Because of the pandemic in 2020, we didn’t go on any major vacations. In fact, we canceled one we had scheduled for our anniversary because we didn’t want to fly. That was before the nation shut down. We changed that trip to one in the Ft. Lauderdale area. After that, we chose to drive to the beach a number of times, just to get away and forget about the stress of what was going on in the world. We stayed away from the southeastern part of the state, because the virus was rampant down there. We even stayed away from the crowded, more popular beaches on either coast. Instead, we mainly chose jaunts to the more private beaches, where, um, no one cared about your privates.

Beach Weekends 2020

We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale and Marriott’s BeachPlace Towers. The beach across the street was packed with college spring-breakers. It was fun walking among the young, good-looking group, but knowing what we knew about any virus at the time, it seemed a little reckless.

Ft. Lauderdale was a bit too crowded for us, so we went up the coast to a place a friend recommended, Deerfield Beach. We had a nice lunch and watched people play. We returned home in the evening and strolled the street.

We checked out of Ft. Lauderdale and began driving up the coast a little. We went to Gumbo Limbo, an environmental complex that had some weird tree crabs, spiders, woodpeckers, turtles, fish, eels, and other sea life. We continued north and saw a strange passenger on a motorcycle. We then crossed into Jensen Beach and our Vistana home for a couple of days. The view from our room was beautiful, and the resort was quiet and picturesque.

We left the resort and went to Blind Creek Beach, a quiet, private, clothing-optional beach. Dan enjoyed the freedom, whereas Madeline enjoyed the surf. We also found a great little restaurant right on the marina in Ft. Pierce. It was a nice anniversary escape.

We spent a weekend in Port St. Lucie/Ft. Pierce and went to Blind Creek Beach. We also hiked around the Jack Island Preserve and saw peacocks walk through town.

This time we began in Titusville and went to the Canaveral National Seashore, where we went on Black Point Wildlife Drive, where we saw common moorhen, gators, osprey, and a number of other wading birds. We also spent an afternoon at Playalinda Beach, another clothing optional beach on the Atlantic. The next day, we drove down and spent a little time back at Blind Creek Beach before moving on to the same Vistana resort in Jensen Beach. That evening, the Payne family joined us.

The next day we got up and took Myles to the beach. He didn’t really like the noise of the ocean, but he liked napping. Alicia & Madeline liked the surf, though.

 

We checked out of the resort after a beautiful sunrise and went back to Blind Creek Beach for a little while, before having lunch at our favorite restaurant in the area and then headed home.

We had one final night’s worth of points with Vistana, so we went back to Port St. Lucie. A hurricane was out in the Atlantic, so the beaches were like getting sandblasted. So we enjoyed the resort and we went to the country’s first wildlife refuge before heading up the coast and going home.

For my birthday, we used some MVC points to go to the Palm Beach area. It was a little too cool to spend a lot of time at the beach, but we found a couple of really nice gardens to tour. Morikami Japanese Gardens was absolutely huge and beautiful. We also went to The Society of the Four Arts Garden, which was small, but had some interesting features. On our last day, we toured a couple of state parks, like John MacArthur Beach S.P.

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