Friday, March 8, 2013 – Vero Beach:

            Well, it was a beautiful day, but a lazy one.  I am surprised at how chilly the weather is.  I mean, it’s certainly warm enough, but it is certainly not hot.  Both Bob and I are still wearing sweatshirts.  After breakfast this morning, we did take our coffee up on the fly bridge, and it was toasty warm (actually, almost hot) up there with the isinglass closed.  We goofed off up there for quite awhile – read the paper the marina provides, played crossword puzzles, and tried to plan our time here in Vero Beach.  We would like to rent a car, but the prices fluctuate daily, and right now they want $70.00 a day – who knows what it will be tomorrow?!  The grocery store and most of the shopping, i.e. West Marine, are too far away to ride our bikes, so I think we will have to bite the bullet and rent a car at some point.

            While we were whiling away the morning on the fly bridge, our next door neighbor strolled down the dock and introduced himself.  I’m telling you the world gets smaller and smaller on this trip.  He used to live in Chestertown, and he and Bob knew just about everybody they could think of – including people in Annapolis and Oyster Bay.  This guy knew everybody and had stories about all of them!  He lives in St. Augustine now, but still has family in Chestertown.

            He told us about an art show that was being held within walking distance of the marina, so we decided to check it out after lunch.  We ambled over to the Riverside Park, which was just a short walk – actually, it was sort of close to the restaurant where we watched the Super Bowl.  The show was called “Under the Oaks,” and there were well over 100 exhibitors.   We saw some really good works and some not so good, but over all I think the quality wasn’t too bad, and we had a nice time looking around.  They also had the obligatory hot dog stands, ice cream stands, and other refreshment stations, but, guess what, we avoided all of them!

A view of the art show

            After we walked back to the boat, we goofed off some more – played cards, talked to our neighbor again, and generally behaved like slugs. 

            I think the weather is supposed to be nice for the rest of the week, so, hopefully, I can scare up something interesting to write about before we have to leave Vero Beach next week. 

            Yikes!  Daylight Savings Time is right around the corner!

See this guy driving the boat?  He's not real - it's a mannequin!