Meanwhile, Up In Vero Beach...

I drove up to Vero Beach, Florida this past Sunday afternoon and found the place pretty sleepy, even though it was the weekend. There were people on the beach, as seen in the photograph on the left, but not all that many, and there were quite a few open parking spaces, too, unlike back in March during "The Season." The previous Wednesday, as my sister Susan and I were waiting to board the plane to West Palm Beach at the Dallas Fort Worth Airport, I got to talking with someone who lives in Vero, and he told me that the town was actually quite deserted during the summer, unlike Stuart, which he thought seemed to be filled with traffic 24/7.

And I have to admit, these days Stuart does have a lot more traffic during the summer than it used to. I believe that is because over the years, Stuart has become a popular spot to move for families who have jobs further south, such as West Palm Beach. Also, just to the north of Stuart is Port St. Lucie, which due to endless subdivisions heading ever west into scrubland and swamp, has somehow become the 6th largest city in Florida. The traffic in that city definitely has spilled over to Stuart in recent years, not only for employment reasons, but also due to the fact that Port St. Lucie has no downtown and is ugly as hell. That makes Stuart the main entertainment destination for that city. Meanwhile, Vero Beach is far enough away from those urban hubs to remain basically a retirement and "snowbird" destination, letting the locals enjoy the place by themselves in the summer months. I took the photograph on the right, by the way, at Sexton Plaza Beach, next to Mulligan's Beach House, where the locals had the outdoor patio all to themselves. For now.