It’s Wednesday morning and today we head south to the SSCA Gam in Melbourne for three days and then on to home next Tuesday. I can’t believe that we have been away for nearly three months and our trip isn’t even half over. That’s good. It seems like only yesterday that our total time aboard for a vacation was only two weeks. I like this better. Our trip home for Chistmas will be short and it’s really jam packed. With less than an month to see everyone and finish up on shopping, we will be plenty busy. After we come back to Pandora we will have to high-tail it to the Bahamas in order to be there when the boys arrive in Georgetown in early February.
I have been listening to Chris Parker, the weather router, each morning and am beginning to appreciate just how tough it can be to get a decent weather window to make it across the Gulf Stream and all the way to Georgetown. If we were trying to make the run right now it would not be good as the winds are very strong and from an unpleasant direction. Well, we will just have to be on our toes as we get closer to our return date in early January. Weather, and keeping track of it, is a full time focus for cruisers and doubly so in the Bahamas as there are just not that many protected harbors. This means that when the wind direction changes, you have to move to a new location. It’s for this reason that most everyone listens to the weather each morning just to be sure that they won’t find themselves on the wrong side of a key (island) when the wind shifts.
As another key part of our preparation for our trip to the Bahamas, we visited friends Jeff and Susan aboard Meltemi, last night and learned to play a version of dominos called Mexican Train, not a particularly PC name, if you ask me. It was great fun and we are told that this, and other games are very popular with cruisers. While Brenda and I were feeling like we were ready for bed by the time we dragged ourselves over to their boat at 7:00, we perked right up and had no trouble staying awake for several hours more as we played with them. However, everyone was pretty pooped as we approached 9:00, “cruiser’s midnight” as it is known among the cruising set. Me? I was plenty ready for a nap. That’s for sure.
Earlier yesterday, prior to nap time or just after our previous nap, depending on how you look at it, we went ashore again in Cocoa and enjoyed a walk around town. As we had not ventured into the residential areas yet, we decided to see how, or at least where, the locals live. We didn’t cover a lot of distance but saw some really nice homes in a section just south of the business district. The homes were modest and nicely maintained. This one was our favorite. We just loved the third floor glassed in room. I did wonder how this would do in a hurricane. Also, what happens in the summer when it’s blazing hot outside? I guess it’s double blazing hot in there. Very pretty though. As Brenda and I enjoy saying, “I would live there”.
Setting aside the pink shutters, this place would fit in well in our new home town, Essex CT. 
What a great color and I love this fence. It’s funny how these colors look so great in Florida and yet in New England we’d be saying “wow, that’s a blue house”. I guess it’s always about location in real-estate.
House color isn’t the only thing that’s much different than at home. On the arbor along the white fence, is this great vine. I don’t know what it is called but some folks in Essex grow it in the summer. Here, it’s a perennial Nice that they were able to color coordinate the flowers with their house color. 
There are loads of palm varieties. I particularly like the pattern of these leaves. Hard to believe that this sort of pattern is natural. 
Perhaps there is no more quintessential tropical flower than the bougainvillea. 
That and the ever popular hibiscus. Another good one. And here, they grow year round. I wonder what the locals use as house plants? Plants that will die outside because of the heat? 
This ornamental orange, with fruit just a few inches across, was very pretty. 
We have always enjoyed bamboo and had two grand stands in our yard in New Jersey. In spite of fears of them getting out of control, we had no trouble keeping them in check for nearly 20 years. However, our variety was nowhere as large as this stand where the shoots were 4″ in diameter and the stalks some 60′ tall. I’d hate to have to deal with older shoots of this stuff. I used to chip up the old growth but it would take a really robust chipper to handle this. 
It’s also fun to see the little lizards scampering around everywhere. This little guy seemed fine with having his photo taken even though I was only about a foot away. Of course, he changed his color to blend in with the cement. “I’ll sit really still and then you won’t see me!”. Sorry bud, I see you…
While not as elaborate as Charleston, St Augustine or some of the other places that we have visited, I recommend that you put Cocoa on your list. It’s a great place to spend a few days and we enjoyed our visit very much.