Vero Beach City Marina

 We arrived at Vero Beach on May 4th. The force was truly with us on that day. We signed up for a week, but we extended that to get through some bad weather. So, we ended up staying in Vero for 9 nights. The cruiser community has nicknamed Vero, "Velcro Beach", because it is a very comfortable place and people end up staying much longer than they had planned. We can see why. 

The first thing is the harbor is very protected from weather. We were there with some 25 knot winds from the worst direction and it was not bad at all. The second thing is that the marina staff is very helpful and pleasant. The marina has been here for a long time and the grounds are beautiful.

Large live oak trees out if front of the main building at the marina. 

Our first day there we needed a long shower and a walk. The showers are clean and private. We took a long walk to the beach. We could have taken the bus, but we really needed a walk. The walk was about a 2 mile round trip, but then we had to take a long walk on the beach.

Of course we need another picture of Kim on a beach in her stylish hat. She got that for free in Marathon.

The walk was a little longer than Kim wanted, but we really needed the exercise. That evening we took the dinghy to a local restaurant on the water. We really like to go to dinner in our dinghy. We could even look out the window at the restaurant and see SHIFT while we ate dinner and enjoyed some live music. 

We enjoyed some cold drinks. 

The next day we got clued in on the city bus system. It is a really nice bus system and it is totally free. We rode all over town. 

Vero Beach City Bus system is totally free.

I decided that we needed to do what Kim wanted to do to celebrate Mothers day. So, first we went to McKee Botanical Garden. It was OK, but the mosquitos were bad and the flowers really were not in bloom. Kim enjoyed it and that is all that is important.

The water flowers were the only thing blooming

Bamboo tree

Kim and a metal parrot

We then went to a mall and went to a movie. We saw the latest Marvel called Dr. Strange. It was pretty good and we enjoyed our time in the air conditioning. 

On mothers day we went to the Driftwood Resort and ate at Waldos. They had a very good live band that played old rock and roll. Driftwood was built in the 1930's and is one of the original building in the area. The place is built out of Cypress wood. 

The Driftwood Resort and Waldo's Restaurant 

We spent the rest of the 9 days doing domestic stuff like laundry and grocery shopping. We rode the bus somewhere just about every day. The last 3 days we were there it was very windy, but we could still get off the boat and go to town. It also got cool. We even had to put a blanket on the bed. 

Well that is about it for our stay in Vero. We really like it and would love to go back if it fits in the plans. As far as our future plans go...Well, we have decided that we are just going to head north as weather and desire allow. We may make it to Maine with the boat and we may not. I have promised we will make it to Acadia National Park in Maine either by boat or rent car. We will just have to see how it goes. 

We did finally leave Vero and Friday, May13. Come back to see how that goes and see what we do next. I will tell you now, it was very cool.