Wednesday, November 28, 2012 – Cocoa:

            Last night, after our steak dinner on the grill, we decided to put on our pajamas and play cards.  Ok – so it was a little early – maybe 6:30 p.m. or so, but, hey, we’re on vacation, it was dark, we were tired, no one is going to come visiting, right?!  Ah…wrong…

            About 7:00 p.m., we hear “knock, knock, knock” on the boat door.  We look at each other with “Oh my gosh, we have on our pajamas and someone is knocking on the boat door” on our faces.  We both say, “You answer it,” but I won and Bob got up and answered the door.  Well, we couldn’t believe it, but it was a couple we met in the Alligator River (at the Shell Station marina), who recognized our boat and wanted to say hello.   We told them to let us put on some real clothes and come in for a drink, but they had just come back from dinner, themselves, and happened to see our boat and wanted to say hi before they went back to their boat and put on their pajamas!  So we chatted in the boat door for about twenty minutes or so, and vowed to meet up again, etc., etc., etc.  This is what is so interesting about going down the waterway.  You meet someone in a marina somewhere, not ever expecting to see them again, but you do, and it’s like you’ve been old friends forever.  The camaraderie among most boaters, especially on a trip like this is phenomenal.  It was fun to see them, and this taught us a very important lesson about not putting on our pajamas at 6:30 p.m.

            So after a little rain during the night, and the lullaby of the trains, we woke up to howling wind again.  I could hardly walk on the dock, but we are going to rent a car and head inland so the wind won’t bother us so much.  The best deal we could find to rent a car was Enterprise, and after breakfast Bob calls them and they come pick us up sans the brown paper wrapping on the car!  Our plan is to head over the bridge to Merritt Island, go to West Marine, maybe the Publix grocery store (do you get the impression that’s our favorite place to visit?), and do some sightseeing.  The nice lady at Enterprise sort of hinted that Merritt Island was not all that it was advertised to be, and she was right.  We never made it as far as Cocoa Beach, but what we did see did not encourage us to spend the day there.  We found a Barnes and Noble book store, and bought some reading material, then went to West Marine and bought a few things there then headed back to the boat. 

            Time for lunch at our new favorite lunch spot, the Oleander Bakery, and we sat outside at a sunny table and had a lovely little lunch of their version of a club sandwich – completely homemade ingredients (not deli meat) on their homemade bread.   Then after lunch we headed to (you guessed it) Publix.  Well, we needed a little wine and something to serve my cousins who are coming for a visit on Saturday, which I am really looking forward to.

            Now back to the boat where our plan is to “chill” for the rest of the day.  I am going to make something for dinner called Paella Pronto which is a very shortened version of the real paella. 

            We will not be putting on our pajamas early tonight!

Me, cooking Thanksgiving dinner

Doing paperwork

Having lunch at the Oleander Bakery

By the light of the silvery moon