Palm City

We will be a little over a week in Palm City. It will be relaxing, no travel except around town (and that not in the motorhome). Jean is looking forward to a lot of beach time. The first day we ran some errands and met Anna for lunch. Went out to dinner in the evening. So difficult!

Sunday we slept in while the family went to church. Then beach in the afternoon. It was windy but warm. Jean collected some shells while the rest of us just kicked back. We could see rain all around us, but it missed us.

If it’s Monday, it must be laundry day. Jean and granddaughter Hannah went to a laundromat. They have a washer here, but it is having problems on the spin cycle. They brought the clothes back to dry. I walked to the nearby Publix and got some basics, though not what I originally came for, which they were out of. Spent most of the evening watching Dances with Wolves on TV —  four hours, cut down from two.

Tuesday, Hannah had off so we went to the McKee Botanical Garden. This is in Vero Beach and is a marvelous place. It is mostly set up like a jungle, with lots of palms and bamboo, along with some other trees.

The main part of the spring bloom was over, but there were still a lot of different water lilies and several orchids.

There was also sculpture. The greatest number of them were made of Legos. I liked the hummingbird.

There was also a sculpture made of glass balls set in the middle of a pond (one suspects to keep people from messing with it).

We could have spent the whole day there, but we had to pick up Anna after work. She took us directly to the beach (which she does frequently after work). Not as windy today, Jean took her usual walk, looking for interesting shells. The rest of us sat back and snacked. There were occasional surfers, but otherwise it was a slow day at the beach.

Wednesday we went to Hannah’s shop for haircuts. She does good work. Afterwards we found a place for breakfast — Eggs Benedict --- oh the life of the idle rich! We did walk a loop down to the river and back. Slow day.

Jumping to Friday, Sandy had off so he drove us round a little and looked at the scenery. This is Florida’s east coast, so there is a lot of water around.

St. Lucie Lagoon

We all went out for diner. Since it was St. Patrick’s Day, we went to a Greek restaurant to avoid the crowds. Lots of food — we brought home enough to feed us another day at least.

Saturday is the day after St. Patrick’s, but that was when the parade was. Went in to Port St. Lucie for the parade. There were a good number of bagpipes, but they were Scottish pipes, not Irish.

 Besides the usual marching bands and governmental units, there were a number of local ethnic societies.

Often, the spectators are as interesting as the marchers.

Back at the ranch we relaxed some more and ate some of the Greek leftovers for dinner.

Sunday began with laundry. Then we walked to the nearby Publix to see if they had some of Gene’s lotion in the pharmacy. The pharmacy was closed. On the way home we came upon the pair of sandhill cranes that they call “the neighbors” because they hang out just down the street.

 In the afternoon we went to the beach. Being Sunday and warm, the beach was crowded. We managed to score a parking place quickly, and found a good place to set up our chairs. Anna set up her umbrella, but she had some trouble because it was a little windy.

Lots of people, but no real surf. Some boys were riding the shore break on boogie boards, but with a north wind, there was nothing offshore for regular boards.  Jean took a walk along the beach, looking for shells; but the beach was picked pretty clean. About 2:30 the wind shifted to northeast and increased. It also became cooler. I assumed that a mild cold front had just passed.

After a while, we picked up our gear and went to a nearby Publix for bathroom breaks and snacks. We went to nearby House of Refuge Beach for another quick look for shells. When we got there the water came up to the rocks, so we had a small area to look in. We found some nice shells up next to the rocks.

On the way back to the house we stopped at the creek they call Manatee Creek. Sure enough, there were four manatees just hanging out.

This was the longest we stayed in Palm City. It appears that our water and holding tanks will hold out for that long, at least when we spent most of the time in the house. Useful knowledge. Tomorrow we head out for a short trip to the Everglades.