Sullivan Park + Deerfield Beach

There is nothing like family coming to visit that puts you into discovery mode! We have only lived here four months, but we've had a newborn so discovering our area has been a little slower. We checked out a splash pad on the intracostal. I have discovered one thing--the Intracostal, which everyone refers to here frequently, is a stretch of water that goes the length of the county (further I think) and you have to cross bridges to connect to a thin layer (island? I don't know if it connects anywhere, clearly I have more research to do) of land and then the Atlantic Ocean. So if you started at the ocean, you have the ocean, a tiny stretch of land, bridges over the intracostal, and then Florida. We drive over the intracostal to go into Downtown Delray. So it is literally minutes from our house. You can paddle board, kayak, etc. on the Intracostal and most of the bridges are from the early 1900s and they go up when big yachts and things go through so it backs up traffic but looks really cool. ANYWAY 

This park, Sullivan Park, is right on the Intracostal in the little town of Deerfield Beach, which is about thirty minutes south of us. I went here to check out the beach. But I'm finding that Palm Beach County is WAAAY more worried about keeping their turtles alive than looking as crystal clean as South Beach in Miami, so it's just a different experience. The water is also more choppy--people come here to surf, whereas people said you can't really surf in Miami. So the waves make it harder to see the beautiful turquoise of the water, but the water is still crystal clear and gorgeous (on Saturday I went neck deep and could still see my feet). Also, I think because of the waves, there are a lot more sea shells--which my kids love. Here in Delray Beach we live ten minutes from the ocean, parking is way cheaper, the town is absolute southern beach charm to the max, the beaches are less poster-worthy but much more fun. I LOVE Delray Beach. 

ANWAY again

This little park was super fun. I mean, it's just your basic park and splash pad. But it was cute and clean and the scenery was beautiful.

Running to watch the boat go through the bridge.

The Intracostal.

So after hitting up the park and splash pad, we went to the beach. The initial plan had been to just really quick check out the splash pad. But, it was incredibly windy. I checked it later, 30 mph and waves up to 15 recorded. I have never been to the ocean in that kind of craziness. There was so much foam on the ocean it was staying on the beach in bathtub-full amounts and then the wind was blowing it so it looked like a cotton tree was hiding somewhere. That's what my kids did in the 25 minutes of parking that I paid for---ran around jumping in the bubbles blowing off the ocean. It was incredible and majestic and gorgeous and wild.

“We need the tonic of wildness...At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.”
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods

I literally took over 300 pictures. But you just can't experience that in a photo. The force of the wind and the sand biting your skin, and the smile that somehow inevitably brings to your face. The whirling hair around your head. It elevates your heart and soul and makes your heart race and brings you above the monotonous day and into the euphoria of a discovery in nature. I love it. It's like reaching the highest peak of hiking. I just love the ocean. 

They don't mind all the seaweed we leave there for the hatching turtles :)

All the waves were just SO INCREDIBLY HUGE

The foam that was bunching up by huge amounts and blowing around like bubbles.

The end.