Thursday, June 30, 2011

Big weekend coming up! We hope to be in a place where we can see fireworks, but who knows. This morning was overcast, warm, and muggy. It looked like rain all day, but at least it waited until after we got anchored and situated before the skies opened up. We cruised just under 20 miles today. We are anchored out in front of the Titusville City Marina with about 2 dozen sailboats. A man from the marina came around in a pump-out boat and talked with us for a few minutes. They are working on putting in mooring balls in the area where we are anchored out. First, they have to weed out which boats are abandoned and which are looked after. He said that they expect to have the mooring balls in sometime in September. They have a grant for the pump out boat and are planning on getting a second boat. It's nice when the pump out guy comes to you. It's especially nice when I don't have to take part in that activity at all (if you remember).

John and I spent the afternoon on the aft deck playing cards and Sequence. I think we each won about the same number of games. We grilled out chicken legs and enjoyed a nice dinner. It is not raining at the moment and the rain has cooled things off a bit. Hopefully, we can have the windows open tonight while we sleep.

As long as it's not storming in the morning, we are planning on moving on up the coast. Til then....

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

This stained glass window at St. Mark's reminded me of my grandchildren.

St. Francis statue at St. Mark's

Maybe the chopsticks weren't such a good idea.

John even ate his Thai food with chopsticks. Wow!

The four of us walked into town. Norm and John went to the huge hardware store, while Sue and I walked to the parts of town we missed on Monday. It started to rain pretty hard, so we ducked into Killer Bee Cafe and drank a soft drink while we waited for the rain to let up. The men met us and we shopped in an outdoor produce market. We got some corn, beans, peaches, apples, and mushrooms. Then, at John's suggestion, we had lunch at Thai Thai. That's a first for John. I still can't believe he was the one to suggest that. He is becoming much more adventurous when it comes to food. He even liked it. We sat a little longer at the restaurant because the rain had started coming down harder. Then we ran to the ice cream parlor and had sugar free carmel pecan ice cream. It was drizzling when we walked back to the boats.

Tomorrow we leave this harbor. The plan is to go about 25 miles to Titusville, providing the weather cooperates. We are supposed to have rain until Friday, so if that's the case, we will anchor out somewhere close to here.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Even the pay phone looks like a space ship.

Carol in the Future Keeper from the original Star Trek series.



Captain John on the Enterprise bridge. "Live long and prosper."

After John picked up the rental car this morning, we headed for the Kennedy Space Center. We spent the day touring the space center. We took the bus tour. We watched movies. We saw the displays. We rode in the simulator. What an awesome day! We walked our little feet off, but it was so worth it. They had information about NASA from 1961 until today. The final shuttle launch is scheduled for July 8th. They even had an area dedicated to Star Trek.

Monday, June 27, 2011

The Cocoa Village Marina Office and Boater's Lounge Building.

All of the buildings in this picture are part of the hardware store.

Carol and Betty Boop

What a perfect day today was! We unhitched our lines from the dock at Telemar Marina at 8:00 this morning. We only cruised 15 miles today. It was overcast and muggy. We arrived at Cocoa Village Marina at 10:15 A.M. What a nice place this is. Ken (dockmaster) was on the dock to catch our lines when we got here. He helped us hook up our electric and then helped us pump out our holding tank. The docks are wide, wooden, flat, clean, and sturdy. They have a beautiful boater's lounge and brand new looking showers, restrooms, and laundry room ($1.25 a load). Plus this marina is just across the street from the very quaint little historic town of Cocoa. There are lots of small boutiques, jewelry stores, gift shops, and restaurants. There is an old style hardware store about 2 blocks from the harbor that has 3 floors and multiple buildings. Norm and John did some preliminary investigating at the hardware store today. They plan on going back Wednesday for some serious shopping. We had lunch at a place called Norman's that was delicious and reasonable. It doesn't get better than that.

We have a car reserved for tomorrow because we are going to tour the Kennedy Space Center. We have paid for 3 nights here and we're all glad about that because of all the things available to do.

Note: I don't know if you noticed, but my pictures the last few days have had a dark spot in them. I don't know how that happened. John tried to wipe it away, but it seemed to be inside where you can't reach it. Well, today, I dropped my camera and instead of it breaking, it fixed itself. Suddenly, the spot is gone. I must be the luckiest person around. At least I think so.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

One of these guys had a Lab with him on his board. I'd be in the water.

Carol (Jenny, there's no denying that we are sisters)

John

John and I went for a walk this morning across a swing bridge and onto Merritt Island. All of the houses have waterfronts in the front and the back of them. The island is just this narrow strip of land. It was nice and shady walking down the only street, and the street is pretty narrow with lots of speed humps to keep the traffic moving at 15 mph. It was fun walking along the water and seeing the lovely homes.

The middle part of the day was quite warm. We played cards on the aft deck until we couldn't stand the heat anymore. We moved back inside to the air conditioning. Sandy and Bill live in the condos right at the marina where we are docked. They had us to their condo for dinner tonight. We had tempura, coleslaw, rice, grapes, and watermelon. Yummy! We had wonderful cut up vegetables and shrimp that we dipped in batter and then deep fried in a fondue-like pot. There were two different dipping sauces. I ate vegetables that I normally don't like and they were really good (mushrooms and eggplant). We thought we were going to have another storm like yesterday afternoon, but all we got was the breeze. We ate out on Sandy and Bill's lanai. It was an extremely pleasant evening and we appreciated their hospitality.

We are planning on leaving here in the morning and heading to Cocoa Village. That's not very far and we were told about some things to see there. If the weather is bad in the morning, that would change our plans. We decide the night before if and when we will leave and where we are headed to next. One day at a time.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

The storm brewing

Beautiful sunset.

This morning we pulled up our anchor at 7:15 A.M. and headed north for Melbourne, Florida. The day started out overcast, hot, and muggy. We saw probably 3 dozen dolphins swimming with our boat today along the way. They were everywhere and I still couldn't get a good picture of them. Oh, well. We stopped in Sebastian to get fuel because that was the best price we could find at $4.00 a gallon.

We were about three miles away from our destination when a big old storm blew up. We had lots of wind, lightning, and rain. However, by the time we reached Telemar Marina, the rain had stopped as did most of the wind and the lightning. Sandy and Bill who are friends of Norm and Sue from Paradise Marina in N. Ft. Myers, live right across the street from the marina. They came for Happy Hour tonight. We are having dinner with them tomorrow night at their condo.


When we were first arriving, we met Jason who has a 1969 Hatteras. He saw Norm and Sue's Hatteras and wanted to compare notes. After Happy Hour, he went home and came back with his Hatteras and his wife Page. They are a delightful couple. They showed us their boat and all of the work they have done to her. They bought it after it had been damaged in a hurricane. They are doing amazing work to her. We keep meeting the most likable people on this trip. That's part of what makes this so much fun.

Friday, June 24, 2011

These look like the plastic pink flamingos you see in people's yards.

This house was so huge, it looked like three houses joined together.


This one is for sale and right on a canal. Maybe when we're done cruising. NOT!


Jupiter Lighthouse.

We left Lake Park this morning at 7:15 A.M. It was hot and muggy already. We had no appreciable rain the entire time we were at Lake Park. Tonight we are anchored at Fort Pierce and the weather report is for thunderstorms with lightning and hail possible and 40 t0 50 mile per hour winds. Isn't that something? So far, the breeze has picked up some, but it actually feels really good. We had a good traveling day today. Everything seemed to operate properly. We saw some fantastic homes along the way and the Jupiter Lighthouse which we toured a couple of weeks ago. It looks different from the water, not as tall.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

The closets are restocked (with food and / or clothing). The water tank is full. John has done his engine room check. We are looking forward to casting off tomorrow morning bright and early. The weather is supposed to be hot with a light chop. That's the best we can hope for in the summer in Florida. I remember last summer when we were in Kentucky Lake, the temperature was higher there than in Florida. It's summer.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Thirty-eight years ago today, I did the smartest thing I've ever done. I married my best friend. Tonight we went out for dinner with Norm and Sue to celebrate our Anniversary. We reminisced about that day and how it only seems like yesterday. I just want to say, John, I love you more than ever. Thank you for sharing your life with me.

The countdown is on. We leave here on Friday, two more days, providing that the weather cooperates. Tomorrow is grocery shopping and cleaning out the refrigerator. We need to put on water, get fuel, and pump out before we leave.

Tuesday June 21, 2011

Walking this morning reminded me of : "Sweating to the Oldies" with Richard Simmons. When you walk out of the boat, it's like walking into a wall of heat even at 8:00 A.M. But, Sue and I are glad when we're finished walking for the day. The rest of the day was spent going through and cleaning out our paper files. John serenaded me by playing his guitar while I sorted papers and bills, etc. If you've got to do paperwork, being serenaded is the best way to go! At one point this afternoon, John smelled something unusual on the boat. After sniffing around for a good 45 minutes, he discovered that our handheld spotlight that was plugged into the cigarette lighter, was melting. It didn't smell too good. Lucky thing he was on the boat to smell it or we might have had a fire. That's a scary thought.

Monday, June 20, 2011

It was so hot and muggy today. When Sue and I got back from walking, we felt like wet washcloths. John took the car back and then the guy came to scrape the bottom of the boat. I mended the fender covers and the rest of the day was spent staying in the air conditioning. We did get mail today. That means magazines to read. Hooray!

Sunday, June 19,2011

Pineapple growing in Jesse's yard.

Dan and Jesse at Cabo Wabo.

Bikini Salad

Happy Father's Day to all Dads!!!! This morning after Church, we went out for lunch with Norm and Sue, and Dan and Jesse. Since it is Father's Day, we had a hard time finding someplace where we didn't have to wait for an hour. We ended up at Cabo Wabo. I had a salad called the Bikini Salad. It was a huge strawberry / blueberry spinach salad that tasted wonderful. After lunch, Dan and Jesse came back to the boats for a brief visit before Dan had to head back to the Keys where he lives on his boat. What a pleasant weekend this was. The car goes back tomorrow and then the plan is to leave here next Friday on the boat, heading north.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

This is our last weekend of renting a car. Today John and Norm went to Boat Owners Warehouse without us girls so they could shop to their hearts' desires. John came home with a brass hook for the head because there isn't enough towel hanging space in there. Later, Sue and I went to BJs Warehouse Club. If you talk to Sue, ask her about her purchase.

We went to visit Jesse and Dan at Jesse's house tonight for dinner. Her backyard is awesome. It's very private with lots of plants and trees. There was a delightful breeze and the company was great! We all brought food and it tasted wonderful. All of us ate too much though. Tomorrow after Church, Jesse and Dan are coming to meet us for brunch. Everything revolves around food.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

We had planned on going to the Tiki restaurant by dinghy for lunch today because the Thursday lunch special is Fillet Mignon for $10. When it was time to go, there were white caps out on the water and we decided it was too rough for the dinghies to go out. Oh, well. Maybe next Thursday.

John heard from the air conditioning guy late this morning. He decided not to have it serviced. Instead he made arrangements for someone to come Monday morning and scrape the bottom of the boat. He wanted to have that done before we move on.

Other than that, it was a kind of lazy day. That makes me think of that song, "Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer". I'm showing my age here.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

This morning Sue and I walked to the North Palm Beach Library and spent the better part of the day doing genealogy research. It was REALLY HOT outside and REALLY COLD inside. We got to the library around 9:15 and stayed until around 2:30. We walked across the street from the library and had a dish of frozen yogurt before heading back to the boat. The library is about one and a half mile from the harbor. It's only about a half a block farther than we walk every morning. On the way back though, there were all of these small gnat-like bugs swarming and trying to get into our mouths, ears, and eyes. That was far worse than the heat, in my opinion.

An air conditioning guy was supposed to call back this morning while we were gone, but John never heard from the guy. I guess we'll see what happens tomorrow.

The weather radio has been going off the past two nights. Again tonight, no rain. When we finally do get it, it will probably be far more than we really would like. You know how it is, it's all or nothing.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

After walking today, I spent most of the rest of the day working on genealogy research on the computer. John played his guitar. We walked to Dunkin' Donuts for lunch because the sign said salmon croquettes and Sue was craving them. We put in our order and the waitress said they were out of the salmon croquettes. That was the whole reason we went there today. Poor Sue.

Tonight it took me over an hour to get online to do the blog because of weather. The wind is blowing, and there is lightning and thunder, but very little rain.

Monday, June 13, 2011

It's Monday and that means doing chores. John had ordered some new ropes that arrived here today. He ordered 5 black 5/8 inch braided lines that are 50 feet long and have a loop on one end for $30 each. Pretty good deal. Maybe if we are prepared, there won't be any hurricanes. That's what I'm hoping.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Well, it's 9:00 P.M. and we didn't hear from West Marine. I guess we didn't win anything. Boo Hoo! We went to Church this morning, then out to breakfast. Then, the guys dropped us off at Jo Ann Fabrics. They had a big sale. I could have spent a lot, but I only spent a little. Whatever I buy, I have to find a place on the boat to store it. I could spend hours and hours in that store. The car goes back again tomorrow morning. We have just one more weekend here before we leave and begin moving north. At this point, I am ready to move on.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Back to the Gardens Mall this morning. Sue and I shopped for a couple of hours before picking up our husbands for lunch. John had me buy a pair of Crocs and a pedometer for my birthday. I can't wait to try them both out. You'll never guess where we went for lunch today. The new West Marine store had its Grand Opening this weekend and they had free hot dogs, Sun chips and water or soda. They also had this wheel to spin for free. We won a sun visor, a toy inflatable boat, a key chain, and an insulated coffee mug. We also entered a drawing. They will pull the winners tomorrow at the end of their business day. Wouldn't that be something to win either a $250 gift card or a new chartplotter / depth finder?

Friday, June 10, 2011

Thank you for all of the birthday wishes. We spent the day running because it's the weekend and we rented a car. John took the MY-FI into the Verizon store this morning and after 45 minutes of trying to get it to work, the lady gave him a new one. It works just fine. It's really nice that it's noticeably faster, but the best part is that we can both be online at the same time.

We had a delicious lunch at Applebee's. The waitress overheard one of us talking about my birthday and brought the gang over to sing and brought an ice cream sundae. We enjoyed our meal and then finished the day's errands.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

This morning began bright and early with breakfast at 7:30 at Dunkin Donuts with Norm and Sue, and Bob and Nancy, and John, of course. We sat there for two hours chatting before we decided we'd better move along. Bob and Nancy left the harbor and headed back toward North Fort Myer as soon as we returned from breakfast.

John and I attended a Kiwanis meeting today here in Lake Park. We met the President at the Sunset Celebration almost two weeks ago. She was kind enough to arrange for someone to pick us up and take us to the meeting because we only rent the car on the weekends. Their club was a lot like ours only smaller. They have 20 members, of which seven attended the meeting. They meet at an Italian restaurant that has a separate meeting room. The food was good and the people were very nice and hospitable. The community of Lake Park is only two square miles, but there is a lot of community pride. We felt like we were at home.

We received our new phones and MY-FI today. The phones work fine, but the MY-FI says it is missing a driver. So, tomorrow when we have the car, we are going to the Verizon store and have them look at it and tell us what we've done wrong. The MY-FI will allow us both to be online at the same time. Up until now, we've only been able to have one computer at a time on the Internet. I'm anxious for this to work. It's supposed to be a lot faster as well.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Just a portion of The Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach. Absolutely beautiful! It looks like a castle.

This is a sunken sailboat we saw while out in the dinghy.

We were so happy to see Nancy and Bob this afternoon. They arrived shortly after lunch and are only staying until tomorrow. Boo Hoo! We enjoy their company so much, it will be sad to see them leave. However, we are glad they came out of their way to stop and visit. This evening during Happy Hour, they shared their pictures from their trip to the Bahamas. There were lots of pictures of Bob and the fish he caught. He is quite the fisherman.

Tonight there is a 30% chance of rain and it becomes more likely through the weekend. We certainly do need the rain. I think in the last 3 months we haven't seen more than a very light sprinkle.

John wanted me to share some of our trip stats with you. We have been away from home for 491 days. Of those days, we have actually been moving on the water 139 days. We have gone 5221 miles. We have bought 2884 gallons of deisel fuel at a cost of $9,469.00. We have spent $11,876.00 on marinas. And we have been having a blast!

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

This morning when Sue and I walked, we had arranged to meet John and Norm at Dunkin Donuts for breakfast on the way back to the marina. (None of us ate donuts.) We had a nice breakfast. That was a great way to start the day. Then it was chores.

Donna Bednar whose boat is on our old dock at our home harbor, has begun emailing us about what's going on there. She reads our blog to stay caught up with us and is kind enough to do this for us to keep us caught up at home. Isn't that thoughtful?

Some friends from North Fort Myers are coming here tomorrow to visit on their way home from the Bahamas in their boat. We are looking forward to seeing Bob and Nancy.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Hello, everyone! Today was another good day. It was pretty hot and muggy, but that's okay. We are in Florida after all. Norm and Sue's curtains are FINALLY finished. I can't believe I took so long. They have to be two of the most patient people in the universe. After putting the curtains up, we got in the dinghies and went putting around. We ended up at the Tiki Restaurant for lunch. Why does everything we do involve food? That saying from the Rendezvous keeps getting more relevant. "The first two calls after finishing the loop will be to AA and Weight Watchers." Some of the people we have met up with along our cruise are crossing into Canada this week. They certainly are far ahead of us. We wish them safe cruising and can't wait to read about it in their blogs after they come back to the US. I'll "talk" to you again tomorrow.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

This morning after Church, we picked up Norm and Sue and went out to brunch. The first place we went to, you could only do a buffet. We decided that we always overeat at buffets and that we didn't want to do that. So, we went to a family style restaurant called Southern Kitchen. The food was good, inexpensive, and controlled portions. We did a little shopping and went for a ride to Palm Beach. The houses there are HUGE, at least the ones we could see. Most of them have bushes surrounding their property that are as high as the houses. The houses are pretty close together too, which surprised me. It was another beautiful day.

FUN DAY!

Looking straight up through the lighthouse lens.

Jupiter Lighthouse


Fountain at The Gardens Mall

Flower display at The Gardens Mall. From the escalator, they don't even look like flowers.

Sue and I left this morning and went to The Gardens Mall. We went before the stores opened so we could get our walking in. Then we shopped until noon. The mall is beautiful with lots of flowers, fountains, and sculptures. They have a Macy's, a Nordstrom, a Bloomingdales, a Sears, and a Saks Fifth Avenue. There were very few vacant stores. We had a great time. We picked John and Norm up and went to lunch at La Bamba's.

After lunch we drove to Jupiter and visited the Jupiter Lighthouse and Museum. From the top of the lighthouse, we saw where Mr. Colgate used to live, where Perry Como used to live, where Olivia Newton John lives, where Tiger Woods lives (it was blocked by trees), and where Celine Dion lives (it was blocked by trees too). It was so much fun. Norm and John waited patiently while Sue and I did the tour. We really walked our tootsies off, but we had a great time.

Friday, June 3, 2011

We got the car this morning and ran errands. Each one of us had a list and we thought we had found everything on the list, but I forgot one thing on my list. Oh, well, there's always tomorrow. Sue and I are going to the mall to walk in the morning and then shop. We intend to pick up the guys for lunch afterward. Each weekend we end up buying things that make us work harder during the week.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

This is from a couple of weeks ago. I just thought it was cool.

They have the prettiest flowers here

Sue, John, and I walked for an hour this morning. John and I tried to attend a Kiwanis meeting, but were unable to get a hold of someone from the local club. So, we're shooting for next week. Then, we put the dinghy in the water and went exploring. There are so many beautiful homes along the shore. I can't even imagine how much it would cost to own one of them. If we did own one, I would be constantly worried about hurricanes. It's better if we don't own property here. Tomorrow is car rental day again. Both couples have a list of things to see and to shop for.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

How can it possibly be June already? I'm sure all of the children in school think it has taken forever to get here, but not me. It seems once you are out of school, time just flies. We are still here in Lake Park enjoying the sunshine and how close it is to walk to the grocery store. Sue and I are back in the habit of walking every morning, except Sunday. We are walking about an hour each morning before it gets too hot. Every afternoon at Happy Hour, we chat and solve all of the world's problems. In between, it's regular cleaning and maintenance. Today I spent a great deal of time on the computer working on my genealogy research. It is so exciting to find out something I didn't know before. Today I was just updating my online files. Well, til tomorrow....