Space shuttle launch

Big day for science fans...Space shuttle launch.....And we were gonna be there! This was gonna be cool.

Port Canaveral is about 180 miles north of us, and  the launch was scheduled for 3:47. We left the condo around 9 AM to make sure we got there with plenty of time to find a parking spot.
We got there by noon, so we had plenty of time to kill. We spotted a thrift store, so we went in.

The green bean thrift store...seriously.

Then my sister Deb called and told me they had cancelled the launch due to some mechanical issues. Dagnabit! Well now we really had some time to kill. We decided to go eat lunch over in Cocoa Beach, at the pier. They have a restaurant out on the pier.
On the way over there we saw a garage sale so we stopped to check it out.

a rummage sale

Nothing good. We then proceeded to the pier.

Getting ready to enter the pier

Lots happening on the beach

We went in and got a table. I ordered the fish and chips and Bonnie ordered a tuna melt.

Lets check out the menu

view out the window where I was sitting

After lunch we walked out to the end of the pier to see the view.

Thats a tiki bar at the end of the pier. And it was loaded with lushes

view from the end of the pier

just in case you were wondering what held it up

We saw this cruise ship leaving port

gotta use the zoom

Cocoa Beach life guard stand. I like our stands better.

As we were leaving the pier, there was a band just starting to play.

guy playing guitar

After listening to them for a while we walked down to the beach, where we took this picture of the pier.

The pier looking from the beach

We hung out on the beach for a while, checking everything out.

Me under the boardwalk

catchin some waves

We stayed till 5 pm and then headed south for the return trip home, sad to have missed the launch, but happy to have enjoyed Cocoa Beach again. We had vacationed here a couple of times and really liked it. It was nice strolling down memory lane. 

Have a great nite and see you all soon. We will be leaving here to return to Iowa in 7 days.

Lazy days and lazy nights

Yikes...We were watching American Idol and heard Bruno Mars new song, I think it was called I don't want to do anything today, or something like that. We think that may become our new theme song, because that's what we did today, nothing. We got up this morning and started watching the news of the tornado's in Alabama and never quit. We watched tv all day long lounging and eating. 

We are considering driving up to Port Canaveral tomorrow to watch the shuttle lift off, but we need to keep an eye on the weather to make sure it is a go. We don't want to drive 200 miles if it is aborted due to weather. It is kinda dicey right now, but we will continue monitoring it. 

I do not have much more for today as there wasn't a lot going on. There were some fire alarm guys working on the building next to us and they were there all day long. I think they were milking the clock as we noticed they spent a lot of time chatting amongst themselves, and I am pretty sure it wasn't work related, judging by the laughter coming from the group. 

I gotta go to bed, today was exhausting.   

Sand, Sun and waves....again

We got up and had some mini wheats and toast. It was mid 80's by 9am and we were trying to figure out what to do. I wanted to go to the beach again, and with a little persistence, that's what we did.
We got down there around 11am and grabbed our parking place, walked over to the beach, and staked out our spot about 10 ft from the water. It was windy again so we didn't bring our umbrella today

The beach.

We got in and wrestled with some of the waves. I lost most of the time.

Me in the drink

I had to go smoke, and the public restroom is right across the street at the ocean rescue building, so I took a picture as we were walking towards it.

Restrooms across the street (also secret smoking place)

Smoking

Our camp spot

Once back safely in our chairs we notice this huge boat way out on the horizon, so I took a picture of it.

That is a big ship

And then I got snap happy and took some other misc pics.

Looking for grubs?

Kite surfing

We left around 1 and headed for home to eat lunch. Bonnie made BLT's and they were excellent.

I then walked around the grounds taking some random pictures while Bonnie took a nap.

Lizards all over the place here

The fountain

The empty pool (no Canadians)

walking back to the condo

It was muggy outside so I went back in and watched a movie.

Bonnie got up and made some pulled pork, so we made some BBQ pulled pork sandwiches for supper. We are trying to use all the food up, we only have a little over a week left here.

Then it was Idol time, followed by storage wars. Then sleepy time.

Sand Sun and Waves

We got up and had already determined we would head for the beach. Its been very warm and we hadn't been there for a while, so we packed up our cooler, dressed in our swimwear and took off by 11am. I found our regular parking space open and pulled in.  We thought we would walk down to grab a sub from Subway before heading to the beach.

Upon completing the exchange of paper for food, we headed to the beach to stake our claim of a couple square feet of beach for the afternoon. There was a 15 to 20 mph breeze coming in off the ocean so the umbrella didn't want to cooperate so we left it down. I'm not sure how everybody that had one up got it to stay put? Anyways, there were pretty good size waves coming in and it looked fun watching everybody out there getting pounded by the waves. So out we went to challenge the waves.

Getting wet...

Bonnie getting sloshed!

Guy way out there on a board.

We stayed down there till 3 then headed for home. I was tired and wanted a nap. I laid down on the sofa and flipped on the TV, meanwhile Bonnie headed out to the store to get bread and other misc stuff. We stayed home the rest of the day and chilled out.

That was our day. Goodnight and sleep well.

Damp-rid

We didn't have a plan for the day, it's a Monday. We hung out at the condo for most of the morning. As we were chatting about our return trip to Iowa, we remembered we needed to run to Lowes to get some Damp Rid. We didn't know what it was either. Some old guy down at the pool told us to get some. Last year when we left the condo for the summer, we left the air on so we wouldn't get any mold or mildew. We were at the pool one day last week talking with some people when one of the guys told us about it. Apparently it takes the moisture out of the air to prevent mold and mildew without having to waste electricity all summer long. So off we went to find it.

Looks the same in Florida

The stuff

After successfully completing the task, it was time for reward. We ran down to the beach to this pizza place we had never tried. They had 2 slices of pizza and a drink for $4.75. I asked the waiter if their pizza was as good as Bob's (the joint across the street) and he assured me that the pizza they offered was better.

looking across the street at our usual pizza place

We ate our pizza and it was pretty good, but I don't know if it was better than Bob's. Bob has live music outside at his place. Anyways after all 4 pieces were consumed we sat watching people walk by and commenting on each one as they walked by (You know you all do this) for an hour. It was hot as heck out there, even in a shady spot, so we walked back to the car and headed home. We just hung out watching misc tv programs and screwing around on the laptops till 6 when Bonnie started dinner. Pork chops and mac and cheese. Then more TV and BAM, it was bed time. That's it. No mas. (Spanish for no more)

Happy Easter

We planned on getting up at 5:30, and going down to the sunrise service at the beach. (That would have been cool) However, at 5:30, we thought OMG...This is early, and fell back asleep. So we actually got up around 8:30 am and after eating some toast and coffee, decided to drive down to Ft Lauderdale beach. On the way down we saw a garage sale so we stopped by.

He was sitting in that chair.

We then continued our drive to the beach. As we got closer we saw that the beach was packed. Fort Lauderdale beach is much larger than our beach in Deerfield. The Fort Lauderdale Beach is at least 7 miles long. We got a parking place down at the Beach Place, a parking garage under a shopping mall directly across the street from the beach. We walked across the street and wandered around the beach for a while.

Fort Lauderdale Beach looking south

Looking North

Lots of people

There is a kite surfer out there.

Around 12:30 we walked across the street to this cafe that had these cool glider tables and sat down to order lunch. Our table was outside in the shade, so we ordered a couple of landsharks and a catch of the day fish sandwich to split.

While sitting at our table I saw a couple of cool cars, so I took some pictures of them.

Lambo....I want one

Not sure what that is..But i bet it gets good MPG

We then walked back to The Beach Place to look around.

The Beach Place

Bonnie doing what she loves

After looking around for a while we went down to the parking garage and found our car and headed for Deerfield beach. We wanted to see how busy our beach was. It was busy as well. Apparently Easter Sunday is a day nobody works, because everybody was at the beach. I left my camera in the car so these pictures and video's were taken with my phone.

Our beach...Home sweet home

We hung out down there for quite a while, then decided to go get our swimwear on so we could jump in.
On the way to the car we saw this car, so I took a picture of it.

Sweet ride

Once we got to the car we found out it was already 5 pm so we went home and jumped in our pool for an hour or so. then up to the condo to change and watch Amazing Race (love that show) and Celebrity Apprentice. Then off to bed to prepare for our next day in paradise.

Dinner and a movie

Its getting close to time to leave, so we spent the morning sorting out our clothes we plan to bring back to Iowa.

I think I will take these...

We had plans on going out to dinner, then to a movie.We were going to Old Checker-Munchkin for dinner.
It is a authentic old world German restaurant with the menu in German. I don't even know if I like German food so I guess we shall find out this evening.

The magical coupon

It was good and We liked it, although it was kinda expensive. With our 25 dollar certificate we still had to pay 35 bucks.  But it was very authentic, even our waitress was from Duselduetch, Germany or something like that.

This place looks small, But kinda cool...in a Bavarian way

That's the maiden from Duselduetch..the Blurry one

We had some German beer, I can't remember what it was called.

After dinner we still had an hour to kill before the movie, and we were only a mile or so from the theater and only a couple blocks from the beach, so we ran down to the beach. We had not been to this beach before so we checked it out.

The Beach!

This beach is about 8 miles south of our beach

Divers...struggling with their gear

That is the pompano beach pier....

Still struggling with gear...

25 minutes later, it was time to head for the movie. We wanted to see Water for Elephants. (Bonnie wanted to see Water for Elephants, I wanted to see Thor, so we compromised and we saw Water for Elephants.)

Time for the movie.

It was actually pretty good. After the movie was over it was 10 at night so we headed home. That was all of our day. Not pretty, but effective.