05 SEP 2010

Sunday morning starts around 9 again as we get up and check for sun burns. Only Wes is showing signs of distress, not seriously, but enough he decides that he is not going to go out in the water again today. The rest of us show signs of being red, but not burnt so decided that we would really be careful with applying the sunscreen and head out after breakfast. Today that means going out and taking a recommendation from Jeff we headed to a Greek restaurant and had a fantastic breakfast. Never thought about Greek for breakfast but it was good and very western.

Back to the beach we head with the bags of drinks (yes including beer which is allowed) and water, the umbrellas, towels, shoes etc. We had to arrange the check out since we plan to spend time on the beach until at least 3. We are able to store what was needed in Jeff’s room and put the rest in the cars. Wes of course had decided that since he cannot go into the water, he was going for a walk along the beach. By the time he returned he had walked 5-6 miles he figures.

We are in the water and again under the umbrella. Today the wave actions are much less so we stood lots simply jumping over the top of the waves as they rolled in. After a 2 ½ hours we were thinking it was time to head in. Needless to say, today, even with all the care for sunscreen my shoulders and upper arms definitely were cooked lobster coloured.

Today we had something that seemed to be biting us and at first I thought it was just me, but soon it was everyone else talking about and we could see nothing but only feel the stings. We talked to a friend of Rick and Cleve (Pam) who suggested that it might be small tentacles from jelly fish that had broken off from the jelly fish. Apparently these extremely small particles continue to have venom for up to 15 days after separating from the jellyfish. With the rough weather and hurricanes this seems to be very likely the cause of our stinging.

We finished the day by returning to Orlando and going over to Mary’s (Cleve’s ex-wife) and her husband Mark who had prepared birthday dinner for Cleve and Rick. Mark prepared a cake which was fantastic. We have Mary, Mark, Rick, Cleve, Will, Ana and Chris (Ana’s boyfriend) and Wes and I for an incredible dinner.

Ok, time to talk about some of the characters we saw at the beach. Needless to say we were people watching. We thoroughly enjoyed watching a young family with a son who looked to be about 4 years old and had a head of dark curly hair reminding me of the hairstyle of Michael Landon. His head of hair seemed to be out of portion for the size of his head. He was so cute. His mom and him were playing Frisbee.

There were lots of couples walking up and down the beach obviously enjoying spending time together. We also saw other families playing in the sand, water and using boogie boards. One family comprised of a father and 4 kids. They seemed to have so much fun trying to go into the water and running back in front of the waves laughing. It was fun to watch the splashing and running, their efforts at boogie boarding and other activities.

At one point we watch a grandfather being supported against the breaking waves by family members as he walked into the water. It appeared to us that he was might have suffered a stroke and had paralysis on his left side. We are so impressed with the love and care of all the family – from a teenage to an adult.

While in the water we started to talk to a young man who was here on vacation with his family from Canada. Just outside of Ottawa. He explained that he was leaving the next day but had been here for a week and got to miss his first week of school back home. Since it was Rick and I chatting to him, that meant we were all Canadians – go figure the odds of that.

Another group of young people were sharing time together obviously having a really good time hanging out with each other. We noted how they all were in such great shape and wonder how much time must have been spent at the gym. Obviously we wondered because we felt the need for ourselves. One of the couples in this group had a toddler and when they were not flexing their muscles, they were playing with the baby.

There was one fellow who we called bicycle man since he arrived on to the beach on a bike, parked it and went out into the water/waves for awhile. He did not seem to be interesting in much swimming, just walking around in water around his waist and playing in the waves. We decided that he must be a local person because of the bike he rode down onto the beach. He actually was there both days we were at the beach.

Thus our weekend at Melbourne Florida was completed and we really did enjoy a relaxing time. Jeff, Logan and Michael were fun and we enjoyed spending time with them.