Melbourne, Florida

We have been busy hanging out with the kids since we arrived. Actually Brandon was in Orlando for the first few days. He was attending some training for his company. We took Megan out for lunch on her day off. Then on Friday we met at their house and went to dinner with them. Megan's brother and his family and her Mom and Dad joined us at Grills north of town.  Her niece and nephew were both in their wedding and they have grown a lot. It was good to see her family again.

Saturday morning I went with Brandon and Megan to the hospital for an ultrasound. She is officially 20 weeks and the baby showed up quite clearly on the monitor. It is a little girl and she moved a lot, arching her back at one point. Everything is great with Megan and the baby and sometime around the fourth of August is her due date. That's about the time we get back in the states from Alaska.

Last evening we spent some time with Brandon and Megan looking at baby stuff. We went to Target and the kids started a baby registry there picking out things they would like for the wee one. It's been nice spending time with the kids and helping them to celebrate becoming new parents. It's an exciting time and they are looking forward to it.

Today they both went back to work, so we had the day to ourselves. We started out with a walk. It was the first morning since we left Texas that it was warm enough for us to walk. It's been cooling off so much at night, which is good, but we have to walk when it's warmer. It was a warmer day today so we went out without jackets.

We drove up US1 to Patrick AFB. Brandon had told us about a good place to watch for manatees. There is an inlet where the waters are apparently warmer and they like to hang out there. We found the spot with no trouble. . . in fact, there were several people there watching. We parked and I took my new camera. At first we were off the main road at a culvert near a subdivision. There was activity there, but the water must be deeper because it was hard to see the manatee as they swam. We did see this heron and I got a close up shot of him. So we walked across the street and over to the main road bridge. There they were. All the way back as far as you could see. It looked like stepping stones in the water, but actually you are looking at the backs of the manatees. It was so cool.

Up closer to us were several small ones apparently with their mothers feeding on vegetation. They were quite active in that small area, so I got quite a few good pictures. A large turtle was also swimming with them. One kept rolling over and showing his fins and tail. They were very peaceful. We observed them for quite some time and got a lot of good pictures.

We came back along A1A, the highway along the ocean. We know this stretch of road well, but it's always fun. We stopped at a couple of beach parks and snapped some pictures. There was quite a lot of surf and the wind was pretty strong, so along down the beach you could see salt spray. I zoomed in on it and it almost looks like a rainstorm. I thought it was an interesting shot.

Some of the parks have walkways that span over the dunes area so you can see what the dunes and vegetation look like. I was hoping to maybe see a sea turtle nest, but no luck. We did see this beautiful cactus in beautiful bloom. The colors were beautiful and made me miss Spike, my barrel cactus down in Texas. Mom says Spike has three big beautiful yellow blooms now.

We had a leisurely drive back to camp and visited with some new neighbors. They are from Alaska, but are now retired and living in Georgia. We talked with them about our upcoming Alaska trip and they gave us some tips on where to stay and what to see.

Brandon came out after work and visited with us. We fed him lasagne. . . he didn't complain. Tomorrow we are going to dogsit for Jax I think and have dinner with the kids one last time. We leave on Wednesday and are headed to Virginia to see more family!

Till next time. . .

Dale