Sand Gets Everywhere

I have decided that I prefer pools to beaches. I prefer to look at a beach - I could look at waves crashing on the beach for hours and hours. But when it comes to recreation and play time? I prefer the clean smell of chlorine and red burning eyes to sand any day.

We have been taking the beach chairs to the shore and letting the waves run over our feet this week. That is a lot of fun. As the tide comes in, the warm waves start at my feet and work their way up to my knees. Before I know it the waves are at my waist! The sandchair is buried in the sand! And I have become part of the beach, buried as well.

It is time to leave and we take half the beach in our bathing suites and the other half of the beach stuck to our skin. Luckily, there are showers at the pool to wash the sand off. But all that does is just move the sand to other parts of my body.

Back at the condo I can shower to get the sand off. But every shower in the US has a water restricter built into it, which means all I get is a drizzle coming out of the shower head. The water pressure isn't enough to move the sand, much less take it off my body. And sand gets everyone - and in places I am sure it is not supposed to be!

Even after scrubbing and scrubbing to get all the sand off, I still fill itchy as if there remains sand on me. For the night and into the next day, I continue to find sand in the oddest places that I know for a fact that I cleaned. The itching is probably justified - do you know how dirty sea water is? Dead fish, fish poop, crabs, rotting sea weed, and who knows what else might be bathing you. Sea shells that litter the beach are the dead remains of sea creatures. Sitting in the sand at the beach is not very sanitary.

I don't like sand. I know that without sand there would be no beach, but the sand takes away the fun of going to the beach.

I think I'm going to stay a pool boy. I'll watch the beach. I might even walk on the beach. But my goal is to make sure nothing more than the bottoms of my feet ever get sandy. You'll find me at the pool.

Coconuts on the Beach Review

We had lunch at Coconuts on the Beach on Cocoa Beach.

Coconuts on the Beach is literally right on the beach. If you step off the deck we were on you were walking on sand. There was a constant flow of people heading to and from the beach passing by the deck. The restaurant offers showers along the side of the building, so, it was a popular stop for people washing off sand before heading back to their car.

 At first it was a little odd to see a waitress in a bikini head out to the beach to deliver drinks, and the security guard (bouncer) walking around in a bathing suit... but we were really on the beach. And people were coming up on the deck to order a drink at the bar or a snack and then heading right back out to the ocean.

 The beach in front of our condo is, for the most part, deserted. There is rarely anyone one it. So, it was a departure for us to see all the people on Cocoa Beach It reminded me of Myrtle Beach in South Carolina with wall to wall people.

It was lunch, so, we ordered fairly tame food. I ordered a grilled chicken Caesar salad, my wife ordered the chicken Caesar wrap, and the boys had hamburgers and fries. Everything arrived quickly and was very good.

It was ninety-five degrees in the afternoon, and even with the slight ocean breeze the heat was oppressive. My oldest son abandoned us to go inside the restaurant where it was air conditioned.  We stayed outside and enjoyed the beach scenes before finally leaving.

I thought Coconuts on the Beach was excellent and I wouldn't hesitate to return. I might suggest returning on a slightly cooler day, but return nonetheless.

Exploration Tower at Port Canaveral

We visited the Exploration Tower at Port Canaveral for the purpose of getting an excellent view of the cruise ships leaving port. I had incorrectly read the cost of admittance was $2.50. It was $6.50, which is a total rip off considering how small the tower actually is.

There are six floors and an observation deck on the seventh floor. Each floor provides an excellent view of the port. 

The first floor is the gift shop. Second floor talks about history of the area. Third floor shows a 20 minute movie about the port. 

It also has a surf board photo op

Fourth floor is just for meetings. Fifth talks about the boats in the harbor.  It has a simulator that allows you to try your luck at navigating the port.

The tiny sixth floor talks about NASA. But the real reason we went was for the seventh floor: the observation deck.  From the observation deck you can see NASA off in the distance and I am told it is one of the best places to see a rocket launch. You can see the beaches southward down the coast. And you can see the entire port.

We watched two massive cruise ships leave port and go out to sea. One of the ships was the Oasis of the Seas, the largest cruise ship in the world! It is five times larger than the Titanic was. There are cruise ships leaving the port every day (one to three of them) and they usually leave between 4pm and 5pm. 

The tower is small and there isn't much to do. The tower's main focus is to promote tourism and there is evidence of corporate sponsorship around the building. I could understand if window space might be a premium during rocket launches (which do not happen very often), but we were the only people at the tower.  Therefore I do not understand why it is so expensive to visit the tower.  

I do not recommend the Exploration Tower. If you want to see a cruise ship up close and leaving the port? Just go to one of the many bars and restaurants along the port's shore. Drive past Exploration Tower and keep going to the water's edge and you'll see an entire line of restaurants.

My Florida Office 2017

Our exploration of Florida is to see what it would be like to live here, not just vacation here. I work, pay bills,  grocery shop, do laundry,  deal with pests, do light house repairs, and many of the things we would have to do if we lived in Florida.

An important aspect for me (since I work from home) is what I see when I look up from my computer screen and look out the window.

I am expected to put in a full day's worth of work whether I am poolside, on the balcony, or wherever. My work is demanding and I need to be at the top of my game. At times, work is stressful. Inbetween the demands and the stress, I get moments of relaxing peace when I can gaze out the window.

Where ever we rent, I like to take one of the rooms and convert it into my office.

 I try to set things up so that when I look out the window I see Florida. 2017 was the best because I looked out my office window to a garden with three palm frees and flowering plants.

Now that we are on the east coast, I look up from my desk and I see the ocean.

 

Some people who lack work discipline would be too distracted and would rather lay on the beach instead of take that ringing phone call. I guess I'm different. I am driven. And I find these scenes and experiences engages me and I am actually more productive during the Florida trips. What would you rather be? Stuck in a cubical maze lit by failing florescent lights? Or have your office lit by Florida sun shine?

Further Away from Disney

Part of this year's theme was to try life further away from Disney. Sure, it sounds like a great idea to live the Disney life just minutes away from The World. But those who have tried it have reported frustrations with traffic and tourists. And I must admit, those two issues do become annoying even with our relatively short stays near Disney.

Our first villa was in Davenport. This was close enough to Disney (30-45 minutes to be almost anywhere) but was far enough away so that trips to the less touristy Haines City was possible. The second part of our trip was to go even further away. He had heard and seen wonderful things about the Melbourne area. In fact, several years ago we spent a couple of days at the beach. We decided to rent a condo at the beach just north of Melbourne.

Beach real-estate is much more expensive than the Kissimmee area, so, our dollars didn't go as far. We gave up a five bedroom pool house for a 1200sqft two bedroom condo with a shared pool. However, what this place lacks in space, it makes up for in views and outside enjoyment!

From this location we can see cruise ships and rocket launches from Cape Canaveral.

 And we are approximately 90 minutes away from Disney - far enough to make daily trips impractical, but not so far that we couldn't go whenever we wanted to.

The Rt. 192 area near Disney is very commercialized with all kinds of chain restaurants. The beach area still has a local flavor with many local restaurants, yet is a short drive to some of our favorite chains. We grocery shopped at a Publix and were blow away by how expensive everything was! We have been shopping at Walmart (and probably should have done so again) which has prices that we are used to seeing at home.

For the rest of this trip it is sand, surf, and relaxation. Check out the video here.

Lord of the Flies

Most Florida rentals keep the garbage cans either in the driveway (next to the garage door) or just around the front corner of the garage. At the Solanas Resort, the garbage cans are in the driveway. The garbage gets picked up every Thursday morning, so, there is never more than a week's worth of garbage.

On Sunday we noticed a horrible smell in front of the house. At first I thought something had died in the garden. A swarm of flies told us the real story: it was one of the two garbage cans. This is Florida, the cans are sitting in the sun during high 90 degree days, who knows what chemical experiments might be occurring in those cans.

Something had to be done! We decided we could clean the cans by dumping bleach in them and then we would spray to kill the flies. We picked up the bleach and fly spray on Monday night.

I decided on Tuesday morning to take care of this problem. How bad could it be to clean a smelly garbage can? I decided to do the worse can first. With the bleach in my hand, I lifted the cover. I found the can was nearly empty except it was wall to wall a swarm of flies. I have never seen so many flies in my entire life! The black cloud of flies was so thick that I couldn't see the contents of the can.

And then suddenly the most putrid and disgusting smell hit me. The smell burned into my nose to a degree that would cause me to continue smelling it the rest of the day. The smell hit my head and my stomach and I could feel breakfast rising up. I dropped the can cover and backed away gagging. The rotting smell brought me the heaving in the bushes, but I swore not to puke.

With burning tears running down my face, I decided to attack the flies first. I approached the can and lifted the lid just enough to flood the can with a long spray of fly killer. I dropped the lid and sprayed the outside of the can and was amazed at how the flies dropped dead at first contact.

With the flies addressed, I approached the first can, lifted the lid, and dumped the bottle of bleach in - hitting the sides of the can and all around. As I did so, I noticed the bottom of the trash can has a thick back layer of dead flies. What had attracted so many flies and such a horrible smell? A cup of half eaten soft ice cream at the bottom of the can.

With the first trash can addressed, the second was easy to deal with: spray the flies and dump in the chlorine.

I have never encountered anything as disgusting as that garbage can. Garbage and Florida heat are not a good combination.

I Love NY Pizza

We were hungry for some pizza and when we travel we like to go places that we can't go to when home. We found I Love NY Pizza in a plaza off Rt 27.

We arrived and there was no one to greet us. We didn't know if we should be seated or if we could sit anywhere we wanted. We noticed a pick up counter, which is where we encountered "the waitress".  In every restaurant review I have read, horrible experiences are had at the hands of the waitress. If you get the waitress, my recommendation is to ask for someone else to serve you. If no one else is available, leave. It won't be worth the frustration. 

The waitress was working the takeout counter and was annoyed by our question and told us to sit anywhere we wanted.

We made the mistake of sitting next to the window, although most of the seats were flooded by sunlight. If it is a sunny day? Bring your sun glasses.

Our waiter greeted us and was very excellent. He checked on us regularly, kept the drinks filled, kept asking if everything was good, and was the perfect kind of waiter anyone would ever want. The boys ordered the pizza and reported it was one of the best pizzas they had ever eaten. They rated it a 9 out of 10.

We ordered mozzarella sticks for an appetizer, which were excellent. Our meals came with a salad that was very fresh. The dressing was from a packet, which considering they do a lot of take-out, packaged dressing makes sense.

I ordered the Chicken Parmesan, which arrived as a huge ample portion. It came with two garlic knots that had the consistency of a soft pretzel and were good dunked in the spaghetti sauce. The breading on the chicken was outstanding. The chicken itself was paper thin, which isn't completely uncommon for chicken Parmesan.  However, because it was so thin the chicken was overcooked almost to the consistency of leather. More on the spaghetti wit the next dish.

My wife ordered the spaghetti and meatballs, which arrived as a huge portion. The meatballs had an aftertaste that tasted like they had been freezer burnt. I'm not saying they were ever frozen or ever freezer burnt, but that is what the after taste reminded me of. Both dishes were served with ample sauce. The spaghetti sauce was a marinara with no noticeable seasoning. It isn't uncommon for some marinara to not be very seasoned, but this had nothing noticeable. Some reviews have called the sauce "cheap tasting". 

 As I mentioned, the portions were huge and a little deceiving how large they were. I ate so much I actually left with a stomach ache from eating too much!

Conclusion? Excellent service, excellent appetizer, excellent pizza, and Italian dishes that weren't so good. My recommendation? Order the pizza shop items. Stick to the pizza, it was outstanding. Pass on the Italian dishes and you'll have a really good meal. Also, remember your sun glasses, and avoid "the waitress".