Mark Gauert

1 week ago | sun-sentinel.com | Mark Gauert

My dentist had said I should brush my teeth every day. “Every day?” I said. “Every day,” she said. “Every tooth?” I said. “Well, no,’’ she said. “Only the ones you want to keep.’’My dentist is funny. And a little scary. But, shhhhhhh, I didn’t brush my teeth the day I went to taste Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon 2021, which had just placed No. 1 in Wine Spectator’s Top 100 list for 2024. (Don’t tell my dentist. She won’t think it’s funny, and she works with pointy instruments).

2 weeks ago | sun-sentinel.com | Mark Gauert

Two big ships – NCL’s Aqua and MSC’s World America – passed recently at PortMiami, and surpassed expectations. Aboard NCL’s AquaThere’s much to do aboard Aqua, NCL’s new 3,571-passenger Prima Plus-class ship. A combination roller coaster and water slide, called – what else? – the Aqua Slidecoaster. A 10-story dry slide called “The Drop’’ you can hear people giggling down all over the ship.

2 weeks ago | sun-sentinel.com | Mark Gauert

We didn’t know what happened. What we’d seen at sunset on the cliffs overlooking the sea. The night we’ll always remember. The one we can’t forget. We were on the “Côte Sauvage” of the Quiberon Peninsula on the northwest coast of France. People say you should do something completely different on a summer vacation, and a trip to the wild shores of Brittany was about as different as it gets from South Florida for my wife and I. And so beautiful.

3 weeks ago | sun-sentinel.com | Mark Gauert

Summertime, and the living is not always easy. The heat, the humidity, the hurricane-updates scrolling in the background. The same forces that drive people indoors in winter up north for warmth drive people indoors here for cool. A kind of cabin fever in reverse sets in, May through October. We move from air-conditioned homes to air-conditioned cars to air-conditioned offices. We also learn to pick our shots in summer. Move only when necessary.

1 month ago | orlandosentinel.com | Mark Gauert

Because this is a place to go when you want to get away, but not all the way away. At least not all the way to Key West, another 80 miles south on US 1. Or to Aruba or Eleuthera or Anguilla, where you'd need a passport and at least one plane ticket to find a beach as wide and nice as the one at Islander Resort. A beach so wide President George H.W. Bush landed in Marine One here in the '80s and '90s, so he could fish next door at Cheeca Lodge.