Cove Marketplace

It has been another unbelievably beautiful Florida day.

Every day this February seems to be better than the day before..

Sunny skies, temps mid 70's to low 80's.

Had to admit we had more than a breeze today...it was quite a wind, but warm and felt wonderful.

We decided to go over to Canaveral Cove to check out the new Marketplace they have just opened up. They have been busing cruise ship passengers over. Many vendors to check out...everything from hand-made ice cream, hand carved items, paintings, jewelry, clothing...the whole gamut ...

I found a neat booth that sold Topless Sandals and Barefoot Jewelry.

I couldn't resist the sandals as Guy stood by and rolled his eyes!

They are pretty neat....come with instructions and actually quite comfortable....but I need to go back and buy the jewelry that goes with them....to dress them up a bit.

I wore them comfortably all afternoon, and will admit when it was time to take them off, it felt like you were ripping a band-aid from the bottom of your foot! But I still think they are pretty cool!!!

A weekend of Festivals

Friday we decided to take in the Greek Festival and enjoy some of the local culture. The ad in the newspaper said it was being held in Melbourne from 11-11. So we drove down there, paid to park, paid our admission only to discover that indeed it did open at 11, but the festivities began at 5PM. The only thing that was setup was the food booths....so we decided that we might as well have lunch. We shared a Greek salad and an order of Spanakopita. Then Guy spotted the Loukoumades Booth and bought a couple of the Honey puffs, fried in hot oil, covered in honey syrup, cinnamon and powdered sugar.
A "band" of 2 men entertained while we ate.
We met another couple from Solana and chatted for awhile with them.
They were really into Greek food
and suggested all sorts of dishes....

Before we left, we were going to tour the Greek Church, but because we both were wearing shorts, we were not allowed to enter.

We decided to head home rather than hang around for 4 hours

to see the group singers and dancers.

Pretty much of a bust for the day!!

Bess, the neighbor we ran into at the "Festival" rang our doorbell

with a sample of the stuffed Grape Leaves. We'll try them out for dinner tonight.

Saturday, there was a Mardi Gras in Cocoa Village that we wanted to see.

We invited Arlyn and Marie to come along with us.

We checked and double checked the paper to make sure we wouldn't be 5 hours early and headed out to Cocoa.

Marie and I couldn't resist taking a picture of this darling car.

I guess I'm still in the Diva mode.......We walked around the Village, to see what was going on.

There were many beverage booths, selling everything from water to hard booze. There were no food booths at all, but there were several restaurants open for business. We stopped in and got a pizza and beer.

Marie and I each bought a festival mask to get in the swing of things...

There were a couple of shops open....

I wanted to, but didn't quite dare to buy these glasses!!

A walking one man band.....(he's the one on the right)

He was really good....

Arlyn and Marie

Jello-o shots! One of my favorites!

Took this picture for the Grandkids....

all sorts of get-ups around.....

After walking around town 3 times, we decided to head back home.

There was a parade scheduled at 9PM, but after we spotted a couple of the floats, we decided it wasn't worth the wait!

Another Festival Flop!

Sunday afternoon, we headed over to Ron Jon's to have lunch with Carolyn and Brian. They just got back from an extended vacation in Cancun, so we swapped vacation stories and got caught up on the news....

More Discovery and External tanks

I just received more photos of Discovery and they are fantastic!

Guy was out on the deck this afternoon and spotted the Freedom Star hauling one of the external tanks out in the Atlantic.

We grabbed our cameras, binoculars and next door neighbor and headed over to Jetty Park where we saw her come in.

This was one of the external tanks that cause the delay in the Discovery launch.

All put together in the VAB getting prepared...

Freedom Star

one of the external tanks....

it is about 153 feet long.

Freedom tugging the tank heading up to the Locks where they

will go in Banana River then up to NASA

for inspections etc.

the other tank should be about 1 hour behind this one.

I'm sure Guy will make the same trip over to see it come in.

Discovery's final launch

This picture belongs at the end, but I can't get it to drag down there!

Discovery and six astronauts went speeding toward the ISS after a dramatic countdown Thursday culminated in the Shuttle's final leap from a Kennedy Space Center launch pad.

We watched it here from our deck at the Cape while thousands of watchers were lined up on bridges and highways, bringing travelers to a dead stop.

These photos were not taken by us, but by someone who was much closer to the launch, at the KSC.

Our view was not quite as spectacular as a cloud cover hovered over from south to the northeast, blocking our direct view just a few seconds after liftoff.

Jerry and Joyce Betz drove down from Port Orange to watch the launch with us. Afterward, we walked next door over to Ron Jon's to grab a bite to eat. The wait was over 2 1/2 hours, so we decided to get in the car and drive down A1A to find a restaurant. We couldn't even get out of Sherwood Drive (our road entrance) the traffic was so heavy.....so we came back here, where I grabbed something out of the freezer to fix for dinner. Come to find out, it was Jerry's Birthday!!!

We have heard all sorts of reports since then that this area was swarming with celebrities!...among those the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.

1st Annual Men's Best Breakfast Ever!

Solana Lake put on its First Annual Men's Best Breakfast ever on Sunday, Feb. 13th. It was put on by the men....they setup, cooked, served and cleaned up after. The Ladies did the decorating, but other than that, it was a Men's affair...it was one of the most attended functions put on by the Social Committee

102 people supported this event and were not disappointed at all.

They had quiches, pancakes, muffins, bacon, sausages

coffee, juices

last minute instructions were given by Chef John

Bud set up his disc jockey equipment ...

Valentine theme....

guess who was in charge of the Bloody Mary's and Mimosas?????

a great success:)