03 and 04 SEP 2010

We left on Friday Sep 03 for Melbourne FL for the weekend. I had baked a birthday cake for Rick, Cleve, and Jeff who were using this weekend as a birthday celebration. The Friday was relatively uneventful as Wes and I relaxed at the house waiting for Rick to get off work to leave. All I did was decorate the cake, read, swim and relax. Oh yes, we did pack a separate bag since we did not take our car. Wes went for a long walk and I think realized how hot it was outside since he jumped into the pool the minute he returned.

Melbourne Beach is on a barrier island off the coast connected by 3 bridges. It has a long beach (no idea how long) and the Radisson we stayed at is right on the beach. We have a room on the 15th floor that overlooks the beach and ocean. It is hot here but not as hot as Orlando. In fact the temp is only 92 F and that statement show how we are getting used to the heat here.

Our room (suite) is a one bedroom and we have a bed in the living area so it is very comfortable for the four of us. We no sooner got here than we headed to the store to do a bit of shopping. We bought groceries for breakfast and lunches plus wine and beer. You can see what type of weekend we are planning.

We gathered together with Jeff, Michael and Logan to go out for dinner. We ate well and were too full to consider having the cake so the birthday cake was postponed until tomorrow. The cake is decorated in a Yin Yang design using white icing and food dye.

The sunset was really great and I tried to capture what I could with a picture but it is hard to capture something so vast that spreads with a horizon so low and sweeps across the sky with so much depth and width. But to say that it is beautiful is an understatement.

We awoke Saturday morning first by a blackberry phone alarm going off. (not mine) Shortly after that we hear, “Do you want to see the sunrise come up over the water?”

 Sounds good so there we are at 6:45 standing on the balcony waiting for the sun to appear. Clouds spoiled the incredible pop up effect but we have some really interesting pictures of red clouds. Back to bed we all trudged, too early to seriously get up.

We finally pulled out of bed around 9, getting lazier and later mornings.

We had purchased groceries for breakfast was managed in the room meaning the call for the beach was loud. But wait, we need beach umbrellas and more sun screen and? Ok, back to the shopping mall for a few minutes.

Finally we are at the beach and we are in the water. We have completely lathered up with 50 because the sun is intense. Setting up the umbrellas is fun as we find a spot, twist the anchors (screw really) into the sand and set them up. Rick and Cleve have beach towel blankets which are really nice for the beach. I am going to look for one.

The waves are incredible. We stood around jumping over the top of the waves, and if the wave were breaking correctly, we would try to body surf. Rick and Cleve had boogie boards so we even tried those, but the waves were a bit too much to safely use them. We estimated that the waves were about 4-5 feet at times but often 3 feet. We alternated between being in the water and laying in the shade of the umbrella on the beach. After a couple of hours of this we headed back to the room to make sandwiches and take a short break, then back to the beach. We headed back for another hour or so then headed back to the room to cut the cake.

The cake, since it was made from scratch, did not fare well in the heat (made Thurs night and eaten on Saturday) so was a bit dry – Sorry Rick, Cleve and Jeff. After the cake we all felt a bit tired – playing in the waves is tiring believe me and NO we are not wimps. So we hung around the air conditioned room relaxing until it was time for dinner. All that is except Wes, who headed back down to the beach to lay under the umbrella for a couple more hours. Wes had never really had an opportunity to play in waves on an ocean beach before so this really was a first for him and he absolutely loved it.

So now I KNOW you want to know... “who got sun burnt”? Even with all the precautions we took, only Wes showed signs of overly red and tender. I was red but not burnt....the warning signs are clear.

Tomorrow is going to be a day to be careful. Yeah.. remember that internal thought for later.