Friday April 13: Relaxing - Mostly!

It's been a really nice 5 day stay here. The days are sunny and hot but cool in the morning so bike rides early have worked well.

I am back to riding my bike and haven't crashed yet so all is well :-) This area has an amazing bike/walk way along the water front as well as throughout the city. Very easy to go places and not take your life in your hands (very different as in Marathon!)

These compass points appear every so often - guess that's so we don't lose our way!

There is a very nice area along the path that has what I'm thinking is a half-size replica of the Vietnam War Memorial that is in DC. This is beautifully and respectfully done. It's a very sobering memorial though as it brings back memories of those turbulent times in the late 60's when we were in college.

There is also a fountain and statue of Ponce de Leon - the credited discoverer of Florida. Of course this is true as long as one believes that Florida was really ever 'lost' but then that's a whole other story ......


Many building adorned by murals reflecting the history of the area. They are just fun to see - way better than plain old buildings!


Even the Mexican place we went to for breakfast got into the fun!

One of my favorites was the steps and entryway of a local bookstore!

Our new dinghy??

Just down from one of the restaurants was a pool place. I was thinking maybe we could use a swan as a new dinghy (in case ours decided to start leaking). Might be interesting don't you think?

little blue heron

There are tons of birds around the area - both along the shoreline and the marina. This little blue heron is striking with the blue beak. Don't think we've ever seen one of these before.

Green heron with neck extended

And maybe the weirdest of the herons? The green heron - seen here with it's neck extended.

And this is what it looks like when the neck isn't extended!! Quite the difference :-)

Green heron as it usually is seen

Steve working on the railing again

There has been some work done over the last few days - still working to make the front railing safe.

The weld on one of the stanchions was broken at the base so Steve tried JB Weld - which we've actually had good luck with before. Didn't hold so on to plan B: just use a round base into which the vertical stainless pole can be inserted and then screwed down to the gunwale.




It doesn't match the other stanchions but will be fine and make the railing stable and usable until Steve can find what he wants to fix it permanently.

He has also caulked the walk around deck in preparation for us being able to repaint the decks once we get the boat into the storage area.

Cricket and Gigit

So Randy and Cindy would leave Cricket and Gigit with us during the day while they were over at the yard working on their boat. Way too hot for the dogs without any air conditioning (boats have to be in the water to run the air conditioner as it's a water cooled system).

Both dogs were sleeping so I took advantage of that to sneak into the aft cabin bed for a short nap, right? I figured they would never know ....

When I got back up though and looked into the doorway, this is what I saw!! Guess there is no fooling those two :-)

London

Of course there is no end of cute dogs, right?


So here's a picture of Becky's new puppy, London, a goldendoodle. I'm thinking two things: why does someone living in LA need a pair of Uggs and London is a dog that loves to be with her owner or at least near her boots :-)











Sunsets in the marina. No chance of a green flash but that's ok. Still enjoyable to see :-)