Stuart is a nice town to visit by boat. Its revitalized historic downtown district with its shops, theatre and restaurants is a 10-minute walk from Sunset Bay Marina. It has public art – mostly bronze sculptures – here and there in small parks and in front of office buildings. You should get out of the car and take a look. Here's their town mascot, a sailfish. If I were to name him I'd call him Stuart:
We really lived it up in Stuart when we were there during May through June and into July 2011. We joined a gym near the marina (thanks, Lou!). We ate out at restaurants we hadn't seen in a while: sushi, Chinese, organic Middle Eastern, southern B-Q, and more. We shopped in giant sooper marts. We spoke English everywhere.
We also rented a car. Seems it's impossible to do a lot of business in the US unless you drive everywhere. And there was hardly a bus or taxi in sight. In Latin America, you need only stand on a street – any street – and a taxi is sure to stop within a few minutes and take you most anywhere in town for just a couple of bucks. In the US? You need to call for a taxi, which means you need to buy a phone, and then have more cash on hand to pay for the taxi. Expenses add up fast in the US of A.
We were braced to spend large coin because we were doing a major refit of The Fox. And spend large coin we did. But we also got to do a bit of turismo in Florida while we were at it. Even the stretch of old highway along the Indian River/ICW between Stuart and Fort Pierce 12 miles to the north (where some of our refitting business was conducted) was a scenic treat. Even though a driver is limited to about 30mph on the old highway, it's faster than driving the new highway/arterial where there are all those pesky malls and traffic signals. Plus, along the old riverfront highway, a driver gets to look at a succession of modern McMansions (most with "for sale" signs in front of them), historic houses, and even modest, 1930s-era Cracker houses still hanging in there. If you ever have your boat in Stuart, I'd strongly recommend renting a car or riding a bicycle, and taking a little look around. Oceanfront or riverfront, this is a great area for a little exploration.
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