Sea Turtles and E-Bikes
By Miss-Adventure
Whenever my mom visits Florida, she gets all decked out in her spandex shorts, hot-pink fanny pack and visored helmet, rents a beach cruiser and gets out to ride in the Gold Coast sunshine. Last March, she told me about this amazing ride she took along A1A to Gumbo Limbo Nature Center where she saw sea turtles. Her nature-inspired journey sounded pretty nice, but as an adrenaline junkie seeking out her next urban adventure, I tried to think of a way to spice it up a little.
That’s when I remembered seeing a hippie riding an electric bike. When I first saw him, I was perplexed; he whipped by so fast for a skinny dude on a bike, yet his feet were completely still. He wasn’t even pedaling. When it occurred to me he was riding an electric bike, I thought, “What a cheater’s way to ride a bike.” A year passed, but the image of that hippie, cruising at top speed, his unwashed locks and sherpa-inspired sweater blowing in the wind behind him, imprinted itself onto my mind and suddenly resurfaced as I pondered my next adventure.
So, I set out to find some electric bikes for rent. I located two at the Royal Blues Hotel in Deerfield Beach. I had never ridden an electric bike before, so was a little giddy as Jason, the hotel’s receptionist, plugged in the hefty battery pack, which slides onto a rack behind the back wheel of the bike. On the handlebar, three little lights (one green, one yellow, one red) flashed and lit up, indicating the bike was powered up and ready to go. I suddenly felt like he had strapped on some sort of rocket booster.
“Are you ready, are you ready?” he asked, as I mounted the bike and he twisted the throttle to show me how to kick on the power. The bike propelled quicker than I thought, and I nearly swerved into the wall of the parking garage. I laughed, narrowly missing it, and made a quick turn, then biked a few laps around the lot. I gave the throttle a little power to test it out, and suddenly felt like a five-year-old again, riding my Barbie bike without training wheels for the first time. It was exhilarating.
I pulled out of the lot, and along with a friend, rode west to A1A, then north toward Boca. A1A has a convenient, smooth bike lane for miles, so it was the perfect place to press the e-bike to the max. I was surprised at how fast it went. I made the mistake of wearing long, dangly gold earrings, which flew back in the wind like floppy dog ears. The ocean air whipped my face and my sweater lifted from my back, flapping behind me like a Superwoman cape.
We passed the Boca Inlet park (a perfect spot for a picnic and to watch boats leaving the inlet), admired multi-million dollar mansions and luxury yachts along the Intracoastal Waterway, and made our way to South Beach Park, which has three swimming beaches and a pagoda. The beach looked inviting, but we were too hungry, so hung a left on Palmetto Park Road for a bite.
We had been given a personal recommendation from the chef at the Royal Blues Hotel to go to M&M Thai for lunch (a friendly, family-owned, authentic Thai café), but it was slightly too early, so opted for brunch at the Boca Beach House (which specializes in local, organic produce and seafood). That day the chef had hand pulled Maryland crab claws for a crab Benedict, had picked organic greens from the restaurant’s backyard garden (arugula, kale, bok choy and Swiss chard) to put in an omelette with goat cheese, and had sautéed some homegrown Brussels sprouts in a balsamic glaze for an omelette with bacon and Swiss cheese. In addition, there were three other seafood omelettes: one with local diver’s sea scallops (blackened or grilled), one with soft-shell crab and another with Maine lobster.
The decor is quintessential beach cafe — baby blue walls, white wicker chairs, pastel accents, nautical-themed art, placemats and tablecloths with brightly-colored fish, and a chalkboard with the day’s specials.
While the omelette I ordered came out quite overdone, the hollandaise on my friend’s Benedict a bit separated, and the prices steep (between $17 and $20 for an omelette), I found a forgiving heart based on the inspired ingredients and charming environment. After brunch, we cruised on up A1A to the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, just a mile north of Palmetto Park Road.
Seeing all the creative manifestations of nature — all the vibrant colors and shapes and characters — makes me ponder the bigger questions in life, like “Where did all of it come from?” And yet, it makes me not really care at all, merely grateful it all exists. It brings out my inner child, makes life feel a little less dull and puts a few more things on my bucket list, like: get certified in scuba diving, travel to space and rescue some baby sea turtles. Until I have the opportunity to get in a rocket ship though, there’s always the rocket-booster-bicycle, a.k.a. the e-bike.