Happy Birthday, Twinner!
30 November 2009 | Daytona Beach, FL
John and Cheryl
Cheryl's Notes:
We spent Saturday afternoon doing laundry. When we finished, I convinced John to go to see a movie. We found a small theatre at the edge of the historic downtown area. What an experience! If was in an old building with four screening rooms. The owner sold us tickets, but couldn't remember which movie was set-up in which room. We were told that "Julie/Julia" was showing in theatre four. When we got in there, a couple of guys were waiting to watch "Zombieland". We finally established that they were supposed to be in room three, and we were joined by one other couple in our theatre. The theatre had a waitress and a full menu of sandwiches and, of course, candy and popcorn. Each row of seats had a table ledge attached to the back of the seats. So, as you sat down, there was a built in table in front of you. We decided to stick with soda and some popcorn. The movie was good, but the overall experience was extraordinary. After the movie ended, we walked back down St. George street and got an ice cream cone. We wandered around for a while enjoying the lights and the music that was coming out of all of the restaurants.
Sunday morning we went to shore for showers and to get rid of the last of our garbage. We walked down King Street to a convenience store to stock up on a few essentials. Then we returned to the boat for Sunday football. When we got to the boat, we saw a sight that would have made my daughter Brenna very happy. A string of very good looking young men came past the boat on what looked like surfboards, but they were paddling like kayaks. A lead boat was photographing them the whole way across the water. I wonder if it was for some type of advertising? Afterwards, I concentrated on putting the boat to rights and made a beef and wild rice dish for dinner. John watched football. Did he mention that we finally were able to watch a Vikings game? He was very happy. We called it a night early.
We woke up early to the sound of the bridge whistle. We wanted to get through the early (7:30) bridge opening and get on our way. We had a quiet day heading south. We only passed a few other boats along the way. We pulled into Daytona Beach and changed our plans on where to anchor. The best spot is north of two bascule bridges. We decided that we would rather get through them this afternoon, than have to face them first thing in the morning. So, we were anchored and relaxing by 3:00 pm. Tomorrow our destination is Titusville.
A personal note to one of the best friends a girl could have. Happy Birthday, Twinner. I hope that you have a fantastic day.
John's Notes:
Kind of hated to leave St. Augustine. It was pretty kewl. There seems to always be something you can do there. Will definitely stop there again on the way back home. If it weren't for the expense, it would be a great place to spend a couple of weeks or a month. A month of dingy dock is $180 alone. A month in the actual marina, including electricity and liveaboard fee would be just over $850 for our size boat. From what we hear, it's only going to get worse. Where do people get that kind of money?
We went by a house today that had a for sale sign with a price of $1.2 million. I know that I have made a couple of comments about this before but I just can't believe it. The place was not much to look at and the landscaping was pathetic. My only recent experience with real estate is confined to Shoreview, Little Canada and West St. Paul, MN. In either of those neighborhoods, this house would have maybe commanded $200K at the absolute top of the real estate market. To me, just because it is on the ICW doesn't dictate adding a million dollars to the place. If it were mine, I would level it and start over. Of course, if I were to start over I would be living in a tent for the foreseeable future. I keep asking myself how much money I could have made just on real estate if I had never left California. Oh hell, I wouldn't trade all the fun I've had for that anyway.
Have I mentioned lately that I'm still thinking that this kind of cruising is meant to be done in a trawler!
Can you believe the Vikings and Favre? How many years has it been since they started the season 10-1? I remember one year when Culpepper and Moss were new and they went 14-2 and then got blown away by Atlanta. Maybe this is our year. Hard to believe that at 40, Favre is having his absolutely best season statistically. I gotta get Follow-Me-TV! I just have to convince Cheryl how much she misses America's Next Top Model, Project Runway and Top Chef. Once she realizes that, well, football can't be far behind.