Back in Montego Bay after a Week in Florida

I returned to Montego Bay yesterday from a week in southern Florida. Dad, my sister Beth Ann and I had a nice one-week vacation together. We stayed for the first two nights in Cocoa Beach, in a La Quinta Inn which happened to be the motel that the original Mercury Seven astronauts and built and operated at the beginning of the space age.

Dad in front of a photo of the Mercury Seven Astronauts in the lobby

Beth Ann, Sherri and Dad in the lobby

On Sunday, a week ago, we visited the Kennedy Space Center. We took the bus tour (and caught a glimpse of Space X's Falcon Heavy, which launched a few days later from 39A), saw all the films, walked around the Saturn V Museum, the Space Shuttle Museum, the Astronaut Hall of Fame and the Rocket Garden. We also enjoyed Lunch with an Astronaut. Our astronaut was from West Virginia and had commanded several of the space shuttle flights. Here are some photos:

Beth Ann, Dad and Sherri at the entrance to the Kennedy Space Center 

The Vehicle Assembly Building from the bus 

Apollo Control Room 

Dad and Beth Ann in front of Saturn V rocket 

Beth Ann and Sherri in an Apollo 17 Module

Dad and Beth Ann in front of a mural of the International Space Station and the flags of the 15 participating nations

Dad shaking hands with a astronaut robot

The next morning we slept in and then played pinochle before we left Cocoa Beach around 1:30 to meet my aunt Jean and her son, my cousin, Jim, for a late lunch in Lake Mary near Orlando. It had been more than a decade since we had last seen them. We had great fun catching up with each other and remembering good times from the past.

Sherri, Dad, Beth Ann, Jean, Jim and their long-time family friend Sandy 

Dad and Jean

Then, we drove to Sanibel Island in southwestern Florida, on the Gulf Coast, where Beth Ann and her husband Rich own a condominium, arriving after 10 p.m. This is where we spent the rest of the vacation.

Tuesday was overcast. Since it wasn't a good beach day, we decided to tour the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, where we saw many birds but no alligators. We also learned about the Native Americans, the Calusa, who had inhabited the area before the Spanish conquest. A friendly US Fish and Wildlife volunteer showed us many artifacts and talked about what is known of their culture.

Two roseate spoonbills and five white pelicans

Cardinal 

Dad learning about the Calusa

Our next stop was the Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum on the island, which has an impressive collection of shells from around the world as well as things made from shells. I couldn't believe that in her many visits to the island, Beth Ann had never visited the museum, which my family and I had visited in 2006 while sailing on our first boat, Epicurus. Now she is a member.

Flower arrangement from shells

Sailor's Valentine 

Another sailor's valentine 

Beth Ann, Dad and Sherri

The next three days were beach days for us, and we were joined by both of Beth Ann's daughters, Kirsten and Olivia, who have both recently moved to Ft. Myers, inland from Sanibel Island. We took walks, played pinochle, saw lots of shorebirds, and collected many, many shells. We found the best technique was wading out into waist-deep water and either reaching down for handfuls of shells to sort through or using our toes to find treasures.

Willet on the beach

Ruddy turnstones

Beth Ann, Kirsten, Olivia and Dad

On Thursday evening, we drove to Captiva Island to watch the sunset, but along the way we stopped at Jensen's to see if there were any manatees--and there were! They are amazingly large creatures in shallow water.

Manatee

Manatees

Beth Ann and her daughters 

Beth Ann, Olivia, Dad, Kirsten and Sherri

Captiva sunset

We ate out at many good restaurants on the island, and on Friday, our last evening, we ate at the original Doc Ford's in Fort Myers before going to Ft. Myers Beach for what I guess is one of the latest trends in pregnancy, a gender-reveal event. Kirsten's husband Matt's mother Rose had flown down from Pittsburgh for the event, which consisted of the expectant couple posing for professional photographs as we swooped sparkling silver wands at them containing appropriate colored confetti, in this case blue. The event was on a live feed on Facebook, and family members in various places then bit into cupcakes containing blue filling. Their was only one person who knew the gender before the reveal, one of Kirsten's best friends, who had to call all the bakeries to let them know what color filling to use and order two sets of confetti wands to be delivered, with the participants only be told which set to use shortly before the event. It all seemed like a lot of fuss to me, but it's not my baby or grandchild.

The expectant mother Kirsten

Olivia with the wands

Paula and Andrew arrived a few days ago in Montego Bay and picked me up at the airport in their rental car yesterday afternoon. Since then, we have been relaxing. Today was laundry day--five loads. Of course, Peter continues to occupy himself constantly with repairs and improvements to the boat.

We swam in the yacht club pool's an hour ago, then showered. Now we are ready to enjoy dinner here. Tomorrow morning, immigration officials will be here to review our documents and stamp our passports for exit from the country, and then we have 24 hours to leave. This coming week, we will be on the open sea until we arrive in Colombia, about five or six days from now. The next post will probably be from there.