Hey, On the Towners.

I'm Frank Licari.

We're kicking off this episode in full swing as we search high and low for some family friendly fun.

I'll meet the self-proclaimed real Willy Wonka.

We'll head West to meet some stars on the field and in the kitchen.

Then we'll find a piece of paradise created just for kids.

So grab the family and climb aboard as we go On the Town in The Palm Beaches with me, Frank Licari.

Welcome aboard.

Thank you.

Mind if I drive?

[Announcer] This program is brought to you by Discover the Palm Beaches.

Visit ThePalmBeaches.TV for more information.

We're starting out on the northern end of the Palm Beaches where the views of the Jupiter Lighthouse are spectacular.

We're on board Love Street Cruises here at the Jupiter Inlet.

I'm here with Captain Renee.

We're gonna sit back, and relax, and see if we can spot a manatee or a turtle or something, right?

Yep.

You bet.

Well, it sure is beautiful.

It is.

Man, oh, man.

Now is the water always this blue?

[Renee] Yes.

The Intercoastal is such a beautiful ride.

[Frank] Yeah.

This is Jupiter Island side where you could pull up, park your car, and hang out here for the day.

Right.

It's a really nice area.

Very family friendly.

Yeah.

[Renee] Lot of mangroves and wildlife here.

Ah, there's our friend.

There's our Back to the Future friend.

It's amazing how relaxed you look.

This is your job?

I call myself a grateful resident of Jupiter, Florida.

We wanna activate the waterfront and give our guests an opportunity to go out and experience the magical waters of Jupiter.

[Frank] Yeah.

[Rick] And that simple idea is what created the Jupiter Outdoor Center.

This is a great trip.

I do a lot of families that live here in Florida and have family come down.

And they're like, what do we do with 'em today?

Right.

We go on the pontoon ride.

[Rick] What a brag kinda, right?

People can go out for half an hour or an hour and see manatees, stingrays, and all sorts of marine life, and immerse themselves in the beautiful history of Jupiter.

And there's more.

Sure.

Tell me the more.

What happens when people come on the boat for half an hour or an hour, they love it.

They wanna do more.

So Captain Renee will take them to a sandbar, or they'll go North on Jupiter Island to this beautiful St. Lucy inlet preserve, which is only accessible by boat or paddleboard.

I call this the center of the universe for recreational paddleboarders.

[Frank] Yeah.

[Rick] At high tide, this blue water, encountering manatees, stingrays, sometimes even otters.

There's nothing else like it on the East Coast of Florida.

Swap the beer for some breakfast, and you'll find yourself here at the Royal Cafe, a real life Cheers right here in Jupiter, where when you walk in, everybody knows your name.

Hey, guys!

Can we help you?

It's me.

Hey, Rick.

All right.

It's like walking into my living room.

It feels like Appreciate that.

Yeah, it feels like I'm part of the family despite nobody knowing who I am.

I feel like I belong here.

And I have a feeling that it trickles down from you, 'cause you seem like a guy that is very welcoming, a family guy.

Tell me about the history of this place real quick.

I've owned it for 17 years, and the guy I bought it from had it for 16 years.

Wow.

He wanted to make sure that whoever he handed it off to would take as good care of it as he did.

Sure, preserve it.

I mean, I can add up probably 40 years of ownership as the Royal Cafe.

Now that we are family, right?

Well, I didn't know that.

Well, now we are.

All right, all right.

And now every time I come in here, I'm gonna expect I see where we're going with this.

My table, maybe a little discount, but that's up to you.

This is the command post.

Yeah.

Yeah.

This is where it all happens.

How are ya?

[Rick] John, Frank.

Frank, John.

Pleasure to meet ya.

Now, how long you been coming here?

Before Rick owned it.

Well, how long you had it now?

[Rick] 17.

Oh, I've been here 20 some years.

20 some years.

Yeah.

Why here?

The food.

The food.

Yeah, and you know, and the people.

[Frank] The atmosphere.

How long have the girls been here?

The owner's a good guy too.

He's all right.

[Rick] Come on, John.

He seems like a nice guy.

Yeah, sorta.

Yeah.

You know, you make a lot of friends here.

Sure.

Really do.

Well, you made one today.

Who knew I was gonna be here, right?

There we go.

It's a generational thing.

You know, 17 years in one place.

The generations start overlapping, and they remember coming in, and they were coming in with grandmothers, and grandfathers, and parents.

Yep.

And now they're coming in as adults.

So it truly, it's, we're family.

It's amazing.

I got nothing else to do.

What would I do?

You know, Frank, anybody can sit and talk.

Right.

I think you should work.

You want me to work?

Let me take a load off here.

You deserve a break.

Okay, thank you.

You deserve a break.

You had the tuna?

No.

She has the BLT.

Oh, this was the BLT?

Yes.

Now, when you came in here to eat today, did you have any idea that you were gonna get served by me?

Who are you?

Exactly, who am I?

Pickleball has taken South Florida and the nation by storm.

People of all ages are playing.

The folks at the Delray Beach Pickleball Club are standing by to give me a hands-on lesson on why it's so popular.

I keep the ball in the air.

It cannot touch the court.

It can touch the court.

It can.

So I'm absolutely wrong.

Forget what I just said.

It can touch the court.

When you serve the ball.

Yeah.

You serve it into the opposite box.

[Frank] Right, like tennis.

When they return it, you have to let the ball bounce.

Oh, you do.

One time.

One time.

And then anything goes.

Then everything's free for all.

What else do I need to know before I step on a course so I don't look like an idiot?

That's it?

Really that's it.

I know what you're thinking.

You're gonna look like an idiot no matter what.

I understand.

Don't worry, it's okay.

Okay.

You got it.

Okay, all right, all right.

[Daniella] It's a little bit like tennis.

[Frank] Okay.

[Daniella] Skill's a little bit like racquetball.

Okay.

Ping pong and a little bit of badminton.

Oh.

So you kind of mesh them all together.

[Frank] Put 'em all together.

How long you been playing pickleball?

For a little bit over a year.

I've been working hard to Yeah.

To be playing pro.

Now why, pro?

Yes, I'd like to play professional, and I've been working towards that.

Give me some tips.

So is there a certain grip on the racket?

Do we have any of that here?

Or do I need to know these things?

So I would say that the majority of the pros, they generate their power from down to up here.

Interesting.

But it's, there's a lot of different forms and a lot of different ways.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, I'm gonna trust you 'cause you're going places.

I'm going nowhere.

So I'd rather trust you.

Go ahead, gimme what you got.

That's okay.

There you go.

Okay.

I switched hands on you there.

You see that?

Did you see that switch hand?

I did.

Come on.

I can get hooked on this.

All right, Norm, you ready for this?

Yep.

Wow!

You see what's happening here, don't you?

[Norm] I do.

Don't, listen, don't be jealous.

Don't be jealous.

Pickleball, you come, you just show up here, and you play, and you play.

I play three hours every day.

Do you really?

I do.

You'll also see all different levels of play.

Cool, so it's a club atmosphere.

It's like a family.

[Norm] It's a, oh, absolutely.

[Daniella] Family.

[Frank] Interesting.

I'll see you guys on the circuit then.

How 'bout that?

[Norm] That's wonderful.

Let's head out West for a lesson in Palm Beach history you won't soon forget.

We meet the museum curator and the county's main archeologist to uncover some surprising details about the Glades.

Being a native of Belle Glade, my family's been here since 1918.

Whoa.

I do have a little bit of a background on Glades history, but a lot of this stuff was totally new to me, and I've discovered things about Belle Glade, it's uniqueness, it's history, that I had no idea was here.

Growing up, Belle Glade was known for two things, farming and football, of which we still are.

But there's displays in the museum that have opened my eyes to the uniqueness and the just absolutely unknown history that a lot of people from here had no idea about.

Gimme your biggest like, your biggest discovery.

So the biggest discovery we've had here is actually an 8,000yearold spearpoint, which is really significant.

Because if you think about it, the pyramids in Egypt are only 4,000 years old.

See?

So people have been living here twice as long as the pyramids in Egypt have stood.

That is an incredible fact.

It is.

And we have amazing sites from Jupiter to Boca.

In the Glades, we find some of the best preserved archeological sites ever.

[Frank] Wow.

[Christian] Because the muck saves the materials.

Fascinating.

I love learning stuff 'cause I do, 'cause I don't know much.

What's so special about this place?

This museum is a hidden gem.

It truly is.

The depth and breadth of the history and the artifacts that they have on display here is really unmatched anywhere else in the interior of the state.

[Cheryl] The Sara Lee doll.

Yeah.

[Cheryl] The first black baby doll that was ever created in America was made by a Belle Glade woman.

[Frank] Incredible.

So we have a lot of history here that I would love to show everyone who's a visitor here.

And it feels very welcoming here.

Like you feel, I feel like I'm just like, I have like a cozy, you know, little neighbor that I'm talking to.

Sure.

Like, you guys have a very kind of old southern charm here.

Would you agree with that?

We do.

Yeah.

We do.

Now, some former NFL players are teaming up to bring new life and pride to their hometown with a waterfront restaurant that has amazing views of Lake Okeechobee.

From what I'm hearing, this place is like off the chain on the weekends.

Am I right?

Yeah, you come on the Fri, Yeah, it's crazy on Fridays and stuff.

Yeah, it's getting crazy.

You come on Friday, you gonna get invaded with real muck love, like around What is it, what is it, what is it?

Muck love.

Muck love.

Yeah, like the people around the community, man, they just, the genuine love that they give off, the party, how they could just hang out and just have fun, it's really great, and it's a fun time.

And it's a place everybody can bring the family.

Yes, sir.

That is good!

Yes sir.

[Frank] How do you get from being a football star in high school to becoming a chef?

[Robert] Well, I had been cooking all throughout college.

All my teammates can pretty much vouch for it.

[Frank] Yep.

But yeah, I was cooking and I was like, what's something I can do for the rest of my life that won't damage my body anymore?

So you had to be the most popular guy on the team.

I was okay.

I was okay.

You know, it's always a team effort.

Crickets.

Wow.

[Robert] The guys actually reached out to me.

They called me and was like, "Yo, we working on something big?"

And I was like, "I wanna be a part, man."

You guys played high school football together.

Am I right about that?

Yeah, so we played against each other.

He went to Pahokee High.

I went to Glade Central High.

Me and Travis went to Glade Central High.

All from the local area.

When he got drafted, I was already at Baltimore.

He was in Baltimore.

So we was in Baltimore together.

Then we left Baltimore, went to Chicago together.

How cool.

So we lived together.

That's my man.

It's like one of my best friends in the world.

This is so awesome!

All right.

Yeah, our whole goal was to make sure the next generation see this.

They seen us play ball.

They know.

Yeah.

And that's something that, even us, that's all we thought we could do.

Yeah, yeah.

Is to play ball.

Like so many kids come up like, he literally grew up a mile this way.

You could walk there.

So kids from his projects and stuff come up.

They get to see him.

Yeah.

You know, they know we here, they'll come up, and they get to see him in this light as an entrepreneur.

Not only football player, but as a business owner.

Yeah, muck love.

Muck love.

Muck love.

I'm with you.

Spread the love.

Love it.

That's the energy, positive energy.

That's it.

It's time for dessert.

Let's head to a real chocolate factory where they're crafting artisan chocolates from bean to bar and turning sweet dreams into reality.

They kind of call you the real-life Willy Wonka.

They do, they do, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, you must have kids come in here, like this must be the greatest place on earth.

[Tyler] Yeah, yeah, no.

Right?

Kids love it here, and that's a really cool thing because what we do is we're trying to educate people but not be too in their face about it, about how chocolate is actually made.

Who hasn't always wanted a chocolate factory?

But I was always curious like how far?

It's gotta start from somewhere, and I wanted to go all the way back to the beginning, and turn to find out it comes from a tree and wanted to learn more about this tree.

Yeah.

Had to go meet some farmers, meet how it was done.

And the only place that actually let me learn was a San Pedro Sula in Honduras.

[Frank] You give tours of this place?

We do give tours.

Yeah, like, you're gonna have a hard time getting me outta here.

The nibs are what we want.

Can you eat these?

Yeah, you can eat those.

It's not delicious yet.

You'll see that we go through a little bit of No, but I get it.

Yeah.

This is where everything starts, yeah.

This is where you create the flavor of all the chocolate is in the roast.

So this is our tempering unit.

Chocolate is actually a crystalline structure.

Well, I knew that.

So when you, you want that shiny, nice snap, a luxurious looking chocolate bar, it needs to be tempered.

So without this, the only way to do that is with the marble slab.

So we'd be working all day.

Gotcha.

So this thing stays full.

Now do you ever come by this machine and just like, just for like a few minutes.

Come on.

So we have one mold here, but the main thing is, use the foot pedal to control just filling this mold.

So you wanna kinda go in at a slant.

Just kind of go across like that.

Get a little vibration in there to get the air bubbles out.

Oh, wow.

And then just Just like drywalling.

Give it a quick little scrape.

Whoa.

And then we kinda just let set on the side.

And that turns into a chocolate bar.

And that turns into a chocolate bar.

I want a cup.

[Tyler] There you go, very good.

Yeah.

[Tyler] I can get you a cup actually if you wanna drink a little bit.

I love you.

Oh my gosh.

Living the dream, you know.

We just use cocoa beans and sugar.

That is it.

[Frank] That's it.

So we use two ingredients.

Sometimes we kinda thin it out with a little bit of cocoa butter, which is derived from the cocoa bean.

So it's about as pure as it comes.

Good stuff.

Good stuff.

When we were kids during those summer months, our parents would tell us to go outside and play.

But these days many kids spend more time online than outside.

Well there's a spot in Delray that's working to change that one mud pie at a time.

Here at the Delray Beach Children's Garden, kids not only come to learn, they can explore and enjoy nature.

It's an oasis.

[Christina] It really is.

Tell me about this place.

Well, we opened over eight years ago.

Two amazing women, one a botanist, the other a retired preschool teacher, thought it would be a great idea to start a community garden, but for children.

Yep.

And so we kind of included all these really fun playscapes to get children back outdoors, learn about growing food in our garden, and kind of foster eco consciousness.

[Frank] Love it.

These are some basil.

Oh yeah.

Some carrots over here taking away.

Kale.

[Frank] And you're doing programs here on top of it.

'Cause I noticed you have a little thatched classroom here, right?

We do.

We do yearround educational programs from mommy and me craft classes to a fulltime homeschool nature school, field trips, birthday parties, and just weekend play for families to get back outside.

We have over 17,000 visits per year.

[Frank] What?

It's incredible.

Good for you guys.

Yeah, we're a busy little community garden.

Everybody who comes here just says, we had such a good time.

I feel good.

Whether it's the grandparent, parent, caretaker, child, the hardest part is leaving here.

We give kids wagon rides to their car.

It's not like, yeah, it's not like you walk in and go, oh yeah, this is not gonna be great.

I hate this place.

There's nothing I hate about it, right?

It's sort of It's a beautiful green space.

It's an eco paradise.

And children learn a lot.

This gives kids a safe space to play, learn about the environment, and connect with it.

[Frank] Yeah.

[Christina] Because it's through that connection that they'll be environmental stewards as adults.

[Frank] I love that.

[Christina] One of my favorite quotes is that play is the work of children.

[Frank] Ah, yes.

[Christina] So we learn through play.

They're not two separate things.

[Frank] Right.

[Christina] In some places, 80 toddlers might seem like a lot.

[Frank] Yeah.

But here, they lead their own exploration and play.

They make use of our mud kitchen, our paint wall, our water play station.

Many parents have said that this is the least amount of effort for their child to have such a great time.

If you're looking to explore the world and have a family adventure, you need to check out Sugar Sand Park.

You'll be amazed at what you find.

[Kate] No matter what type of science you're into, they all start with the fundamental physical sciences.

And that's what we do here at the Children's Science Explorium.

Gotcha.

Oh my goodness.

Oh, I'd be here all day.

Absolutely.

I'd be doing this all day.

That's the way to do it.

This playground behind us here, there are three levels that are accessible, and it focuses on sciences as well.

There's many different interactive exhibits as you find your way from the bottom to the top.

Get a little hot, you can go in the splash pad.

[Frank] Yes.

There's a merry-go-round.

We have multiple different monthly public programs, and including field trips daily.

But the actual monthly public programs are led by our education team.

And they vary from one hour to three and a half hours.

All throughout the day you have these program?

All throughout the day.

[Frank] Because I noticed you have a theater too.

[Kate] We do.

The theater is a whole separate thing in our building.

We're a very unique place.

[Frank] Wow.

I mean, if you time it right, and there's a show in the theater for children, and you're coming to the Science Explorium, we're a seven-day-a-week facility.

You can do a lot.

Everything in here is based on the physical sciences and meant to be explored with your hands.

So I can?

Yep.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, wow.

What don't you do?

I'm not sure.

Whatever it is, when we've discover it, we do it.

Yeah, it feels like a pretty complete day.

So I can come enjoy outdoor, enjoy indoor, different all around.

That's right.

Every visit is gonna be different too.

That's the exciting as well.

Love that.

Do you have?

See, I agree.

I agree, this is very fun.

I feel like you should be a lot more tired than your Oh, I am.

Right?

You can be exhausted.

Yeah, I'll tell you what keeps us going though.

Every day is different.

Yeah, I would imagine seeing the kids' faces.

Yeah.

[Frank] I mean, they're Coming to fruition, having, we call it like an aha moment.

You know, we have, everything we do is hands on inquiry in the museum anyway, and even out here on the playground.

There's a lot of secret science, we'll call it.

Oh.

[Kate] Yeah, if they're paying attention close enough, they'll learn something while they're playing, and that's the goal.

The Lake Worth Waterkeeper is focused on introducing the next generation of kids and families to a love of the outdoors.

And this passionate team does that by offering experiences from hiking to snorkeling and everything in between.

LaGoonies, what?

What does it mean?

What is that?

Yeah, so our organization is called Lake Worth Waterkeeper.

Okay.

And we're named after the lagoon and its watershed.

So the Lake Worth Lagoon is the water body right behind us.

And the LaGoonies is our education program.

Different programs for kids of all ages and inspired by a very famous adventure-based movie.

[Frank] Yes.

So our programs are very much adventure-based.

I love that.

Okay, yeah, you you won me over.

You're making change.

You are like, you're like the warden of the water.

I like this.

And change is such a great word because the Lagoonies program is really intentional in providing those experiences.

Yeah.

So that kids can grow up and fish, and surf, and hike around the lagoon, and paddle, and all that stuff so that they're gonna be dedicated to protecting it.

You know, we'll take parents and their LaGoonies out fishing, for example, and they say, "This is phenomenal.

We always want to take them fishing.

We know that Florida's the fishing capital of the world, had no idea where to start."

So we provide that experience.

Fantastic.

And when you say we, you had the education programs, yes?

[Melissa] I wanted to create something where I could take other adults out, but I needed a field guide.

Right.

And no one better than someone who grew up here.

So that's how I met The Waterkeeper himself.

The Waterkeeper, yeah.

And it's now a 10week program.

We've added a field studies group this past Spring.

We've done summer camps over the summer.

We've done adult LaGoonies.

For me, it's all about helping people in a community develop a relationship with the land in where they live.

So the education is the whole spectrum, and the idea is to come away with people who are inspired to really, you know, do more of this same work.

That's amazing.

I feel like you should have a costume though.

Like shouldn't you have like a trident?

We should be working on that, right?

Next, I'm headed to an escape room in Jupiter where the owner has searched the globe to find the most immersive settings.

The question is, do I have the will to escape?

Okay, this is seems pretty tame, right?

A couple of creepy paintings on the wall.

So what do we got here?

What am I pulling here?

This might be a puzzle.

It might be a puzzle?

You might have to figure something out, and when you do Oh!

So this all leads to that.

I can't get through that door until I figure this out.

[Jarret] Until you figure this out.

Okay, look at this.

All right.

What was super important to me was making sure that it felt like you're in a, you're really in the experience.

Yeah.

Not just in a room with some puzzles on the wall.

Yeah, this is a lot of stuff happening.

Yep.

A lot of lightning.

Lot of creepy, creepy dude there.

What gives you the idea for the escape room?

Like is it just the trend, or because you're crazy and kind of conniving and a little [Jarret] I'm all about having fun.

[Frank] Right.

I don't take life seriously in general.

You seem like you're a little mischievous.

And my girlfriend actually dragged me to my first one.

[Frank] Is that right?

I thought it sounded stupid.

I didn't wanna do it.

[Frank] Yeah.

And I just fell in love with it.

I love puzzles.

I always have.

[Frank] That's what I was gonna ask.

[Jarret] I had so much fun with it, and I saw the business side of it.

And if I found a builder that could create the kind of games that I enjoy playing [Frank] Right.

[Jarret] They'll be fun for everybody.

A lot of locks everywhere.

Is there like a shortcut?

[Jarret] There's a few.

Yeah, is there a shortcut?

There's no shortcuts.

You have to solve everything to complete the mission.

What happens if I'm in a room, let's assume, and obviously I'm very intelligent, what happens if I can't solve it?

How long am I stuck in this dark room?

You have one hour.

I could be in here for an hour?

[Jarret] You have one hour to complete it.

Wow.

[Jarret] And if you're stuck, we're always there to help you.

The box, holy.

[Skull] Hello.

Oh boy.

Hello there.

What?

What am I doing in here?

Just very, very confined space here, Jarret.

Am I?

[Jarret] There might be some more puzzles in there.

Oh, I might have to, okay.

And then your final step is to get through the final booby trap.

Oh, look at this!

Oh, I feel like Tom Cruise.

Now, do I try to get through the lasers here?

[Jarret] You could try.

Is that what I do?

Oh, look at this.

[Jarret] You can't trigger it though.

No, no.

Am I impressing you with the way of my [Jarret] You've made it a lot further than a lot of people.

Very impressive.

Boom!

Is this a prison?

[Jarret] Yes it is.

Whoa!

This is well done.

This is like, this feels real.

That's the goal.

We want it to be realistic.

Wow.

You work on this as a team?

Is that what you're do now?

We're all, the whole thing with escape rooms is you're always working as a team.

[Frank] Okay.

It's never an individual thing.

You can't solve things alone.

[Frank] Right, I like that.

What a great lesson for children.

Interacting is so important these days.

Yeah, well listen, it is oddly comfortable.

It's comforting, I'm not gonna lie.

Wow.

So you're locked in.

Wow, this is amazing.

What am I gonna do?

I'm stuck.

Fun, right?

Right?

Oh, this is great.

Okay, all right, let me out.

Come on.

Anybody?

Oh, that can't be good.

Hello!

Anybody?

Well, I hope you'll get out and enjoy everything the Palm Beaches has to offer.

I hope I can too.

Join me the next time that we go On the Town in the Palm Beaches with me, Frank Licari.

Hello?

Anybody?

[Announcer] This program was brought to you by Discover the Palm Beaches.

Visit ThePalmBeaches.TV for more information.