December 19, 2015 New Smyrna Beach City Marina, FL

It was cold this morning!  The weather app said 43, but feels like 37.  We pulled out our foul weather gear, hats and gloves.   It did warm up to 63.  Our great niece and nephew, Claire and Garrett, had given us some green gloves they picked up at the Turkey Trot in Mpls.  With Dave’s red coat and green gloves, he looked like the Grinch.  We had to send them a picture.  They replied that they were in the airport waiting to go to Disney World for the week before Christmas.  We had forgotten it was today.  Seemed strange to be so close to them in Florida.

The Grinch-Thank you Garrett and Claire for the gloves

Today we moved along the ICW to New Smyrna Beach City Marina.  We spent about 8 hours on the water.  There were about 5 or 6 draw bridges to pass under.  These all opened on request.  Further south, they open on a set schedule. 

I spent time below organizing, cooking, cleaning-you know, that stuff I didn’t do when I was working full time. 

We decided to get a slip for the night at the city marina, where we stayed last year on our way north.  We arrived just a little after 3:00.  I was trying to make it to church by 4:00.  But the time we had the boat settled and made it to the office, it was closer to 3:30.  I checked into the free shuttle bus, but you had to schedule a pick up 2 hours in advance.  I was the 6th caller on hold, so decided to go for a taxi.  The 2nd one I called could pick me up shortly after 4:00, so I decided late was better than never.  Well, it was about 4:20 when they arrived, so I made a change of plans.  I had them take me to the Publix grocery store instead.  Then I set a time for them to pick me up to go to the 7:00 am mass in the morning. 

After restocking our boat with perishables and goodies for Christmas, Dave and I walked downtown for dinner.  The marina and taxi drivers recommended about 5 places all within about 6 blocks.  We walked past all of them and then returned to the one putting out the great BBQ smoke.  Dave could go out for BBQ every day of the week.  Yellow Dog Eats was great.  They had ribs tonight as their special.  So we ordered a rack of them along with a pulled pork sandwich and a turkey sandwich.  They were both unique and awesome.  We shared the sandwiches, had a couple ribs, and took the rest back to the boat.  Looking forward to that leftovers dinner. 

crazy boat decorations

these Christmas decorations look our of place with live plants

 

 

downtown New Smyrna Beach