After the Caribbean cruise we spent a few days back at the Outdoor Resort in Port Saint Lucie since we enjoyed it so much in January. We then went to the West Palm Beach area to John Prince County Park that we have visited for several years now. It is a marvelous bicycling spot with a seven mile loop trail. We also like being on the lake and enjoy seeing the water birds and ducks. It is near West Palm Beach, Palm Beach, and Lake Worth. The more we come to this area, the more we value it. We have explored points to the south including Fort Lauderdale and Miami. Each has some positive points, but we have concluded that the West Palm Beach area is the best of south Florida. There is much to do here, but we really enjoyed our visit to Worth Avenue in Palm Beach, a very high end shopping district with stores like Tiffany, Gucci, and Channel to name a few.
What makes this shopping district unique are the side alleyways known as “vias.” We enjoyed the architecture and landscaping as well as lunch at Pizza Al Fresco at Via Mizner. 
West Palm Beach has a nice downtown area centered around City Place, a Mediterranean style shopping and dining venue, and Clematis Street, the traditional shopping and dining area. A free trolley connects the two. The city has also built a waterfront area where a green market is held every Saturday that has a generous number of vendors with food, flowers, produce and assorted items for sale. 
Then there is Palm Beach across the waterway with multi-million dollar homes and the famous Breakers Hotel. Donald Trump has a spa there known as Mar-a-Lago that he claims is the greatest mansion ever build. Worth a look. The winter weather is unmatched by cities on the west coast of Florida due to its location adjacent to the warm gulf stream current. West Palm Beach claims to be the cultural center of south Florida due to its museums, performing arts center and art shows. We went to a jewelry, art and antique show at the convention center that had items that you might expect to see in a museum, but here they were for sale. For instance, paintings averaged about $300,000. The jewelry looked like something Liz Taylor might have owned. We also enjoyed a photography exhibit of Annie Leibovitz’s portraits at Norton Museum and the docent’s tour of the exhibit. Green Cay Nature Center is a good example of nature showcased in Palm Beach County, and we attended a Nature Talk there, seeing a number of birds and a few turtles and alligators. 
We hope to be back next year. 
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