Heinz & Frenchie: December 2008

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Beaches of Palm Beach

We are finally getting some cool weather, early mornings are 60’s and in the afternoons sunny and 75. We could actually put on a windbreaker for the ride.

These are some photos of the public beach here in the city of Palm Beach. Most of the beach area in Palm Beach is pretty private. But this area is the public beach, and while it is not the most welcoming of beaches, it is beautiful.

There is not a lot of parking, guess they don’t want too many people coming to their beaches. They don’t exactly roll out the welcome carpet. On a few of the side streets they allow one hour parking. Here is a picture of the sign. Now what can one do at the beach with only one hour…not much…get your feet wet? Start your tan? Build a sand castle? The other option is a limited number of parking meters that will set you back $2.00 an hour.

Parking aside, the worst inconvenience is NO BATHROOMS and one lone shower that barely works. Are they trying to tell us something? Without showers you are not able to rinse off the salt water from your skin and if there are sea lice in the ocean waters, you will have a nice red itchy rash the next day. Showering right after bathing in the ocean is certainly advisable, but standing in line to get under a slow uneven stream of water is not our idea of showering.

There are no shops or restaurants or bars. Wait! There is one expensive restaurant called Charley’s Crab, not a place you would go with your swimming attire. More like a place you would go after church.

Since it was a bit chilly today, there were not a lot of people in the water, but this lone surfer was braving the cold for his art. The tide was strong and going South so he would ride the waves for awhile and then when he found he had drifted way down South, he would walk back and start over. We enjoyed following him with our camera and thinking that he was doing a lot of work for a little joy.