Day 6 (Palm Beach)

Palm Beach is located in the state of Florida. Palm Beach was established as a resort by Henry Morrison Flagler, a founder of Standard Oil, who made the Atlantic coast barrier island accessible via his Florida East Coast Railway. The nucleus of the community was established by Flagler's two luxury resort hotels, the Royal Poinciana Hotel and The Breakers Hotel. West Palm Beach was built across Lake Worth as a service town and has become a major city in its own right.

Flagler's house lots were bought by the beneficiaries of the Gilded Age, and in 1902 Flagler himself built a Beaux-Arts mansion, Whitehall, designed by the New York–based firm Carrère and Hastings and helped establish the Palm Beach winter "season" by constantly entertaining. The town was incorporated on April 17, 1911.

My family visited Palm Beach one time for Easter vacation when I was younger. I don’t remember how old, but I know I was in school because my friend Ty was visiting his grandparents not too far from where we were staying. I remember we both had long flight delays coming home and were just a couple of gates away from each other and didn’t know it till we got to school the next day. The trip was a good one. If I were completely honest though, I think Palm Beach is not a desired spot for kids. Like I said, it was Easter weekend and the hotel had kid activities to celebrate the holiday, but overall more for adults. My family and I enjoyed the Beach and the pool. I got one of those huge inflatable turtles that they sold at the pool, but once you got it in the pool there wasn’t much room to maneuver it. If I remember correctly, I think there were shark sightings not too far from the hotel when we were there. There was a big shopping center that we had to drive to and on the way was Donald Trump’s house Mar-A-Lago. Again, didn’t mean much to me, but my Grandmother wanted to drive past. We did go to the Breakers Hotel that is mentioned up above. We went to see what it was all about and ended up having lunch there. My favorite part of Palm Beach was probably getting dressed up for dinner. I had this great tie with Easter bunnies on it. I thought I was big deal in my jacket and tie.

Overall, Palm Beach was a nice place to vacation. Any place sunny and warm when home is still chilly is a good place to be. If asked where I wanted to take a trip to, I don’t think Palm Beach would be my first choice. Maybe when I get a little older.