Busy Weekend

Sorry, I haven’t kept up on my blogging as well as I should but it is more difficult to write things when you are in one place more than a few days. I will try to do better!

We rented a car this weekend and took advantage to do some sight seeing. It was noon on Saturday before we actually got the car and after doing the regular stops i.e. Sam’s, Wal-Mart and West Marine we drove down south on Route 1 to Jupiter Inlet and Lighthouse. It was late and very windy so we elected not to climb up and just continued on a food quest! Gordon was hankering for some junk food, so we headed all the way to Ft Lauderdale and Skyline Chili. Only you from Ohio can appreciate the fine dining experience of skyliners ( chili-cheese coneys) and 5-ways (Spaghetti with chili, beans, onions, cheese)!! After stuffing ourselves sufficiently and getting our hometown fix, we decided to head back driving up A1A. A1a is a state route that runs the closes to the beach possible from the Keys to Fernandina Beach. We have been on all parts of this route, which at one time was the only way north and south in Florida. It is rather sad that we have allowed commercial and condo builders the rights to build on our beaches! Much of the drive we couldn’t even see the beach for the buildings, but it was fun nonetheless. We got back to the boat way after dark and with full bellies!

Sunday morning we started out on a penny hunt! Most of you know I am a pressed penny collector and try to collect as many as I can from the area we are visiting. We took I95 north towards Titusville to the American Police Hall of Fame. The American Police Hall of Fame and Museum was founded in 1960. It is the nation's first national police museum and memorial dedicated to law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty currently exceeding more than 8000 honorees. There is also one of the largest indoor shooting ranges I have ever seen. It is open to any US citizen able to pass a background check! Here I was able to collect 2 pennies and 2 pressed quarters to add to my growing collection.

We then walked across the street to the Astronauts Hall of Fame. It is part of the Kennedy Space Center Complex and is dedicated to our nation's astronauts, including the world's largest collection of personal memorabilia and realistic astronaut training simulators. This is a really cool place to bring kids because of the hands on stuff. Here, I got 3 more pennies!! We continued our ride south to Canaveral and Cocoa Beach. Like many of the cities we have visited, we have seen decorated mermaids, turtles, and cats, Canaveral and Cocoa display shuttle statues.
You would have to spend more time than we had to find them all, but it is a nice addition to a community (hey Troy, you could do strawberries) While in Cocoa Beach, we stopped in at Ron Juan’s Surf Shop. This is where East coast surfing started and the store, although not original, is now 2 stories and 52,000 square feet of surfing paraphernalia. I scored an unexpected penny here, too!

Back on A1A, we continued south through many small communities. This part of the Florida shoreline, you can see both the ICW and Atlantic so there are few condos blocking your view until you hit Vero Beach, home of mega homes many that were for sale! Here we stopped by the Disney Beach Resort and got 2 more pennies and a quarter which the proceeds go to turtle research. We didn’t get to see any turtles although this is an area where many come to nest from November- March.

We arrived back in Ft Pierce in time to meet up with former Ohioans, Craig and Susanne for dinner. Thanks you guys, we had a great time and hope you made it back to Lakeland just fine.

So, one more day with a car and it was off to West Palm Beach! We had made plans to pick up Damian Symonette, a Palm Beach University student for a night away from institution food. We took him to Carrabba’s Italian Grill and had a great dinner and conversation. Gordon was able to talk him into eating calamari (squid) and I’m not sure he liked it but at least he tried it!!! He did fill up on spaghetti and refused dessert before we took him back to his dorm. He is here from the Bahamas working on a degree in film production.

So that was our weekend…pretty full and exciting for us. Now back to working on the boat in the cool weather Florida is experiencing. Feel sorry for us it was only 52º here this morning….crazzzzzy April weather!!!