NautiNell

NautiNell
NautiNell in all her glory

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Still Hanging Out at Cocoa Village Marina

Lou's Blues Club - cool place

Nighttime at the CityWalk in Universal Studios
Hanging out at Lou's Blues Club
One of the regulars at Lou's Blues
Waiting to go on stage......?
Having breakfast with the locals..............
Sailboat high and dry - hardly ever see a sailboat on a lift
This is one substantial lift too.  According to the
folks here at the marina no one has been back since they
moored it here several years ago.  What a waste!
One of the bands at the Melbourne Festival
CityWalk at Universal Studios
One of Dale Jr.'s race cars - pretty cool!
CityWalk at Universal Studios
Doing the tourist thing!
Getting ready for the show!
More tourist stuff
Hard Rock Cafe - had to check it out
Great shot of the Pink Cadillac in Hard Rock
It revolves around the bar
 
Still Hanging Out at Cocoa Village Marina 

Another couple of weeks have passed since my last post.  We are really enjoying our stay at Cocoa Village.  The Village is full of interesting shops and good restaurants.  Also, now that we have the scooter, we have been able to broaden our horizons a little. 
There was a rocket launch at the Space Center the other day.  It was the “Radiation Belt Storm Probe” used for measuring radiation in the earth’s orbit.  We set our alarm so we wouldn’t miss it since it was scheduled to launch at 4:05 a.m.  It was right on time!  Pretty cool thing to see.  I can only imagine now what it was like to see the shuttle or the earlier rockets carrying our astronauts into space.   We could hear it long after it crossed our path.  Cool! 
They are now waiting to send the shuttle “Endeavor” to California via a 747.  They have been showing lots of pictures on the news; however, due to the weather it has been re-scheduled a few times. 
We did have a surprise visitor at the Village the other day.  Obama stopped in at our favorite breakfast nook.  We saw all the commotion, lots of police motorcycles, etc., but didn’t know what was going on.  It was only about a block from the marina.  It’s been said that he was very congenial and paid for his own breakfast – $7.00 and left a $20 tip.  He was on his way to campaign in Melbourne at F.I.T.  Sorry we missed it – not!  J
We did finally have the boat bottom cleaned.  We hadn’t had that done since we took off on this adventure.  It was surprisingly clean according to the diver.  Probably because the biggest part of the time it has been in fresh water.  Also, the water in the Bahamas is so clean and doesn’t have much algae or barnacles in it.    Frank, the diver is going to give it another once over before we head out again the end of the month.  He said that the zincs needed replacing so he’ll take care of that too. 

We decided to rent a car for the weekend and spend some time sightseeing.  Turned out to be a really good idea! First we had lunch at a restaurant named Ashley’s.  It’s a really cool place but just a little too far on our bikes.  We might be able to make it on the scooter – might try it again – who knows!  Anyway, the place is really cool and has great food.   That night we went to the Melbourne Downtown Festival.  We had been told about it by some people we met here at the marina.  Very cool!  They block off the main streets – several of the shops are open and there are vendors set up on the street.  They even served beer and cocktails on the street.  We stopped in Matts Casbah where there was a band and had a ball watching the people. 
Saturday we drove to Orlando to see the Blueman Group.  It’s only about 50 miles from the Marina.  We only got lost once!  We didn’ t have a problem finding Orlando – it was when we got to the Universal Resort – we kinda missed our turn.  About an hour later we were back where we should be and parking our car.  No worries!  We killed some time by checking out Hard Rock Café.  Pretty cool!  We made the show in plenty of time.  It was fantastic!  We had seen them before on television  - but live is crazy! 
After the show we walked around the CityWalk at the Universal.  There are several shops and restaurants.  We hung out at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville for a while.  Of course, they had wonderful margaritas there.  What fun!

On Sunday we had planned to go to the Kennedy Space Center.  We changed our minds though – just didn’t want to spend another entire day doing that – we’ll get a car and do that later on.  SO we took the car and went sightseeing – we checked out Port Canaveral where all the huge cruise ships are.  We had lunch at Grill’s.  Great place on the water – good food.  It seems to be a “destination place” – lots of bikers were there – beautiful day for a ride….. Kinda made us miss our bike.....
We also hung out at Cocoa Beach for a while.  Finally got to do a little shopping at RonJons.  Also, that night we went to Lou’s Blues Club near Melbourne.  Turned out to be a hoot!  It’s a really cool place – the music was good.  It just wasn’t blues.  Kind of disappointed in that.  Oh well, we did have a good time and I had a great cheeseburger with sweet potato fries.  Woohoo!!

Monday we got up early and went to the local Publix.  I wanted to take advantage of having a car  - so I stocked up pretty good with groceries, beer, etc.  Anytime we have the chance – we take it!  It was sad to take the car back – but we really had a good weekend.

So here we are – still at Cocoa Fl.  It’s been raining pretty much all day.  Mike is still trying to get something worked out for  the Whaler to set on when it’s up on the roof.  He also needs to figure out what we are going to do with the scooter when we are ready to leave.  Hmmm…. Are we getting too much stuff??? 

The weather is supposed to clear up tomorrow so we may take the whaler for a ride.  We want to go up the barge canal and check out Port Canaveral by water.  We’ll see!
Till next time!
Admiral “C” 

 

 

 

 

Friday, September 7, 2012

Isaac is History - thank goodness!

Relaxing at the "Caribbean Fest"
Kids in the fountain - having a good time!
Mr. Manatee scratching his back on the whaler's motor
Another addition to our family
Zoom!  Zoom!
The Tank - sittin' pretty
Thunderheads building  - might get some rain

Since Isaac moved through it has been beautiful weather here.  It’s hot and really humid but I’m not complaining.  Well, maybe I am a little.  At least the sun is shining now!   We are back to getting the typical afternoon showers but no storms. 

I can’t believe that Labor Day Weekend has passed.  At home we would be getting ready for Fall – decorating with all the autumn colors.  Here in Florida – I think we just skip over that time.  Sad – Never thought I’d miss cornstalks and bales of straw!  But I do!  HA! 
There was a Caribbean Fest here at the park this past Sunday.  It was really kind of a bust.  The weather was nice and the food was good.  We spent the day with two other couples sitting in lawn chairs drinking beer.  Guess that wasn’t so bad after all.  We were just really disappointed with the music.  It didn’t start till late and then the bands weren’t all that great.  In fact, one of the groups was lip-syncing!  It was rather funny!  Oh well, it wasn’t like we had another place to be!  And the price was right!!  Free!
There are several “antique” junk stores here in the Village.  Yesterday we found one that had a stuffed peacock!  It was only $2400!  HA!  The owner had quite a story to go with it.  Evidently it had been a guy’s pet and when it died he had it stuffed.  And when he brought it home from the taxidermist his wife wouldn’t let it in the house.  There was another store that had 1960s décor.  It was like walking into a time warp.  I think I saw Dick Van Dyke’s hassock that he used to fall over!  Really cool stuff.  Brought back a lot of memories.  Wow did we know how to decorate back then!  Ha!  Mod Squad! 

Another place was full of “junk” and was run by Vietnamese who didn’t speak much English.  Doesn’t that seem weird?  Anyway they had a bunch of cool stuff, too. 
Mike has been working on a way to secure the new whaler and the motor.  It’s a little heavier than the inflatable was so he’s been testing and re-testing!   But even though he’s been busy with this – he found the time to bargain hunt "again".  We are now the proud owners of a 150 cc scooter.  It’s a 2007 Tank – “Urban Classic” - one of those Chinese scooters.  It does “scoot” right along!  It will help us get around a little better – maybe broaden our “horizons” a little!  We can go a little farther than we were able to go on our bikes.  Don’t worry though, I’m not about to give up my bike.  At least I can ride that by myself – not sure about this scooter thing yet.  LOL!  We did take it to lunch and then on to Wal-Mart today.  It does go over the bridge a lot easier.  Well, to tell you the truth – we have yet to ride our bikes over the bridge – not a good idea…… no bike paths.  So that was nice to go on our own and not worry about the bus schedule.
Our buddies, Mike and Sherry from Kansas City left yesterday.   We had a good time with them – hope we see them again later along the waterway.  They are putting "Pura Vida" on the hard and going back home for three months or so. 
We have been hanging out and relaxing for the last few days.  Glad Isaac pretty much missed us – sorry for those in its path.  Hopefully September will be rather quiet storm wise.  We plan to stay here at Cocoa Village Marina for another month and then head south again to the Keys for the winter. 

Till next time!

Admiral "C"