DISCLAIMER: The cameras are monitored regularly from Monday – Friday, 8 AM – 5 PM. If there is a technical problem after hours, it likely will not be resolved until the following business morning. Additionally, the globe wiper rests in the camera’s view from time to time, should this occur after hours rest assured it will eventually move out of the view.

PLEASE REMEMBER the underwater camera is located at the bottom of the ocean and is subjected to the natural elements of the sea like heavy wind, storms, and substantial wave action due to its location in a high surf zone. It will go down on occasion or it may be glitchy on certain days. This equipment and your view are at the mercy of Mother Nature. So please be patient and kind with your comments.

KEEP IN MIND that the weather will affect the water quality, which will affect your view. Cloudy conditions, heavy rain, freshwater runoff could make the water appear different in color and even murky. The surf can also bring more nutrient content in the water. Please be patient with Mother Nature.

Thank you to the City of Deerfield Beach for their permission to bring you this camera. Click on the link below and enjoy! No scuba gear required!

Go Live Beneath the Atlantic Ocean Surface

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The Casa de Suenos Bed & Breakfast in St. Augustine’s Historical District

When respected St. Augustine innkeepers Joe and Margaret Finnegan of the highly-rated St. Francis Inn launch another bed and breakfast inn in historic St. Augustine, Florida. you expect the best. We were not disappointed. Simply Smart Travel recommends this great little inn highly.

Located in the historic district at 20 Cordova Street, a mere a five minute walk from the waterfront, the Casa de Suenos Bed and Breakfast has seven comfortable rooms, each with a different décor and some even include balconies and two-person jetted tubs. The inn also boasts a really inviting dining and lounge area and great service.

The amenities for guests begin free parking, a rare commodity in St. Augustine’s historical district. They continue with a complimentary supply of port wine and glasses in the room and plush white terry robes for guest use.  Other amenities include a gourmet hot breakfasts weekdays, weekend brunches, afternoon wine and hors d’oeuvres and an evening dessert that was delivered to the room for guests who were still out on the town. High speed internet access and a never-empty snack basket and cold drinks are also part of the package. Inn guests are also invited to visit nearby St. Augustine beach. The inn will supply towels, beach chairs, off-street beach parking and showers at no extra charge.

The stately Spanish-architecture home that is the inn was a private residence built in 1904 as a one story home. In 1988, it became a bed and breakfast owned by Ray and Stanley Toole. Kathleen Hurley took it over in 2001 and quickly gained a reputation for excellence. The Finnegans took it over in 2015, as Ms. Hurley retired.

For an overview of the inn, go to http://www.casadesuenos.com/inn/. Many special packages encompassing sunset schooner sailings, free Frontier Airlines fly-in packages and other deals can be found online. While you are on the web site, you can also check room availability. Reservations can be made by calling 800-824-6062 (USA & Canada) or (904) 824-0887.

Gourmet breakfast at the Casa de Suenos.

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The Jungle Queen is a popular Ft. Lauderdale tourist attraction

Before our migration from Boca Raton on Florida’s Atlantic coast to Sarasota on the Gulf coast in early 1999, we were frequent visitors to neighboring Broward County and Greater Fort Lauderdale to visit friends and enjoy the restaurants and recreational opportunities.

So, when we embarked on recent road trip back to our old stomping grounds in June, 2016, we were curious to see what has changed and what has endured. There are ample amounts of both.

For starters, the impressive infrastructure of greater Fort Lauderdale has stood the test of time. Visitors and residents alike can move around with east on the wide and well-maintained roads, and a remarkably good public transportation system with frequent buses and commuter trains. The downtown Ft. Lauderdale airport and the Port Everglades cruise terminal are also convenient and efficient terminals for visitors.

Mega yachts and skyscrapers abound in Ft. Lauderdale

The subtropical ambiance that strikes visitors from the north so positively as a defining characteristic has not changed either. Lush landscaping of both public and private spaces is the norm and tends to dress up even some not-so-upscale neighborhoods.

Another enduring feature of the area is its allure to visitors. The warm weather, dynamic night life, great restaurants and tourist attractions ranging from Butterfly World and clean public Atlantic beaches to touristy lures such as horse racing, gambling and sightseeing cruises still give visitors plenty to do. Shopping malls of all kinds such as Sawgrass Mills, the Galleria and the Festival Flea market still draw throngs.

What is different is mostly in the commercial realm. Many of our favorite restaurants are no longer there or under new management, though some new ones caught our attention. The area immediately to the north of the iconic Deerfield Beach pier, one of our favorite evening walk venues, has gentrified significantly and we loved the view from Oceans 234. Demographically, South Florida ‘s refreshing diversity seems to be have continued.

We really enjoyed playing tourist. One of our favorite “touristy” things to do was a daytime cruise on the venerable Jungle Queen tour boat which is based at the Bahia Mar yacht harbor. For 90 minutes, we glided through the intracoastal waterway and the New River, passing mega yachts and mega mansions galore and absorbing some local color from the narrator’s spiel.

We also found some neat little restaurants on tony East Las Olas Blvd., along Ft. Lauderdale’s beachfront N. Ocean Blvd., and in Pompano Beach in the vicinity of the Intracoastal waterway and Atlantic Blvd. Waterfront restaurants ranging from commonplace to ultra-upscale are easy to find throughout the region.

Our visits to Butterfly World, downtown Ft. Lauderdale, Sawgrass Mills, The Festival Flea Market, and a drive along highway A1A as far as Mizner Park in Boca Raton also landed them on our “should do” list for visitor.

Lush landscaping characterizes the New River waterfront.

It was fun to revisit greater Ft. Lauderdale and see it from the eyes of a tourist. If you are looking for some good food, beaches and a lot of vacation attractions, we highly recommend you visit there whether for the first or the tenth time.

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                           Fall In Florida

By Jeffrey R. Orenstein, Ph.D., Simply Smart Travel

This autumn we will mark our twenty year anniversary since we moved from Ohio to Florida. One of the things we missed during our first few years in the Sunshine state was the annual abrupt change that marked each autumn in northern Ohio. Like clockwork, the tress put on their gorgeous display of color and the weather turned sharply colder, even though so-called Indian summer warm spells were frequent. Unfortunately to this warmth-loving writer, frosts and even an occasional snowfall that tuck were also part of an Ohio October. They were the inevitable harbingers of the long winter to come.

But now that I am an honorary Florida native (a curious cultural phenomenon that seems to happen to transplanted residents after about a decade), I have come to appreciate that there is a change of season each fall in Florida. Admittedly, it is more subtle than what happens up north but it is real and it is perceptible.

Our first clue is usually that the early morning temperatures become noticeably cooler. Instead of a overnight low in the upper 70’s (and occasionally the lower 80’s), the overnight low is in the high 60’s and lower 70’s. Today, for example, the overnight low was 67 and the prediction is for a high of 84 with another low in the high 60’s for tonight.

Another sure sign of autumn is that the annual migration of what we affectionately call snow birds (northerners who winter in Florida) is beginning. The auto carriers that ferry their cars down are in evidence in increasing numbers, dropping off their Lexuses, BMWs, Audis and Mercedes Benz sedans and SUVs. The restaurant lines are a bit longer and the traffic is a little heavier, though nothing what they will be like when the flock is in full force between early January and Easter and Passover.

Still yet another sign that fall has arrived in Florida is that the humidity is lower-in the 50% to 60% range instead of the 80% to 90% range. The difference is huge-the level of summer soggy air discomfort is gone and usually won’t return until April.

Another tip-off is that the summer rainy season that started in June is over. The sun is shining brightly and the set-your-watch regularity of late afternoon thunderstorms is a thing of the past. While there are occasional rainy days in the fall, they are few and far between. It still may be hurricane season but it is winding down and well past the peak weeks for storm development.

What says Florida fall to me most of all is the rainbow of colors from freshly-planted annuals that will bloom until spring, the brilliant yellow and then orange blooms on the numerous rain trees that dot residential areas and the median of one of the main streets in our neighborhood. Along with them, the bright yellow blooms of the Tabebuia trees contrast with the fluffy white clouds in the omnipresent blue skies. They don’t call it the Sunshine state for nothing!

Yes, there are seasons in Florida and Autumn is one of the best. It is a colorful, mild and delightful time of the year in Florida. It’s good to be here. When you visit us, keep your eyes open for signs of all. They’re here. When are you going to be?

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Tampa’s TECO Trolley runes every 15 minutes to and from Ybor City.

A Saturday In Tampa Slightly Off The Beaten Path

 If you’re ever in downtown Tampa on a business trip and have the better part of a half day free, there are some interesting attractions very close by and certainly worth a visit.

While Busch Gardens, Rays baseball and International Mall attract the throngs, if you stray off the beaten path a bit, there is a lot to see.

I recommend a visit to be the beautifully restored Tampa Union Station, served by Amtrak’s New York to Miami route. Built in 1912 and renovated in 1998, the Italian Renaissance edifice sees two trains daily and is the third busies station in Florida. It’s on the National Register of Historic Places and is beautiful inside and out.

A fairly short walk east down Twiggs Street brings you the Port Authority Station of the TECO Tampa Trolley, a real-live streetcar that runs every 15 minutes between the hotels, convention center and amenities of the tony Channelside area and Ybor City The all day fare is only $5.00 (good also on local city buses) and it runs until 2:00 am on Fridays and Saturdays. (If you are staying at Channelside, you can catch the trolley there and walk to and from Union Station.)

We hopped the trolley to historic Ybor City, the historic home of Tampa’s Cuban immigrant cigar makers It was founded in the 1880s by Vicente Martinez-Ybor as a cigar-manufacturing center, and was home to thousands of immigrants, mainly from Spain, Cuba, and Italy.

Although it fell on hard times in the middle of the 20^th century, today it has been gentrified and has become a lively entertainment and food district. The Columbia Restaurant is justly famous (try the white Sangria) and Spanish, Cuban, Italian, Greek and French restaurants are available on La Setima, the main drag of the Historic District. Cigars are still hand rolled there and the cafe con leche is as good as that found in Miami or Havana. One of only two National Historic Landmark Districts in Florida, Ybor City is a must-visit.

Another place worth a visit lies just south of downtown. Old Hyde Park is accessible by cab or local HART bus route 30 which runs about every half hour. Built in the 1920’s, it is an area of beautiful old homes and what used to be a very tony shopping district. Many shops and restaurants remain, although tony shopping has moved to prestigious International Mall in Tampa. It’s a good place to shop, have a glass of wine and take in the sights of one of Tampa’s interesting neighborhoods.

A summer drum circle on Siesta Key. It happens every Sunday.

The Joys of a Florida Summer

Summer gave us a sneak peek on the Gulf Coast this week. The mercury climbed into the high 80’s and the humidity ramped up a bit from where it was during our cooler-than-usual spring. It will probably cool off again now and then before summer heat settles here in earnest in a few weeks but I am one of those Floridians who love summer.

Yes, I know that many Floridians are “snow birds,” our affectionate term for those who winter in Florida (usually for six months and one day to establish Florida residency and save a bundle on state income taxes which don’t exist in Florida). But I’m not one of them. I live here year-round and love it during all of our real but subtle seasons.

Summer is particularly nice in Sarasota, a tourist mecca, because we get steady ocean breezes and actually experience less heal and humidity than most cities in the midwest and northeast endure. Have you ever experienced summer in St. Louis, or Memphis or Philadelphia? It’s H-O-T and S-T-I-C-K-Y and you can’t count on the cooling zephyrs coming in from the Gulf.

Summer traffic is a less intense. As famed Florida columnist and novelist (“Bad Monkey”, “Sick Puppy” and others) Carl Hiaasen observes, you can tell it’s summer in Florida by looking at the license plates. The majority are actually from Florida in the summertime. It’s seems like it’s the reserve between Thanksgiving and Easter.

Summer also brings us warm water and uncrowded beaches. Ah, the beach. Florida has many of the finest on the planet.
Floridians enjoy the beach year-round but we in the over 50 set especially like to have a glass of wine and nibble on hors d’oeuvres as we watch the spectacular sunsets over the Gulf. It truly is one of the most moving shows nature provides.

Another joy of Florida summer is al fresco dining. Whether you’re overlooking an inland pond, the Gulf, the Intracoastal Waterway or just passing traffic, more and more Florida restaurants have outdoor seating to enjoy. And enjoy we do.

So, Porgy and Bess were right when they sang about Summertime and its Easy Livin’. If they had lived near Siesta Key public Beach, they would have had to weave the word ‘paradise’ into their song.

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Florida
It is not by chance that Florida has become the most-visited state in the United States and surpassed New York as the third most populous state in the nation. One reason, of course, is that Florida has a fabulous climate making it an outdoor paradise year-round. Another big reason is that Florida’s 53,927 square miles and 8,436 miles of coastline (second only to Alaska) are gorgeous, often breathtakingly so.

The state is filled with interesting people from around the nation and around the globe, is home to incredibly diverse flora and fauna, still has thousands of square miles of wilderness from the Panhandle to the Everglades, is an agricultural powerhouse, a sports mecca, has something always in bloom, is a boating and beach paradise and, most of all, abounds with a multitude of incomparable natural and urban attractions.

Take it from us, Florida is a great place to vacation as well as live. And we know because we do both. We live near the Gulf of Mexico south of Tampa and visit slightly off-the-beaten path Florida destinations (and a few on the beaten path too) as often as we can.

From Key West to Kendall, From Pensacola to Pembroke Pines, From Jacksonville to Jupiter, From Miami to Micanopy, From Plant City to Pompano Beach, From Orlando to Opa-Locka, and thousands of fascinating places in between, Florida has what you are looking for in a great destination. As much as we love to travel, we always love to come home to Florida.

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