Life of the Carless

3.15.10

We have been in West Palm Beach for 1 night now. We got here last night and decided, to relieve the stress of the day, we would go to a bar and have a few drinks. When we asked the marina office where the nearest bar was, she said about 1.5miles away. Come to find out - everything was 1.5miles away. We made the trek to the sportsbar and relaxed for a couple hours with some ginormous pints (Happy Hour Rocks!!). Amazingly, the walk home seemed much shorter than the walk there. ;)
The next day, we realized we needed to restock our fridge - the closest grocery store was, of course, right beside the bar we had visited the previous evening. But the weather here is beautiful and the wind gusts that had been kicking us around while motoring down the ICW were now a refreshing welcome during the walk. Although not having a car is an inconvenience, it definitely forces you to stop and smell the roses so to speak. You take more time to enjoy the city and the new sights around you. You meet more people and adapt to a slower, more relaxed pace of life. You become more inventive (and sometimes adventurous - stay tuned for our first bus ride experience, ugh) when having to come up with modes of transportation to get you to your intended destination - whether that be on foot, bus, bike, taxi or hitching a ride.
I'm sure in the near future we will be cursing our lack of transportation, but for now we are enjoying the new-found peace and relaxation that it brings.