2025 April: Easter in Vero Beach FL

Sunset at Vero Beach on Bethel Creek

17 April 2025

I decided that we have Gremlins on the boat that like to mess with the clocks in our bed / stateroom! The gremlin arrived when we switched from EST to DST, refuses to leave, and messes with me at random times. 

This morning when I woke up my clock displayed around 6:00, and I was wide awake. I thought that unusual, picked up the book by the bed, and read for a while. About an hour later I looked at my phone and it showed 8:00! I picked up the small atomic clock next to the bed, and it said 7:00! I knew Verizon had to be correct, so the gremlin had gotten to the other two during the night. 

Some time, long long ago, the start and end dates for DST vs EST were amended. Clark believes that my clocks must be old enough that they have the date change embedded in the works. I had adjusted the Atomic clock a couple of weeks ago to change the time zone because it refused to show the correct time otherwise. The other clock has a "DST" switch on the back that appeared to work for a couple of weeks. Suddenly they both went wacky! 

I changed the Atomic clock back to our east-coast time zone, changed the other clock to non-DST and reset the time. I hope the gremlin leaves me alone now until the fall when it is likely to reappear once more!

I thought about my mom today. Today would have been her birthday. Born in 1916, she would be 109. Sadly she passed away in 1993, so I have been missing her for a very long time. 

I had a lot of work to do today to produce a blog entry. It was my one and only accomplishment for the day other than standard chores around the boat.

18 April 2025 - Good Friday

I keep thinking we will be hearing the dinghy is ready, and so I keep trying to be ready to get underway. Today I did all the laundry - just in case we could get going soon. No such luck! With today being Good Friday, we believe all activity will have stopped over the weekend. We have certainly heard no updates on progress.

While I had the laundry going, I walked back to the boat and asked Clark to hand me a towel I forgot to include in my basket. I had knocked on the pilot house side door to talk to him. As he handed me the towel, I noticed the window shade on the top half of the Dutch door was covered in filth. 

He had mentioned that they needed to be cleaned and boy was he right. So, while the wash was underway, we took down all the shades (8 of them in a variety of sizes) and washed them in Clorox. After I washed them, Clark took them out to the dock to rinse them off with the hose. It took a while but they look a whole lot better now. 

Later in the day, just after 4:00, we got together with Anna and Don to drive to Franklin and Cathy's house for a special dinner. Today was Franklin's birthday, and Cathy put on a feast. We had an array of appetizers followed by dinner of London Broil, eggplant parm, and zucchini "boats". She ended the meal with homemade carrot cake and Pecan Sandie's cookies with ice cream on the side! 

We were too busy to remember to take pictures!

19 April 2025

We have been in Vero Beach for a full week longer than anticipated and still no word on when the work might be completed. I keep replenishing my food stores thinking we would leave soon and continually adding to be shopping list as we remain at dock! 

Today, I did some replenishing of food stores by attending the Farmer's Market with Cathy. Stalls filled a parking lot and overflowed to the other side of the street. We had lots of yummy items to choose from including lots of produce and baked goods. My blog suffered as I was too intent on shopping and never once thought about pulling out the camera for a picture of the affair!

When we discovered that we would not be leaving Vero Beach any time soon, we contacted Sandy and Bill to see if we could fit in another visit before we got underway. They said they planned to celebrate the decluttering they accomplished as part of their move to a different condo on Saturday (today), and we could join them in the celebration. 

They picked us up at noon and we went to Ocean Grille in Vero Beach for lunch. The restaurant has their own, quite large parking lot with an attendant, so we had no problem finding a place to park.

The restaurant, as the name implies, is on the ocean with a nice view of the water.

The erosion of sand from the beach appeared apparent given the signage and the view.

The "submerged" structure is no longer submerged!

During lunch we had talked about Blue Marlins because Bill had one displayed on his hat. Coming out of the restaurant, we saw the one below in front of the restaurant across the street. It was huge!

After lunch at Ocean Grille, we walked to Kilwins for ice cream.  

Walking down the street to Kilwins, I spied this unusual art display along the sidewalk.

Sandy recently broke her ankle. She is rid of crutches, etc. now but is still wearing the Crocs that she bought to wear during recovery. Clark took a liking to them! Sandy said if she had to wear them, she wanted something "fun". Her feet are tiny and she bought them in the children's department!

Sandy's Crocs

Clark and Ev at Kilwins
but where's the ice cream - GONE!

When we first arrived here in Vero Beach, Clark got a card where 10 punches on the card yielded a free ice cream. That looked unlikely to happen when we got here, but today made enough visits that he claimed that free ice cream!

I am forever optimistic that we will be underway shortly. Sandy offered to take us to Fresh Market as she wanted some items there. I decided to buy some baked goods for the journey home (should that ever happen). I felt guilty buying a stack of baked goods just for me, but justified them as mostly going into the freezer for later. 

Apparently, all the good food and company was more than I could handle. When we got back to the boat late afternoon, I laid down on the couch to read and quite literally passed out. I rarely take naps, but I guess I really needed this one!

After dinner, Clark put on a movie to watch.  While we watched, since my grandkids enjoy them so much, I drew pictures to make greeting cards to send off to them the next time I am near a post office. The girls all got flowers, and Jack got a turtle - he's all boy!

The kids prefer that I send them pictures to color themselves. I am thinking about drawing more for me to color next time!

Sample greeting card for kids

20 April 2025 - Easter Sunday

Clark surprised me yesterday evening when he suggested we go to a local church for Easter. He found a Methodist church within walking distance and thought it would be nice to attend.  

When we walked into the sanctuary, we found row after row of pews. By the time the service started every pew was filled. We found seats about 1/3 of the way back from the altar.

The service turned out to be a theatrical performance. The voices in the choir were magnificent including outstanding soprano. A solo was performed by a baritone who sang with an operatic tone. His voice did not match his physique - very surprising and rich sound given his stature! In addition to Bell Ringers, the church had 4 brass instruments that played - horn, trumpet, trombone, and tuba. Songs included the piano and sometimes even bongo drums. Applauding during the service was encouraged by the Pastor.

The pastor, Michael, had a strong voice with humor blended in with his message. 

Pastor Michael

Services are broadcast on Facebook, and the church has a four-person AV team. The picture below shows their setup. A large screen at the front of the church helped those in the back of the church to see the events of the service as they occurred. At the beginning of the service, the pastor turned to a camera and directly addressed the folks attending via Facebook before turning back to the in-person congregation for the remainder of his presentation.

Audio Video setup at the church

A sample of the stained glass windows in the church is shown below.

We have been so fortunate during our stay here with wonderful weather. The pleasant walk to the church took us about 15 minutes each way.  We arrived back at the boat around 11:30. 

Today was the birthday of our host, Don. As he was turning 80, he threw himself a birthday party at a very nice restaurant in Melbourne, Florida - Djon Steak and Lobster House. He planned the dinner for 2:00. We left Don's house at 1:00 to arrive on time for our reservation. When we arrived in Vero Beach, we never would have imagined that we would still be here and available to attend. 

Entrance to Restaurant

Don (birthday boy)
with son Scott and DIL Carmen

Group picture of attendees

Scott and Carmen brought a strawberry / chocolate birthday cake to the party. We sang the birthday song, and Don blew out the candles then opened his presents. It was a fun time that we would have missed had we not be held in place by the dinghy situation.

Dinner at the restaurant was from 2:00 until 5:00. The food and drinks continued to flow throughout that time. Later, when it came time for supper, neither Clark nor I had any appetite. Clark had a snack before retiring for the night, but I was good on food until the next morning!