On Thursday we decided it would be quite nice to have a bit of a break from the boat and do some land based sight seeing. So we hired a car and on Friday morning (after running a couple of errands) we headed north to Titusville.
As it was almost April 1st we thought it might be fun to keep Spot running on our travels. So for those of you who’ve been following us, you may have noticed that we seemed to be travelling over the land and ending each day at a land based location – this was our best attempt at an April Fools joke. 
Anyway our first errand on Friday was to go Walmart and try and get our vehicle GPS replaced. We’d bought it in Walmart in Baltimore at the beginning of October but it was no longer working – it’s been safely stored in a drawer since then but perhaps somehow the sea air got to it!
No luck though – it was out of the warranty period – and as our second errand involved getting a new sim card for the ipad, which was also no longer working, we made a snappy choice and bought another Tom Tom. At least now we could get to where we were planning to go!
The next stop was at an amazing mall – The Gardens Mall. It was huge, with lots of flowers and water features. Of course it also had all the big names like Louis Vuitton. Another first for us was that it even had the Easter Bunny in a lovely butterfly garden and you could have photos taken with him/her- just like Father Christmas at home. I resisted though, just settling for a photo of the bunny.
We arrived at Titusville in the late afternoon and checked in to our hotel – all very nice with a convenient Denny’s on the premises.
These two nights were to be the first nights that Lance & I have slept in a bed, that doesn’t go up and down and sideways, since we moved onto Amanzi in early October. We were looking forward to some very restful sleep – no weather to worry about and no water to be heard lapping around the boat.
Estelle and Alastair were also looking forward to their bed – no climbing over each other to get in or out!
CaptionI'm not sure Lance - are you tall enough for the Shuttle launch simulator?
CaptionThe vehicle assembly plant at KSC - it is HUGE!
CaptionAn engine from a Shuttle - Wow where would you even begin?
CaptionLunar landing module - "The Eagle has landed!"
CaptionMission Control - the actual consoles used in the Apollo missions
CaptionYours truly touching a Moon Rock - for real!
CaptionLance dwarfed by the Saturn rocket
CaptionAll set for our air boat ride
CaptionHeading through the greenery
CaptionIt was very loud - ear muffs were provided!
CaptionA small alligator hiding in the reeds
CaptionEstelle & Alastair enjoying the boat ride
CaptionWhere's all the water - the lily pond was very dense
CaptionA storm shelter on the banks of the river
CaptionA perfect day at Cocoa Beach
The Kennedy Space Center was fantastic – we enjoyed every minute of it and could probably have spent a lot longer than one day there. For me it has always been the Apollo program which stands out for me – I guess I was a very impressionable young girl back in 1969 when we listened to the first moon landing over the radio. Back in those days we had no TV in the very small town in Zimbabwe where we lived.
Yesterday we headed for Cocoa Beach and had a drink there in the beachfront bar. It was a perfect day.
As you can tell we just can’t stay too long away from the water and we then went to the upper reaches of the St Johns River and went for a air boat ride. It was excellent and we all enjoyed it very much. Mind you I’m not sure about what must be worse – doing a donut in an air boat in the alligator infested waters or doing a donut in front of the rocks on the jet boat rides that we get in New Zealand! (I’ve never been game enough to do that!)
We saw lots of alligators peeking out of the water and quite a bit of bird life. We even stopped to chat with some local fishermen out in the middle of the lily pond and they were more than happy to show off their catches to us.
Last night it was back to Riviera Beach and Amanzi. The weather has been perfect and very hot – the marina we’re in has a boat club and all 62 of its boats were out yesterday although they were apparently all caught in a big squall.
And oh yes – you’re probably wondering – did we sleep better on dry land? Unfortunately no – not really – it may be a while before we settle back in to a normal sleeping pattern.
2 April 2012 – A side trip off the ICW
On Thursday we decided it would be quite nice to have a bit of a break from the boat and do some land based sight seeing. So we hired a car and on Friday morning (after running a couple of errands) we headed north to Titusville.
As it was almost April 1st we thought it might be fun to keep Spot running on our travels. So for those of you who’ve been following us, you may have noticed that we seemed to be travelling over the land and ending each day at a land based location – this was our best attempt at an April Fools joke.
Anyway our first errand on Friday was to go Walmart and try and get our vehicle GPS replaced. We’d bought it in Walmart in Baltimore at the beginning of October but it was no longer working – it’s been safely stored in a drawer since then but perhaps somehow the sea air got to it!
No luck though – it was out of the warranty period – and as our second errand involved getting a new sim card for the ipad, which was also no longer working, we made a snappy choice and bought another Tom Tom. At least now we could get to where we were planning to go!
The next stop was at an amazing mall – The Gardens Mall. It was huge, with lots of flowers and water features. Of course it also had all the big names like Louis Vuitton. Another first for us was that it even had the Easter Bunny in a lovely butterfly garden and you could have photos taken with him/her- just like Father Christmas at home. I resisted though, just settling for a photo of the bunny.
We arrived at Titusville in the late afternoon and checked in to our hotel – all very nice with a convenient Denny’s on the premises.
These two nights were to be the first nights that Lance & I have slept in a bed, that doesn’t go up and down and sideways, since we moved onto Amanzi in early October. We were looking forward to some very restful sleep – no weather to worry about and no water to be heard lapping around the boat.
Estelle and Alastair were also looking forward to their bed – no climbing over each other to get in or out!
The Kennedy Space Center was fantastic – we enjoyed every minute of it and could probably have spent a lot longer than one day there. For me it has always been the Apollo program which stands out for me – I guess I was a very impressionable young girl back in 1969 when we listened to the first moon landing over the radio. Back in those days we had no TV in the very small town in Zimbabwe where we lived.
Yesterday we headed for Cocoa Beach and had a drink there in the beachfront bar. It was a perfect day.
As you can tell we just can’t stay too long away from the water and we then went to the upper reaches of the St Johns River and went for a air boat ride. It was excellent and we all enjoyed it very much. Mind you I’m not sure about what must be worse – doing a donut in an air boat in the alligator infested waters or doing a donut in front of the rocks on the jet boat rides that we get in New Zealand! (I’ve never been game enough to do that!)
We saw lots of alligators peeking out of the water and quite a bit of bird life. We even stopped to chat with some local fishermen out in the middle of the lily pond and they were more than happy to show off their catches to us.
Last night it was back to Riviera Beach and Amanzi. The weather has been perfect and very hot – the marina we’re in has a boat club and all 62 of its boats were out yesterday although they were apparently all caught in a big squall.
And oh yes – you’re probably wondering – did we sleep better on dry land? Unfortunately no – not really – it may be a while before we settle back in to a normal sleeping pattern.