Scott Barronton (00:00)
If you are listening from somewhere cold right now and are searching for a warm winter getaway, this episode is for you. Sometimes in the middle of winter, you don't want a big vacation. You don't want complicated travel plans or a packed itinerary. You just want sunshine, warmer air, a place where you can slow down and reset for a few days. Well, we recently spent a weekend on Hutchison Island, Florida.
And it turned out to be one of those easy midwinter escapes that reminds you how good a simple trip can feel. It's far enough south to give you warm winter weather and plenty of sun, but it still feels calm and relaxed, especially in February, which is shoulder season along Florida's treasure coast. Today we're sharing why Hutchison Island works so well as a warm winter getaway.
and a few nearby experiences that make it more than just a beach weekend.
Alright, so real quick, I'm going to give you some backstory about why we visited here in the first place. And so we had been in Fort Lauderdale. had been there for a meeting and we had a sitter for the dogs and knew we wanted to have that over a long weekend and not just during the week. And so we had kind of said, okay, in between the meeting and coming home, we'll go somewhere along
the East Coast, And so several years ago,
we had met people, I think in Orlando and just kind of chatting with them and they mentioned this area. They were from Stewart, Florida. They talked about how much they loved it, talked about Jensen Beach. But I also knew coming, you know, north from where we were that I also, there were a couple of activities I wanted to do in the Palm Beach area. But looking in that area,
because we have this big trip coming up as well, that area tends to be pretty expensive to stay in in Palm Beach. And so I just kind of kept looking north and looking north and looking north and found a Marriott beach resort on Hutchison Island. ⁓ Wasn't super expensive, but also was really affordable with points. Actually booked this absolutely last minute. Like we were leaving that day and you kept saying, where are we going to stay?
where we can stay. And so I just booked it. And so that kind of tells you a little bit about this timeframe since there is availability, Not having to plan this way far in advance.
And so even when we first arrived kind of in the evening, I noticed how really easy everything felt. It wasn't busy, there wasn't a lot of traffic, no crowds. Really felt like it was gonna be a slower pace. so what'd you think, Scott?
Well, I was ready for a little bit of warmer weather as well. We had just come out of a period where even here in this Jacksonville area, it was cold. I mean, where it had gotten a couple of days where the temperatures didn't get out of the twenties. And so for us, that's really cold. And so we were looking for something warm as well. We got down to Fort Lauderdale and it wasn't, during the week, it wasn't that much warmer.
But we had looked at the weather forecast and it was going to start warming up. so we were ready for just some warm weather, to kind of get out of that. So I can only imagine that if you're sitting here and even right now you're going through a snowstorm, a mid winter getaway is exactly what you need. And that's why we thought that this episode might be helpful to someone.
who's sitting out there right now with those winter doldrums and trying to figure out where can they escape to. The other thing that we learned about Hutchison Island before we start digging in is that if you know the country music star, Jason Aldean, he has a house on Hutchison Island. So because of the way that it is situated, like Scott mentioned, called Florida's treasure coast, you have not only the beach, but then you have multiple rivers,
the Indian River, the St. Lucie River, you have the intercoastal as well. So huge area for boating and fishing and sailing in addition to having the beach to enjoy as well. And so this episode is not gonna be do this and do this and do this and then do this because
That is kind of the opposite of what we would want this getaway to be, what the opposite of what it was for us. So we're gonna mention, here's a couple of things that we did. Here's a couple of things that you could do, but we're not gonna give you an exhaustive list of everything that is there, but just tell you a little bit about this really neat place.
And I would also say that this might be one of those places where during the summer it's too hot. Right? So this is a really good time to be there. If you're wanting to go to the water, it probably wasn't warm enough to go out and go for a swim. but just being outside by the beach, going for a walk, things like that. It was the perfect temperature. The other thing that I would like to mention about this area, and when I shared a few things about this on social media.
This would actually be a really good place to go if you wanted to do the theme parks, but then didn't necessarily want to do Cocoa Beach or Port Canaveral where you're going to have like the busy cruise port traffic. This might be a little bit further, but you're going to have a lot quieter beaches and find a lot quieter thing. And it's still within driving distance of that. You could also use the Palm beach airport and not have to go all the way to Fort Lauderdale.
But it would be doable to any of those Orlando driving Fort Lauderdale, but that Palm Beach Airport would make it accessible as well.
I would say this is one of those locations where if you don't need a long list of activities of things to do, this is perfect. Like I said before, you can go on long beach walks. You can have your meals outdoor. You can just have slow mornings or days when you just kind of hang out by the pool and soak in that sunshine and vitamin D. I think this is the kind of place that you would go. And Melissa mentioned there's a lot of fishing there.
So these are the type of activities if you wanted something to do, but you could literally just grab a chair, sit on the beach, read a book, get the sunshine. But then have, like I mentioned earlier, the rivers, the intercoastal so that you could do a little bit of kayaking, paddle boarding. We did see a couple of places where you could rent some jet skis. So there's definitely that water sports, but I think you could do as much or as little as you wanted to.
tends to be a lot of smaller kind of beach resort type things.
so as I mentioned earlier, if you do want to see Palm Beach without the expense, I think this is a great nearby option. It was about 45 minutes to an hour away. And so what we actually ended up doing because of the things that were on my list is on our way, we had a chance to visit the Flagler Museum, which is definitely worth seeing if you enjoy history and architecture.
It's sort of like a little taste of Europe. cause that's where he kind of drew all his inspiration. it's also the iconic Breaker's Resort is there and you could drive around and see some things in Palm beach, maybe shopping some of the shops, but Palm beach does tend to be very, very expensive, as far as staying there and a lot busier and a lot more crowded. if you're thinking that you'll just pull up and go to the Breaker's Resort.
That's not gonna happen. They do have security in the gate Before you can go into there. So just keep that in mind But you could see it from like the street You might be able to go and have lunch there or something like that if you had a reservation But just pulling up and going into the hotel is is not a possibility Yeah, so that just adds a little culture without turning the trip into something busy Something to do for like three-quarters of the day, but you're definitely notice
you know, a difference in the traffic down there versus being up in that Hutchison Island area as well. So a good way to see that and experience that without having to stay there.
There's also several little small towns around there that you can go out and discover. One of the things that we were looking at was, we were towards the end of the season where the manatees would come up into the rivers for the warmer, water. And, ⁓ so there's a lot of those rivers around where you can see the manatees come in. we visited the St. Lucie river and
We just kind of walked along the boardwalk. visited their botanical gardens and walked around at the Marine and near a hotel. We also found a really cute town called Ocean Breeze where there's a lot of people out. They were dining, Alfresco. we had had lunch in, ⁓ Stewart and walked around the shops there. this is one of those examples I would say where if you're only trusting in chat GPT,
it will lead you wrong because I think we missed the most happening restaurant in Stewart. Yeah, there was a little pizza window shop called Luna and that seemed to be like the local spot. And I think it was probably drawing us to places that were like on the water and seafood type places, but that I think where it was where all the locals went.
But just wandering around those small local places I think ended up being some of our favorite moments not really having an agenda as well
Another big highlight of the Hutchison Island in that area is all of the state parks that have, just tremendous, protected natural areas we walked trails at Savannah's preserve state park. but nearby, they also have Jonathan Dickinson state park and Jupiter inlet aquatic preserve. like
All of these places that you can go and visit within, a very short drive, really good for bird watching and photography.
Scott Barronton (10:14)
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Scott Barronton (11:00)
Matter of fact, I had taken my camera and, there was this, bird right close by. I don't know a whole lot about Florida birds other than the ones that we see here all the time. I know those, but.
You know, just the little small songbirds and stuff like that. I don't know what they are. but it was close by and I got a couple of really good pictures of it. And as we were walking around, a fellow asked me, said, have you seen any scrub J's? Well, I said no, because I didn't know what a scrub J was. And we got to talk in and, he said, it looks sort of like a bluebird, but it's got a gray chest. And I was like, yeah.
yeah, I got this picture of it and I showed him, he's like, my gosh. He's like, that is one of the rarest birds in this area to be able to get a picture of. He was like, I can't believe you got such clear pictures of it. Yeah. So just things like that. we literally ran into like two other people. there was like a walkway that went out on to where the marshy area, saw alligators.
And it almost felt like one of the nature trails that we had done in the Galapagos, just a very interesting natural area. And you would have no idea that you were that close to the beach either. there's so many state parks in Florida and what I love about them is that they have preserved some of this, natural area. think so many people think of Florida as beach.
theme parks, Miami, and it's, there's so much more to offer and so much quiet if that's what you're looking for. Yeah. And that's why we wanted to talk about that is because if you're sitting here today and it is just dumped two, three, 10 inches of snow on you and you've just had enough because it seems like it has snowed a lot this year.
then this is one of those places that is just a really good getaway choice for you.
And so one of the other things that we just enjoyed, we had driven, we obviously had our car. I would definitely say that you probably definitely want to rent a car to explore this area. But one of the things I don't know that we do a whole lot is just kind of drive around and see and see what is interesting. And that was one of the things that we had an opportunity to do on this particular.
couple of days, just drive over the bridges and if we see something interesting, let's stop. So not making it complicated, just some simple experiences like that. So I think what surprised me the most is that even though there was no agenda, the day felt really long. And sometimes days when you're traveling just seem to fly by and you feel like I need more time. But what was nice about this is that we really had plenty of time and then even
a late lunch by the river in Stewart and then just getting to sit there and, people watch and watch the water. just was amazing how quickly we felt refreshed. just kind of from a short weekend away. Yeah. A few days of warm weather, ocean air, and a slower pace can go a really long ways. And we know that because even just this past weekend,
We enjoyed a day at the beach with the family and it was hot. all got sunburned, right? And we even talked to my dad who lives in Atlanta and he was like, we're freezing our butts off up here. So we know how refreshing that can be. And so we just wanted to offer an option up to you. And sometimes, you know, the best travel isn't about going farther. We talk a lot about international travel.
But it's about just choosing the right place for the right time. So if you're looking for that midwinter break and just to get out of it, you might want to check out Hutchison, Florida. Yeah, I think that it's definitely a hidden gem.
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