We awoke to a rainy morning -- while we had gotten no additional thunderstorms overnight, it had rained on and of and that trend was clearly going to continue at least through the morning.
Today we are setting our sights on Titusville, the so-called "Space City" on Florida's east coast -- about 35 miles south and just across from NASA's launch facility at Cape Kennedy, we thought we'd stop and take a look around. We thought about visiting Cap Kennedy itself but decided it would be better to wait to bring grandkids there.
Our route would take us down the Mosquito River and through a connecting canal (aptly named the Haulover canal) to the to the Indian River -- this is the first concrete sign that we are in the home stretch of our two month journey -- the Indian River runs for about 125 miles along Florida's East coast and we live close to its other end -- it is a short walk from our home in Jensen Beach.
The weather was overcast and threatening -- we did catch a couple of short squalls as we motored along -- nothing dramatic, mostly just a dull rain. We saw our first Manatee of the trip in the Haulover canal -- actually I should Sue that Sue saw it, I never did -- she caught its tail as it dove on the side of our boat as we motored through.
Scenes along the way:
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| A crowded bird breakfast bar |
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| I never get tired of snapping pictures of the elusive dolphins |
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| Cormorants, one drying his/her wings |
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| Blue Heron |
We picked up a mooring at the Titusville Municipal Marina -- they didn't have a launch service so we had to put down the dinghy to get back and forth to the boat. The marina was clean and convenient to downtown -- Sue wanted to do her hair, so I hung out and worked on the blog for the hour or so it took her to get done. We then took off to explore the town a bit and perhaps grab some dinner.
Downtown Titusville was a disappointment, at least the part we saw was -- a short walk from our manina, there were few stores and most were closed -- even the restaurants were closed (perhaps because it was a Sunday night). In any case, the town definitely looked past its prime and there was no sign of any NASA generated prosperity (or, for that matter, history). This was a bust, time to move on.
With some help from the marina (we called them for suggestions/directions), we stopped at a nice riverside restaurant on the way back and had some appies and a glass of wine. The restaurant was located on an islet on the river -- you had to cross a small wooden bridge to get to it. The bridge had a few people fishing off of it (a very common sight in Florida) -- as we returned from our dinner, the fishermen were all pointing and chattering about a manatee that was feeding along the waterway that ran under the bridge. We got a great view from him (her?) from above -- it was huge (8' long?), but I missed the photo-op :-(.
On the way back to the boat, we took a short cut through a park and encountered a sign next to a pond that said "Beware of Alligators". Sue and I have been having a ongoing debate about whether Alligators are a danger when we swim in the Intercoastal -- in sections where the water is mildly brackish (i.e., almost fresh), that is a possibility -- alligators don't like and can't survive in salt water. While we were in some mildly brackish water in North Carolina (near the Dismal Swamp), alligators don't range that far north. In Georgia and Florida, where alligators are very common, fresh water bodies are always a danger and if you are brackish water like the Intercoastal, well, look before you leap :-)
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| See, I told you there were alligators here. |
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