A Visit to Melbourne Beach

 Hi Everyone, 

I'm very excited that we finally have something to blog about. Glenn and I decided to move our quarantine to another location for a change of scenery, so we rented a beach house called "Turtle's Nest" in Melbourne, FL. It was wonderful to completely unplug for 5 days - we didn't watch any news or TV (other than a couple of movies), did no work, and stayed off social media. I wish everyone could take a break like this from such a crazy year. 

It's about a 3 1/2 hour trip right across the state and was an easy drive.

The house was just perfect for us and was right on the water. Here's a quick house tour. The second floor of the house was the main living area that had an open concept living room, dining room and kitchen that all had sliders out onto the deck and awesome views of ocean. The bedroom did too.

Downstairs...

And here was the view from our deck.

We literally had the beach completely to ourselves. We felt like we were the last people on earth. We maybe would see one or two surfers a day, or a couple taking a stroll, but that was it.  View to the right:

View to the left:

NO ONE!

Ok, so here is my obligatory "toes in the sand" shot.

The house next door to us had an orange windsock which was our favorite thing to see as we were coming back from a long sweltering walk. (Look how gorgeous the water is!)

They also had a tree with COCONUTS!

So our house was called Turtle's Nest because this beach is a nesting ground for sea turtles. And while we didn't see any actual sea turtles, because they come in super late at night/early in the morning, we saw turtle tracks, turtle nests, and sadly, turtle eggshells that the birds uncovered, all over the place.

Here are what the turtle tracks look like.. and the nests are the big holes dug near the dunes.

Here's the back of the house...

Our entrance to the beach...

And a lone canoe.

The weather was great - sunny and hot during most of the day and then afternoon thunderstorms would roll in, which were fun to watch. Glenn got some awesome storm pics.

After this particular storm, we were rewarded with this...

I texted some of these to my friend Amy and she wrote, "Are you in heaven?"

Yep. Sure was.

So, not only were there no humans anywhere, we hardly saw any other living creatures. 

The first day I thought maybe the world had ended and we just were the last to find out. But eventually, we did see some birds. And Glenn got a pic of a dolphin.

On a couple of days, the waves were huge. Some surfers came out and Glenn spent a few afternoons on his boogie board.

I watched him warily from the deck. 

The sunsets weren't too exciting since they happened over the land instead of the ocean, and in our case, they happened over a construction site. (Or during the afternoon storms.) I got one decent shot though, if you ignore the power lines.

But the sun rises were spectacular and different every day. 

So that's it for our trip. Five days sure went fast but it was just what we needed. For those who were wondering, we left the pups with a dog sitter at the house and all was fine, but they were very happy to see us when we got home. Hope you enjoy the pics! Love you!

Glenn turns 50 and the woodland creatures celebrate!

Hi Everyone - 

2020 continues to be a stressful year in every way possible, but we're hanging in there. If I have to be stuck with anyone, I'm glad it's Glenn. Even though he is so old. 😜😜😜

We didn't really have any exciting plans to celebrate his birthday - I did make a Forgotten Torte - but we ended up having a fun day. 

Also, he went fishing with Chad last week. 

This picture has gotten a lot of comments on Facebook, because Glenn wrote something like, "Out fishing with my buddy, Chad." And everyone was like, "you named your fish Chad?"

Glenn and Little Chad

He's also getting a lot of acclaim for his muscles. Jerk is making me look bad. 

Here he is bringing in a redfish.

Here's Deucie wishing him a Happy Birthday by licking his face.

We pretty much never leave the house any more, but on his birthday, we took the dogs to John Chestnut park for a walk.

There we were met by a very tame deer who came right over to us, despite the dogs being there. The dogs both just sat there quietly looking at her, and a nice woman nearby said she was taking pictures of our dogs with the deer because she couldn't believe how well-behaved they were. 

Anyway, here's the deer, clearly unfamiliar with social distancing protocols.

Here are some more pics just of the scenery. I love this park.

As we were leaving the park, something caught my eye and I told Glenn to pull over. 

ARMADILLOS!

Chasing each other!

Running right towards me! 😲

Aren't they weird little guys?

Later, Chad (the person) and Lisha came over and sat more than six feet away from us on our porch and hung out for a while. So we got out of the house, saw animals, and interacted with humans all in one day!

Otherwise, here is an assortment of random pics. The first batch, Glenn took on one of his bike rides.

Dolphin!

There's another dolphin in this one...if you can spot it.

And this is a little shark swimming in circles.

I don't know what kind of bird this is...I've looked it up. Glenn thought it might be a night heron but it seems to be almost all black (night herons are mostly blue and white with a black head) and it isn't shaped like a night heron. 

I may have mentioned to you that I found a black racer snake in our yard. They are shy and harmless and super fast, and this guy consented to having his picture taken through the screen.

hello.

Here's a roseate spoonbill I saw on one of my walks.This is the only pink bird native to Florida. (Flamingos aren't from here and you'll probably only find them in zoos.)

And check out this goofball.💗

She and Deucie have been in the pool a good bit lately. Here's  a fun video of Deuce taking a swim and Eva losing her mind over it.

I'm trying to embed the video, but if that doesn't work, you can visit the youtube link here: https://youtu.be/Na8HZzvzXDM

Oh...I almost forgot. Remember the Pirate Ship House in our neighborhood? Of course you do. Well, the guy who lives there has been building a little one-person pirate ship over the past few months, and it is near completion.

It's a strange hobby, but he's pretty good!

Anyway, that's all I've got for now, folks. Hope you all stay safe and well. Love you!