Up the Coast on A1A

Well Hurricane Noel has finally crawled up the coast and the high winds and rain are gone to New England today. Unfortunately lots of our beaches went with it. Erosion is pretty bad here. But today was sunny, dry and 80 degrees. It was a tough call, hit the beach or hit the road. We sort of did both. We started up A1A and our first beach stop was Lauderdale By The Sea. The water was a beautiful turquoise blue 79 degrees against the white surf.

Continuing North along A1A we cruised thru Pompano Beach to the Hillsboro Inlet and the Hillsboro Lighthouse. The Inlet is where boats access the Atlantic Ocean from the Intracoastal Waterway. The Lighthouse has quite a history and a Preservation Society. Here are a couple of nice sites if you are interested. http://www.hillsborolighthouse.org/ and http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=361

Decided to take a lunch break in Deerfield Beach. Had a really good Lobster Salad at a place on the water called Oceans 234. Lots of beach activity, as you can see, people enjoying volleyball and surfers trying to catch a wave. There a nice path along the beach that is free and a long pier that you can walk to the end for $1. A great place to people watch and bike watch. We saw so many different kinds of cycles and scooters. Wish we had taken some pictures of them. But next time. We almost got a parking ticket, but got there just as the attendant was about to write it. He was nice and let us off the hook.

Breathing a sigh of relief we took off again going North on A1A to Boca Raton. We know a good French Bakery near Mizner Park and decided on dessert there. While we are munching on our pastries we notice a guy standing behind our scooters with his cell phone open taking the phone number of Varsity Cycles. He hung around until we came out and asked us about the Vespas. We found out that he too was from France so we had a fun chat.

Leaving Boca we took some parting shots of the Intracoastal Waterway.

Then I had to get a shot of the beach erosion in Lauderdale By The Sea on the way back. Notice how the water is coming up over the beach toward the building.

Well all good things come to an end and so did our journey. We were two tired and happy riders when we finally reached home.