🏝️ Boca Grande, Florida 🛥️ I Finally Get To See The Sea 🌊
My mom and part-time unpaid tour guide took me on another trip to Boca Grande, a famous beach destination on Gasparilla Island, Florida.
The Chauffeur Of Boca Grande 🚙
Mom, guide, chauffeur, is @cynthia.smith behind the wheel of the red Jeep in the above photo. I made her a Hive profile so she could engage with my family's posts, but don't expect her to publish anything on Hive, she's far too busy and that is a whole other learning curve. I should mention I haven't had much time to post in the last month, and even though I'm already back home in Cambodia, I'm still gonna do my best to document my adventures from a few weeks ago in the USA.
On this day trip my mom took me on a scenic drive back to Gasparilla Island in Florida. The destination was slightly different this time around, mostly sightseeing by car while making time to see the Boca Grande beach. One of the first sights we passed was an old marina with the original building still intact, not sure how it survived so many hurricanes.
A shack near the road had a wall dedicated to art depicting what would've likely been the scene within around 60 years ago when small-scale local business ownership was a thing that was super common in the USA. There are often special local laws in Florida that allow golf carts to be used on non-highway roads, and in the case of Boca Grande, there is a separate golf cart road system that spans most of the island.
As we rounded the corner and headed away from the marina, I noticed an old wooden sign that mentioned "cold beer," and "live bait," and instantly the spirit of 'Merica filled my soul. From rusty docks and old buildings, it's only a few feet of road before things quickly go back to luxury and modernity.
The Lifestyles Of Boca Grande 🏰
Any small island with desirable real estate is going to have inflated property values, and Boca Grande is a perfect example of this. I can't imagine anyone able to afford to own something here not being a millionaire also, likely a multi-millionaire. Something very different from Cambodia was the lack of luxury and supercars.
In Cambodia an area this wealthy would be swimming with Ferraris, Bentleys, and Rolls Royces, but here the cars were fairly ordinary despite the high home values. The wealthy in Cambodia build massive brick homes, but often the interiors are empty and no effort is put into design or landscaping, but you'll almost always see a supercar of some sort parked out front.
Those not living directly on the coast have a canal system, so practically any boat owner on the island has easy access to the sea. Of course during the middle of a weekday there isn't as much activity as there would be on any given weekend.
Gasparilla Inn & Country Club 🏌️♂️
On the island there are two well-know locations very near each other, the Pink Elephant restaurant and the Gasparilla Inn & Country Club. I have never been a golfer or had an interest in the sport, but the golf course here appeared nicer than 95% of the ones I have seen in my life.
I can only imagine what the annual membership fees are for a place like this, probably at least 6 figures. My best experience with golf is the movie Caddyshack, a hilarious watch worth your time, and still to this when I see a golf course I think of scenes from this legendary film.
The country club is massive and can be seen from several blocks away. There aren't really any skyscrapers dotting the skyline here, so a view from the third floor here could probably see both ends of the island.
Boca Grande Beach 🏖️
I wasn't going to go all the way to Florida and not see the beach, especially because the sea is so near my house in Cambodia, but we don't have access to it because the thin 2 km stretch of land hugging the coastline belongs to Thailand. In Florida the only bureaucracy keeping us from reaching the sea were potential parking tickets.
There is probably no time of the year you can come to this beach and not find at least some small crowds. The water is warm year round, the sand is white, and the beach is free to the public, so tourists will sometimes drive a hour or two just to use this beach for the day before heading back off-island for more affordable eats and accommodation.
Unfortunately I didn't come prepared to swim on this trip, but made a plan to return within the next few days because the water looked so tempting. At a Cambodian beach you'll see folks swimming in jeans and t-shirts, but here it appeared that everyone owned swimwear 🤣.
Before leaving I took a walk down to the water and snapped a pic for you all. The water was so clear that I could see schools of fish swimming by, so I knew had to return. That's all for now folks, stay tuned....
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haha, here in teh Ph, we coudl swin with our PJs haha.
Haha, yes, Cambodia too. This is something foreigners always ask about, why do the locals swim in jeans 🤣?
I know exactly what you mean! 😂 It was in front of places like that where, as children, we dumped little bags of LANCE™ peanuts into our RC COLA™ or DR PEPPER™ bottles... 😁
I am so glad you are safely home with your dear family again, and thrilled that the stories will continue as your time permits! 😊
You must be killin' it out here!
@thekittygirl just slapped you with 1.000 PIMP, @justinparke.
You earned 1.000 PIMP for the strong hand.
They're getting a workout and slapped 1/2 possible people today.
Read about some PIMP Shit or Look for the PIMP District
Peanuts into an RC Cola? That is something I never thought of or did as a kid. It's good to be back, makes me wonder what's just as Cambodian as an RC Cola and peanuts is American? Perhaps some leftover rice and a piece of dried fish, guess that's about as Cambodian as it gets.
I could be here all day. The place looks amazing. This is good for family bonding.
It was very nice, only a shame there were no shade trees. Coconut palms don't line Florida beaches because there would be a big lawsuit the first time someone was hit in the head with a falling fruit.
Yay! 🤗
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It’s beautiful place, I hope I can visit over there one day.
If we can get the visa problem fixed, I think we can go together some day.
It's good to see that you were able to make it Here and Back Again safely! You must be happy to be back home with the family.
I ended up needing to look at the Cambodian/Thailand border. That one is interesting; makes you think how these borders fell into place initially.
Thanks for stopping by. Yeah, the border reminds me of the situation in Albania too, where neighboring countries have most of the coastline and even islands directly off the coast don't belong to Albania. Here that is the case too, Cambodia only has a handful of islands because most located off the coasts belong to Vietnam and Thailand. I think this is mostly due to historical wartime losses, because Cambodia's borders were once much bigger.
Daaaaamn miss that water. Your mom joined! Nice! It’s interesting to see the different ways people spend money in different cultures. Like in japan they’d all spend it on a tiny apartment in the middle of the city. You could buy a village in the country for the same price and renovate it
Yeah there is nothing quite like the Gulf, it is so warm year-round. I would assume the waters in the Gulf of Thailand are similar, but because Cambodia's coastline is mostly taken by its neighboring countries, the beach just isn't a part of life or culture here.
Life in urban areas of Japan is unfathomable to me, even visiting as a tourist. On the other the hand the countryside views I have seen from Japan appear to be some of the most beautiful spaces in the world.
The city is so convenient it's easy to get stuck here. Not much work outside Tokyo, and lots of different kinds of people here. I fell in love with it because each station felt like a village in 2007 (my first time here). Slowly that is changing and each station feels like....a station. I've been exploring the countryside just an 1.2 hours from the city and it's wild. Bears and leeches and I hitchhike everywhere (though it's not NORMAL). I can't even imagine out in the REAL boonies but I plan to get out and explore more at some point. For now I'm getting acquainted with an eco village where I may be able to stay overnight once or twice a month in that foresty area closest to Tokyo.
Deep in my soul I'm a beach boy though!
That eco escape sounds nice, especially because the Japanese are so good with garden design and landscaping. I once heard somebody mention that Japan actually has a few islands in the far south that have mild weather and proper beaches, but I can't remember the name.
I am here for the title. Once upon a time I was actively involved in the capoeira community flipping my 200lb body(actually, more like rolling) 🤣 the instructor's name is actually boca grande 🤣🤣🤣 afaik, that means big mouth.
Well surely that is no coincidence, instructor Boca Grande, guess it would be better if a dance instructor had a big mouth instead of big shoes 😂. I need to see your Brazilian jungle dance fight moves some day.