea House -- Shangri-La. We sat on the porch. hugged by colors, palms, and a perfect breeze. This was real Florida.

The day made me giddy. immediately knew I would be writing about these finds. Luckily Susan had a camera.



Donovan Gray 3623 Dixie Hwy, WPB,
561-838-4442, http://donovanandgray.bondandbowery.com/index.php 

The Little Tea 3627 1/2 South Dixie Hwy, WPB, 561-832-5683, www.thelittleteahouse.net

More friends visited from Boston. Since they were only in town for one night I picked a place to eat and took the quick tour of Ft Lauderdale there. We did one big loop, passing all the icons that define the city. Hitting the road at 6pm, I returned them satiated to their hotel by 8:30 pm.

We started downtown on Avenue of the Arts, first passing the Broward Center for the Performing Arts and then the Museum of Discovery and Science. The former is a towering building that oozes culture. The latter is a modern that pays tribute to its art deco roots. Across the street is the red brick Riverwalk. The promenade runs along the New River for the length of downtown. Continuing on we saw some busy local spots; the library, another nod to colorful South Florida history; and a health club appropriately named Sweat.


We continued straight to Las Olas Blvd, (translation: the waves) a sweet 10-ish retail blocks reminiscent of old Spanish Florida. Not a William Sonoma or GAP in sight - or at least my sight. Las Olas was congested that night - always a fair mixture of locals and tourists.

Next we moved on to beautiful homes and yachts on stunning waterways. We veered off the path and tooled through a series of cul de sacs. The homes alternated between authentic old and new copies of them. Most modest ones had been knocked down to make way for the new oversized ones.

We landed on AIA, smack in the middle of the Beach Blanket Bingo Ft Lauderdale. This time I could tell that tourists dominated. We mosied up the seashore a few miles, observing personality changes on the way.

The scenic portion of the trip came to a halt once the traffic lights kicked in at Commercial Blvd. So we took the drawbridge across the Intracoastal to South Florida-strip-mall and found our restaurant. It was Flanigans, inexpensive American fair in ticky-tacky South Florida style  -- another must-experience.
 

Did we miss stuff? Hell yeah! Did they get the flavor of Ft. Lauderdale? Very tasty.


Broward Center for the Performing Arts www.browardcenter.org