To the Beach

This morning the Coles spent an hour walking to and from the beach, as well as down the beach. We took a few pictures along the way and thought we would share a glimpse of our morning adventure. It took an hour in all.

Here we have Gary on the beach. Louise was right up with him.

To go to the beach, we walk down Eau Gallie Avenue from the condo. Here is a view of Eau Gallie from the park at the beach.

It is a busy street and this is the intersection of Eau Gallie and A1A, the major road through this area. There are crosswalks and lights to get across it.
There is a park between the street and the beach. Here are a couple of views of the park.

It's a nice park with restrooms and a hot dog cart.

Here's another couple sitting on the steps where you go down to the beach. The temperature was cool, nice breeze, lots of sun, and good exercise. Who could want more?

Where has February gone?

Here we are at the end of February and the time is flying by. We are in a warm and humid period of weather - thunder showers every afternoon, tornado warnings yesterday. Louise is starting to complain about the heat.

Gary is in outer space with a painting of the space shuttle over Florida. This is the first painting this winter that has really inspired him, and he is working on it quite steadily. It's good that he is back to painting with enthusiasm again.

Louise has finished sweater #2 for the year - this one destined for a little boy in Massachusetts.

The days in Florida are lovely. The complex seems to be getting ready for spring as they have replaced all of the red mulch around the place.

It certainly has a summer look here to go with the temperatures.

Here we have a stork and some ducks in the pond. The complex has two ponds and colored fountains at night.
Earlier this week a rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral. The sky was so clear we could see it for several minutes. We viewed this one from the balcony of the condo.

February nears the end, and our visit here just has a month left.

What a difference in the weather...

How is this for keeping the blog up to date? Two days in a row! Since the last post was somewhat depressing, we wanted everyone to know that Florida weather has returned. Yesterday we went to Cocoa Beach for the afternoon. After some knitting and painting, we returned to 27th Street to see what was up there. We renewed our friendship with a couple of neighbors on the street and got a good look at the beach.

Today we went to Canova Beach in Indian Harbor at the end of our street and enjoyed walking for a half hour on the beach. Here you see an outcropping of rock, something we have never seen on any other Florida beach.

It was a lovely day at the beach with surfers, sunbathers, and kids playing in the water. What a difference a couple of days makes in the weather.

Louise took off her shoes and walked in the waves, the first time this winter. Here's a picture of it:

We've had a good weekend right in our own neighborhood!

Rain, rain, go away...

We are having the wettest weather we have ever seen in Florida. We've had three straight days of heavy rain. The rainfall broke records in Melbourne all three days. This is the balcony these days:

The parking lot has a river running through it!

There are a couple on ponds at the condo site, usually just a little water with ducks and other birds. This one looks like a river!

Here is Gary with a boat painting he is working on. Perhaps the wet weather has encouraged him to paint boats!
The good news is that after the fog cleared this morning the sun came out. We are hoping it will last, but we saw a weather report last night that had rain in the forecast for almost all of next week.

Winter in Florida

This month has not been as friendly to snowbirds as normal. By Maine standards, it is warm, but by Florida standards it has been cold. We have had to turn on the heat as the nights fall into the 30s and the days linger in the 50s. The weather forecast is for another week of it to come. We have adjusted into wearing our winter clothes and doing mostly inside activities.

The cold nights have caused the manatees to seek refuge in warmer places. This little area has warm water from the power company raising the temperature. On Tuesday we stopped by and saw dozens of the manatees hunkered down in this little canal.
We also saw an Atlas rocket launch this week. We were not able to get a picture of it, but we had a great view from the nearby beach. However, that evening was mighty chilly with the wind coming on over the water.

To bring a bit of cheer we stopped at Lowe's and bought a petunia plant yesterday to put on the balcony. We may have to bring it in at night, but it is wonderful to see live flowers!

Gary has not done much painting yet, but here he is working on the balcony yesterday. He has two paintings underway and is working at the Brigantine Gallery twice a week.

This is one of the ships he is working on. He really doesn't have a place to lay out his stuff and paint here, so we are trying to solve that problem.

Florida Winter Moves Along

Friday was Gary's birthday. Louise finished knitting a sweater for him that was started in 2006. That's a long time in the needles, but a great finished product. The weather here will probably not give him an opportunity to wear it, but it will make a good spring sweater at home. This is sweater #1 of a new challenge to knit 14 in 2014.

Here is Gary in his new sweater.

Today we visited the beach again, but it was a bit chilly and windy today. Louise got a walk on the beach, but we didn't stay very long.

The gulls were plentiful today. Here you see a man feeding them.

The water was not as rough today and there were no surfers in it, or anyone else for that matter!

The temperatures and humidity vary greatly from day to day, but life is good here.

Sebastian Inlet

Today we drove south to Sebastian Inlet State Park to enjoy a perfect afternoon in the sun. The weathermen predict a cold week ahead, but today was beautiful.

Here you see there were lots of people at the beach, and even some kids playing in the waves.

The surf was pretty active today. There were a lot of surfers out in the water. Most of the surfers had on wet suits, so we expect it wasn't very warm.

Here we see Gary getting a few rays of sunshine.

What a beautiful day in Florida. This is what it's all about and why so many people  come here in the winter.