Best Kept Secrets
This year's Best Kept Secrets take readers to undiscovered fun in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. Here are the six choices for Best Kept Secrets 2005 in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties:
Back to Kids Crown Awards
Little perks for little customers
Let's face it; taking the whole family out to dine is pretty pricey -- even if it's just for a cup of coffee. Take heart, you don't need to go off the beaten path to satisfy everyone -- just off the menu.
A quad like no other
"Can we please, please, please go to the library today?" If there's one sure kid-pleaser in our family it's an afternoon out in downtown West Palm Beach. We start with the library, but our afternoon also includes time in the fountain play area, take-out pizza at outdoor picnic tables, and homemade ice cream -- all in the same quad. We park once and enjoy four activities in one afternoon.
Now that's the way to see a movie
Your cell phone is turned off and the previews for upcoming kids' movies are already flashing across the screen as you dig into your deep dish of pasta. No you're not eating take-out on TV trays in your living room. You're at a movie theater.
Forget the overly-buttered popcorn. At the inviting Silver Screen Cinema Cafe, you and your brood can sit back and munch on pasta or prime rib while catching a first-run flick just a few weeks after its release. Pictures such as Pink Panther, Firewall, Hoodwinked and Curious George played this spring.
A day in Paradise
(and a little alligator wrestling, too)
Whimsical structures and funky colors give Seminole Paradise at the Hard Rock Hotel a touristy feel similar to Downtown Disney. Although many parents overlook the complex because of a major marketing effort to promote the casino and concert venue, Paradise offers many kid-friendly activities to waste the day away in paradise -- without a slot machine or roulette wheel in sight.
The genius of Genius Jones
If there were a typical baby store, Genius Jones would not be it. This high-end designer baby store was started by husband and wife Daniel Kron and Geane Brito on Miami Beach after their daughter Isador was born. "We wanted to bring our sense of design into our life with children and we felt that there were a lot of other people out there who were in the same boat as us who had recently become parents and were passionate about design," Kron says.
The work of elves
There are many similarities between elves and children: Both are short, love holidays, adore Santa and run on sugar. Santa's Workshop in Pembroke Pines receives a Judges' Choice Award for recognizing and celebrating those similarities.
Walk with ghostly footsteps
Tucked and hidden among the high-rise condos in North Miami lies Arch Creek Park. A secret to many, the park's defining feature is natural limestone bridge that spans Arch Creek. Used by ancient Tequesta Indians, then Seminoles, then pioneering Miamians, the bridge was considered one of the great sites to see in Miami for years before the area actually became a park. In 1973, just one day after Arch Creek was officially declared a park, the bridge collapsed -- apparently through coincidence, not foul play. Now, park visitors see a replica of the bridge when they visit.
