So, we packed up ourselves and my dad, drove to Florida and left the winter weather behind. In my infinite wisdom, several years ago (even before I knew I'd need to "borrow it" occasionally - or on a regular basis but who's counting) I talked my sister Julie and our parents into buying a house near us in Rockledge, so we headed there. We arrived just in time to see a rocket launch. Dad enjoyed biking along the Indian River and heading into Cocoa Village. We even slipped in a trip to Apopka to visit our favorite restaurant Caffe Positano.
Now, everyone knows that a house is just better with the addition of a dog. So, our beautiful friend Frenchie arranged for us to borrow/babysit her grand dog, Meeko. Well, as you can imagine, my love of dogs comes naturally and Dad was equally excited to have him with us. We thought we'd only have him for a week or so but somehow, we managed to finagle to keep him for a little over a month. We took him just about everywhere we could (and a few places we weren't supposed to). He loved to ride in the car and was happy to be included in everything from walks to town, outdoors restaurants, ice cream runs, chores and trips to the beach.
After about a week, Frenchie and Pery joined us for dinner and brought me the absolute best birthday cake (maybe ever). Absolute proof that are the most absolutely amazing friends and have amazing taste in cakes.
The next day which was actually my birthday, we went over to Orlando again where we joined Polya and Roberto along with Fred and Beth for a fun day visiting Disney area. Afterwards Roberto made us an amazing dinner including another amazing birthday cake. It was fabulous to be even more spoiled than usual.
In keeping with the birthday spirit, Janice invited me to share in her birthday present. Rick had given her tickets to go see comedian Heather McMahan's show in Orlando and luckily for me decided she would have more fun with just girls. Janice hired a car to drive us over (complete with Aperol Spritz', we had a great dinner downtown and the show was hilarious! What a great night! Tiramisu Bitch!!!!!
Apparently not getting enough of Orlando, Pedro and I next took a few days and went back over to visit with old friends many of whom we hadn't seen in several years. We took our bikes and checked out a couple of the many trails all around town and even caught the moonrise over the St. John's River in Sanford. For some reason, I didn't take many pictures so I guess we'll just have to go back and visit again next time. Either way, it was amazing to see such great people and our very first friends in Florida.
Julie and Dude came to Florida for a visit so we borrowed a third kayak to take them over through the mangroves in Cocoa Beach. Turned out to be a beautiful day and the mangrove tunnels are so cool to traverse. Not sure I recommend it with a tandem kayak but we made it work!
While hanging out in Rockledge, we caught amazing sunrises, moonrises, dolphins, a glimpse of our local owl and even saw a fox on one of our morning bikes rides (not a great picture but it was exciting to see the neighbor cat chasing it). Our little area really is beautiful and this trip was a great escape from the winter weather.
Pedro even managed to get in some fishing too! He claims to have caught several fish that were too small - I only saw pictures of one - but finally caught one that was the perfect size to bring home. It was delicious!
Finally, our Florida time was up! We booked our flights to head back to Barcelona so we could pick-up the boat and continue our adventures on the boat. We drove back to Louisville with Dad and spent our last week visiting and playing with our rapidly expanding families and even managed to meet our brand-new great nephew - yes, I was too scared to hold him! Anyway, it's so much fun to see everyone and so sad saying goodbye (even if it's just for a while as we hope many will come to visit us)!
As I type this, we are in the JFK airport awaiting our flight back to the boat. We have a little less than a week before she goes back into the water so we'll get her back in shape and continue heading East. But we'll fill you on that next time.
Until next post!
