Winding Down

Our Florida season is about over. We will start the trip north next Wednesday, and are busy trying to finish up things. The car has been serviced, the packing is well underway, and we plan to enjoy our last few days in the sun. We wanted to share a few photos of life at Cocoa Beach this sunny Saturday morning.

Here we have the beach, and a man getting his exercise. Beautiful view of the water and beach.

Vegetation on the beach. As you can see, it is pretty dry. There have been a lot of wildfires in the area this winter. We often can smell smoke.

These two palm trees give us a nice view from the deck.

The waves are coming in and the temperature is rising. It is supposed to hit 80 today, but they say the water temperature is down in the low 60s. Yesterday there was a group of kids playing in the waves who didn't seem to care if it was cold.

Gary is still painting. He has several paintings going, and hopes to get some of them done to be photographed on Monday.

Louise is hard at work on a baby blanket with sailboats for the next addition to the family. So we are busy, and enjoying the warm weather, getting ready for a cooler experience next week!

Looking Ahead

Gary has another painting finished, one of the Perham Church. Here you can see it:

Much of our time over the past few weeks has been concentrated on trying to find a better place to stay next winter. Calls to real estate agents and hours on the computer looking at places for rent produced nothing. Instead, one of Louise's knitting friends found us a condo where she lives. We met the owners this week and came to an agreement on renting it for next winter. It is a wonderful place that meets most of the things we wanted. The one thing missing is proximity to the beach. It will be a 10 minute walk to the beach, but everything else is perfect. We will not be at Cocoa Beach. After five years here, we are moving on. This condo is in Indiatlantic or Indian Harbor, depending on your sense of geography I guess.
Here are a few pictures to show you what we have found:

We will be on the second floor in an end  unit.

The master bedroom. There are two bedrooms and two bathrooms.

There is a 50 some inch TV in the living room, plus a TV in each bedroom.

This is the chair Louise plans to use for knitting.

There is a gym in the club house.

A pool with several sitting areas outside.

A hot tub is located in the pool area.

A shaded area at the pool for reading or knitting.

There is a fully equipped, modern kitchen.

The view from the balcony. It did not take us long to decide that this was just what we wanted. With the major problem of housing for next year solved, we plan to relax for the next two weeks before we start the long drive home.

Art and Inspiration

Gary has completed another painting - horses and the wagon at King's Landing. Here we have a close-up of that painting. It is being framed.

As our time in Florida is getting short, we left today for an overnight trip to St. Augustine. We spent the day as tourists, beginning with the exhibit of Picasso's work. All of this material is in the United States for the first time, and different aspects of his work were represented, from book illustrations to ceramics. Here is a picture of Gary standing outside the exhibit.

Advertising of the show. It is part of the celebration of 500 years of Florida history, and 450 years since the founding of St. Augustine, the oldest city in North America.
We enjoyed the architecture of the old buildings and inns along the quaint streets of the old city.

Hundreds of people had the same idea that we had today. There were busloads of tourists everywhere, and many school groups. This is just one school group we met along the way.

We settled into a nice hotel room with a jacuzzi tub and all the amenities. What a treat from the rather Spartan living conditions we are faced with this winter. The hotel recommended an interesting restaurant for dinner - a fishing shack in a marsh. We both had shrimp and the food was great. It is a rustic looking place for sure - called Salt Water Cowboys.

Here's Louise waiting on the porch for our table to be called.

Tomorrow we plan to continue our adventures in St. Augustine.

Splash 2013

We thought you might be interested in seeing a selection of photos from the watercolor show Gary participated in at the end of February. This is the annual Brevard Watercolor Society event.

This was taken at the evening reception for the artists and their guests.

Here we have Gary's painting, Afternoon Tea, hanging in the show.

This colorful flower display was one of the winners in the show.

This painting of a kayak going down the river won the People's Choice award.

This painting of oranges won the Best of Show award.

This is an interesting painting of Vinalhaven, Maine that was entered in the show.

There were 65 artists represented with entries in the show, as well as others who exhibited some of their work, demonstrated techniques, and sold their work. Gary enjoyed participating in it and probably will again next year.

Museums

Yesterday was an exciting day here. We started the day with a rocket launch from Cape Canaveral. It was carrying supplies to the space station. The clouds covered it up after a brief sighting of it as it was launched. We were able to see it from the stairs on the beach.

We spent the day in Vero Beach. It is a lovely drive down A1A past beautifully sculptured and landscaped homes and villages. Hibiscus bushes loaded with pink flowers border the highway. Our first stop was a history museum devoted to the recovery of treasure from a Spanish treasure fleet that sank in 1715.

This museum offered a film about the shipwreck and the recovery efforts. Divers are still finding remains from this fleet that carried silver, gold, and jewels. It does explain why this area of Florida is called the Treasure Coast. There were some interesting stories of people who have found gold and silver coins on the beach and in the sand dunes.

Here is a photo of some of the silver pieces of eight that have been found.

Forks, spoons, and buckles are displayed here.

This is a replica of the ships that rest on the bottom of the sea in this area.

Here is a cannon that has been recovered. The museum has an outlook area built like a ship.

It was fun to learn a bit of history in Florida. This place was also the site of a Huguenot colony started by the French and wiped out by the Spanish.

Next we moved on to the Art Museum of Vero Beach. This is a very impressive structure with sculpture gardens and lots of exhibits. They currently have an exhibit of the European Masters on display, an exhibit of Katherine Hepburn's movie and stage costumes, and a fun exhibit of marionettes.

Here we have Gary in the sculpture garden. We had a lovely day in Vero Beach!