Side trip to Deerfield Beach

When we were out in Florida in January staying at our villa we decided we would have a break from the usual homeowners holiday and get away from it all for a few days and take a ‘real’ vacation.  So when we booked tickets to see Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band at Sunrise, and then thought about driving up and down for about a nano second, we then decided to have a mini-break and stay somewhere on the Atlantic Coast.

Sometime ago while staying in Miami we had ventured up the A1A and after looking round Palm Beach and deciding it was perhaps not the place to experience lunch with a couple of teenagers, we ended up in Deerfield Beach.  We stopped off at a beachside restaurant where luckily it was Happy Hour.  Not so happy for the driver, but the remaining adults enjoyed a couple of cocktails with either a very late lunch or an early supper.  Whichever we decided it was, it was delicious.  Great shrimps in beer batter, a friendly waitress and great company.  This was in February so we had left cold weather behind in London, and were in our tee shirts and cropped trousers or shorts and sitting on the beach eating our food overlooking the sea.  Isn't life great sometimes?

So when it came to thinking about where to head for, we thought of Deerfield Beach, and managed to get a deal at the Wyndham Resort for 3 nights.  We drove down the Turnpike - tedious but necessary as it is far faster than the A1A Coastal Road which is how we travelled back to Orlando.   

Our room overlooked the Ocean.  The pictures really say it all.

Sunset at Deerfield Beach, January 2012

Sunbathers on Deerfield Beach, FL.  January 2012

The Pier at Deerfield Beach FL undergoing a face lift.

Deerfield Beach Florida

The start of sunrise at Deerfield Beach

Sunrise at Deerfield Beach

As you can see we had the most fantastic views overlooking the sandy beach and the shimmering waters of the Atlantic Ocean.  The sunsets and sunrises were just fabulous; with those wonderful colours that can only be a Florida horizon.

 

There’s loads to see and do in the surrounding area, you can attend concerts at the Sunrise Center (home of the Florida Panthers - which explains why the Center was so cold - take a jumper or wrap). This is just next door to the Sawgrass Mill Shopping Plaza which seems to go on forever, and is North America's largest outlet.  The old part is fairly dated nowadays, but there is a VERY upmarket part called The Colonnade with top-end shops (with prices to match) and great eateries.  So if you are looking for something from high-end outlets such as Prada, Burberry or Salvatore Ferragamo this is the place to visit.

The day we went we had lunch at the Grand Lux Cafe at The Colonnade at Sawgrass which was very pleasant.  A spacious restaurant with attentive staff and good food, can't ask more than that.  There are plenty more restaurants to choose from so no-one needs go hungry!

Away from the world of outlet shopping the children will love Butterfly World which is in Coconut Creek.  If you want a bit of culture head for Boca Raton  and check out their Museum of Art at Mizner Park.    You can see some marvellous paintings, photographs, prints and sculpture including an Andy Warhol print.   For the more active there are plenty of golf courses, tennis courts, or the more adventurous can try para-sailing, Jet Ski-ing or snorkelling  You can go deep-sea fishing selecting from a number of boats based at harbour at Fort Lauderdale.   

Or you might just want to sit or lie on the beach and either sunbathe or relax.  Even in January the temperature was up in the high 80s during the day, much warmer than what we had left behind in the UK.  When we returned home within a week we had very cold weather and eventually snow, so the memory of those lovely warm January days seem in the distant past rather than just a few weeks ago.

We thoroughly enjoyed the concert, beautiful ballads that we remembered from the 1970s and 80s, along with a number of songs that had obviously been hits in the US but not in the UK, but we had a great evening.  

We had a wonderful 3 night break and felt we had re-charged the batteries and could hop back on the treadmill again.  We headed back up to Orlando but decided to take the A1A Coastal Road knowing it would take us a great deal longer than going up the Turnpike, but we felt we would see parts of Florida we wouldn't otherwise see.  But that will be another posting ...