Briny Breezes is a tiny beach town in southern Palm Beach County and when I say tiny its just a few blocks square and much of it is a giant mobile home park in the old fashioned style, a last piece of affordable housing:
Rusty was none too certain about the pottery lions. He recognizes shapes and he was cautious around these unknowns:
Salt air plantings:
The coast road is already in the neighboring town of Ocean Ridge:
Ocean access (but no parking to make it difficult to use):
Memorial weekend it turns out was banner weekend for people in spandex pedaling velocipedes:
My kind of silly people:
Hunched and determined it didn't look much like fun:
This is better:
This is best of all:
Old Florida Architecture:
The colors of Fall:
The only reason I know Briny Breezes exists is because I have a friend who bought a little house there. Denise is a native Floridian whom I have known since 1981 when I first came to the Sunshine State and saw Key West. Her home is what she craves in her nostalgia bank remembering old Florida:
Denise stayed behind when my wife and I went to see Haitian Art in NOrth Miami an hour south as she didn't want to ride Memorial weekend traffic. As it turned out the traffic on I-95 was quite light and we flew. However when you look at how isolated and laid back Briny Breezes is on its little barrier island you can see why it might be hard to get motivated to travel.
Rusty and I walked around the town quite a bit in our two full days at the beach house across from the trailer park that constitutes most of the town:
The trailers with hurricane shutters up are most likely winter residents' homes:
Lots of prohibitions around here:
This is the waterfront but the beach areas are closed to dogs and the fenced area is reserved for local residents:
I noticed later I caught his dog in the act which was unfortunate as I had my choice of dog walkers studiously ignoring each other walking everywhere:
And this could be construed as scooter country too:
State Road A1A which runs down the barrier islands of the east coast where Federal Highway One is a four lane highway on the mainland. The speed limit here is usually around 35 mph and it is considered a scenic route.
The bicycles approached with a weird whirring sound like a hive of angry hornets and Rusty was fascinated:
It got silly with the streams of middle aged people wrapped like Christmas presents heads down legs spinning like mad:
Sandy back roads like Florida used to be:
And a huge new development coming up next to Denise's house much to her dismay:
Rusty made himself at home sprawling on the lawn enjoying the grass and sunbathing:
6 comments:
Wow. If you could get everyone there to drive a car from the mid-1960s you'd have a real-life Twilight-Zone community.
I have been fascinated with Briny Breeze ever since they were a target of eminent domain during the last building boom. I wonder if the residents have recovered fro m that experience?
Your photos have renewed my resolve to visit myself and the pic of Denise's
Yard with Rusty under a huge Sea Lavender has left me swooning with delight.
So many of my favorite Sea Lavenders at Bahia Honda were wiped out by Irma so it is heartwarming to see one so happy in her yard.
nice houses! (not the new ones they're building, though. those are kind of ick.)
It truly is “old Florida”. I once tripped over an “old Florida” mobile home community somewhere outside of Orlando. Like being transported back in time. Places such as this are becoming very difficult to find. Maybe you have to go to inland small towns. I thought Mt. Dora had an old Florida appeal. That was quite a few years ago, so not sure what it’s like now. Thanks for sharing a place in time. Michigan. Rusty looks right at home there.
It is quite the enclave and the plan to buy the trailer park and make a ton of millionaires fell through after it made national headlines. It seems very quiet and serene now. The locals are fighting the planned townhouse development but I don't think it can be stopped.
40 years ago I took the National Park passenger boat across the Intracoastal to visit Fort Matanzas in Saint Augustine (Florida). As you climbed up to the fort's second story you could see condos being built on the beach opposite the fort. The condos removed the ancient view of thick ocean woodland which had existed for millennia. The reason that memory stays with me is because of the bitterness the park ranger had towards the condo. He told me with a steely stare that he could use the fort's cannon to obliterate the condos. The way he spoke with a locked gaze on the condos left no doubt he meant it. I would not have been surprised to read "Park Ranger Fires Cannon at Condos" in the paper the next day!
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