It's a city where anything goes, where everyone feels comfortable. A city of contradictions. It's a city that's part Left Bank, part island getaway. A town where tacky sits comfortably with tropical vegetation on the same barstool, Bacchus, blues and beignets share the same plate.

With NASA in the background, I arrived before sunrise in Port Canaveral on Friday, June 4th. Leaning on the sixth-floor wall of the parking garage, I watched more than 1,500 Floridians cheering and waving flags on the shores of Jetty Park nearby. The water stirred and bubbled. Making her arrival in the channel was the new Carnival Mardi Gras. The …