Holiday Inn Ft. Lauderdale Airport

HIstory of Hollywood Florida

by kymbanm

Joseph Young came to south Florida in 1920 with a dream. He wanted his city to be accessible to the rich, as well as to the average worker. Beginning as an undeveloped tract of pine forests, palmetto plants, tangled undergrowth interspersed with tomato farms, and low lying marshland, it has become the second-most populated city in Broward County and the ninth largest city in the State of Florida. With Fort Lauderdale to the north, and Miami to the south, Hollywood is idealy situated for exploration of southwestern Florida.

The municipal charter, signed in 1925 gave this community ‘city’ status. Originally composed of only 1 square mile, Hollywood Florida is now almost 29 square miles in area. The Hollywood boardwalk, with a casino, and luxury hotel, became known as the Atlantic City of the south. In 1926 a hurricane hit the southern Florida coast, and decimated the growing city. Lives were lost and buildings were flattened. Financial concerns led most of the new residents to sell of their land for whatever they could get, and the once hopeful city of Hollywood was heading toward financial ruin.

Despite all of his efforts, Joseph Young lost his holdings to bankruptcy in 1930. He continued to live in his utopian city until his untimely death at the age of 51, in 1934. Other investors took over Mr. Young’s dream and the city continued to grow. By the end of WWII, the city was prosperous and profitable. In 1975, the city adopted the ame, “Diamond of the Gold Coast”. Hollywood has continued to grow and prosper throughout the years, and is a tourist attraction for Americans and foreign nationals.

Setting Free the Crabs!!!!!!

by kymbanm

"Why free a crab???"

My family treated ourselves to fresh crab while in Hollywood. We planned on steaming them on the BBQ for our feast. Our local relative turned us on to his new discovery ... white crabs. They live at about 600 feet beneath the surface of the sea, hence the white color. We got 20 pounds and began our food prep.

"Food prep continues ..."

As I made tea, my sister enganged in her mini-martha-like task - cutting up the fruit we bought. Not only did they look wonderful, they were heavenly to eat ;)

As the prep continued, we noticed one crab in particular. He grabbed onto my banana, and when he finally let go of this, he latched onto a metal chair. Since he was so spunky, we decided to thank the spirits for our upcoming meal by returning him to the sea :)

"Off the porch, and onto the beach ..."

So off they went to 'free the crab' :) The few folks on the beach began to watch closely, trying to figure out what was going on...

"Words of thanks ...."

They gathered for a short prayer, and began the task.

"Freedom?"

Despite attempts to place our little offering into the surf, he kept washing back onshore. So my brother waded out into the water, to try and set him free on the sandy surface of the ocean floor. After a few addtional attempts, it seemed to work - our little offering didn't return .... blessed be!

"Back to our meal :)"

While our spiritual debts were being paid, the rest of us were either photographing the event (wink, wink) or continuing with our meal preparation.

As the remaining, less lucky, crabs were ending their journey on this earth, we discovered that we didn't have anything to crack the shells with! So ........ we decided on eating our crabs, 'Castaway' style - using rocks to crack the shells ;)

"Cooperative eating :)"

Since my Dad's stroke over 10 years ago, he hadn't really been to the beach. He hadn't had fresh crab either, since it's so hard to get to the meat with only one functioning hand and arm ;) So the boys took turns cracking and extracting for my Dad.

Let me tell you, this trip was a slice of heaven for him! Beach, crab, AND individualized attention!

"The bestest tasting crab ever!!!"

As you can see, my family is a little different :)

But we thoroughly enjoyed our meal. With fresh fruit salad, freshly brewed tea (from Teavana of course), veggies from Wild Oats, and our 20lb bag of white crabs ... well, it couldn't have been better if we had actually tried!

As far as the crabs were concerned, I don't know if it's the pressure of the ocean depth, or cooking and eating on the beach, but these were the best crabs I've ever had! The meat was tender, sweet, and juicy. I didn't use the butter we had prepared, I felt it would have masked the natural sweetness of this wonderful meat.

I would spend another day like this in a heartbeat!