Day 4 at Indian River

 7-13-2021 Tuesday

It rained during the night but when I got up at 8:00, the sun was out and the forecast had postponed today's thunderstorm until noon.  It finally rained about 9:00 p.m.  Every time I looked at my phone for the forecast, the predicted time for the rain had changed.  I checked with Bridgette to see if she got her run in this morning, but she said it was raining at 5:30 so she just stayed in bed.  Smart move.

Joe and I took the day off from fishing/swimming and took a drive, north along the coast on A1A to Melbourne Shores, Melbourne Beach, and on to Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral.  We were surprised to find that Cape Canaveral was only about 40 miles from our campground, but because of the 35 mph speed limit and all the little beach towns on A1A, it took over an hour.  As we neared Cocoa Beach, I spotted a couple cruise ships anchored off-shore.  I think they may have been Disney cruise ships but I couldn't read the logo.

I walked up on a boardwalk over the seagrass to get these pictures, so I took a shot of the pretty beach too.  It looked inviting, but we didn't dress for the water today (which was a mistake).

As we drove the main street of Cocoa Beach, we passed Ron Jon's Surf Shop, a complex of 3 buildings now, I think.  We see billboards advertising this shop all over Florida, especially along I-75.  We have been to this area once before with Bridgette and her cousin Tyler about 10 years ago, and we had stopped in this store.  We also had gone to the pier and had lunch at a restaurant out on the boardwalk.    We finally found that today--it was one street over from A1A.  The beach was very busy.  Cocoa Beach just runs into Cape Canaveral, so we drove through it too.

Patrick Air Force Base lies on A1A Highway just below Cocoa Beach.  When we passed it going north, we saw several planes on the ground.  On our way back through, one of them was practicing take-offs and landings and we got a pretty good look at it.

We stopped in Indian Harbour Beach, just north of Melbourne Shores, for lunch, then headed back to camp.  We got back about 3:00 from our drive up the coast.  Meanwhile, the other Froeschkes had actually gone out in the boat this morning to our play spot yesterday.  They had hoped to practice some snorkeling but it was too windy, so they didn't stay too long.  John's depth finder developed a problem which made navigating the lagoon a bit difficult.  After they came back and had lunch, they headed south to Ft. Pierce to check out the boat ramps down there.  There is a small aquarium down there they usually go to, so they got that worked in as well.  By the time they got back to camp, we had left to go to dinner in Sebastian, but we finally connected with them just before dark.  We sat outside for a little while, but we felt like we were getting bit so we called it a night.  Not much later, the rain finally came.  

They saw a snake (Catalina saw two) and an exotic lizard in Ft. Pierce.  That's all the wildlife I heard about.

Tomorrow is another day of watching the weather to decide our activities.  Joe and I need to get some serious fishing in sometime, since we have caught one fish between us.  Maybe that will happen tomorrow.

Day 3 at Indian River

 7-12-2021 Monday

Today was a busy day.  Our plan didn't quite go the way we thought -- a threat of rain was back in the forecast this morning so we delayed our start a little.  Bridgette started her day with an early run in the campground (yes, we know she is a little nuts).  She said the heat is what stopped her, not the cardio, so she thinks she needs to go a little earlier tomorrow.   Joe went up to get more bait, and by 9:15 it seemed safe to head out.  We went to a different spot, over by the inlet to the Atlantic Ocean.  The water was just a little cooler over here (refreshing), and clearer.  The fishing wasn't much better, but a few were caught.  But the wildlife was awesome here.  As we pulled in, John spotted a bonnethead shark swimming away.  He said if you see one, there are usually more in the area.  As soon as we got out of the boat, Bridgette and the kids found some brittle star(fish).  They carefully picked them up so we could see them.

As we got in the water to begin fishing, Bridgette and the kids explored our island.  They spotted a rabbit on the backside of the island.

But then Andrew made the find of the day -- a little seahorse!  The kids always have to touch every critter, so Catalina came over to hold it too.

John and I were fishing, Joe took a little time to get started, I think he was re-rigging his line.  I had one hit, but missed my fish.  A little later, John caught one -- one of those bonnethead sharks he had seen earlier.  It put up quite a fight, but he got it in.  He loves catching those fish because they do put up such a fight -- it took him a few minutes to land it.

We fished for another hour or so, but the only other fish caught was a catfish by Andrew and a small puffer fish by John (needless to say, Joe and I were skunked again.).

The kids spent most of their time exploring, catching small critters in the butterfly net (until it broke).  They saw some sergeant major tropical fish too, I don't know if Andrew caught any of them in his net or not.   By the time we left there, they had several specimens in a bucket.

We saw manatees here too.  Three swam right past John and Bridgette, and then in front of the boat where I was.  I only got a picture of their shadow, but I did see one poke his nose out of the water.

We saw a dolphin, and a stingray.  And a really awesome sight -- 3 large eagle rays jumping clear out of the water!  They jumped at least 3 times.  (It's good to fish with marine biologists so they can identify everything we see, or catch.)

We finally gave up on this spot and moved over to check out a sandbar in the middle of the lagoon.  We saw several people in the water here, and there was some seagrass, but it didn't look too promising for fishing -- very shallow.  So we played in the water.  Catalina started off jumping from the boat into the arms of her dad.

We all got in the water, which was very nice and clear.  

Andrew got back in the boat to get a football, then that game was on.

Catalina decided to be brave and jump in the water on her own, so that occupied her for a while.

Then everyone cooled off.

When it was time to head in for lunch, Bridgette and Catalina took the bucket of sea critters over to the sea grass bed and set them free.  

We got back to camp, had lunch, played Mexican Train with the kids, then took a nap.  While we napped, the rest of them went fishing off the back of the boat.  Andrew caught a keeper -- mangrove snapper.  But John said they probably caught 20 fish in that time, the rest of them small.

Our dinner plan was to boat over to Sebastian for dinner at Capt. Hiram's but a storm was back in the forecast so we drove over.  While we were there, it absolutely poured.  It's an open-air restaurant right on the lagoon, but they lowered the plastic windows when our table started getting wet.

We had a beautiful blue heron right outside our window that posed for us.

After dinner, we made a trip to Walmart (Bridgette forgot to pack shorts for Catalina, so she only had dresses and leggings to wear, besides her swim suits).  Then we stopped for ice cream.  Our final excitement of the day was a drive on the Jungle Trail on the way back to camp -- a dirt road through "hammocks of palms and other coastal wetland species."  It's 7.8 miles long, but it took us 45 minutes to drive it because we followed John at a speed of about 2 mph (and he made frequent stops).  We have driven this trail every time we have been here, but only seen crabs before.

Tonight we lucked out and got to help a turtle across the road.

We saw plenty of crabs too, and John's group saw a snake, but we missed that.  And a rabbit.  We missed the rabbit but didn't get too excited about that since we have plenty of rabbits in our yard at home.

We have rain forecast again tomorrow, so we will see what the day brings.  The forecast changes every time I check the weather on my phone, so it could be anything, anytime.

Day 2 at Indian River

 7-11-2012 - Sunday

John got to sleep in this morning until Catalina pulled the blankets off him to wake him up.  She came over to check on us and told us she had to get her dad up.  John said they had the temperature down to about 40 degrees and he was snuggled in.   But once up, then he got busy, ran up to the bait shop for bait, took the boat over and launched it.  I offered him coffee but he got that in the bait shop so he did everything on his own.  After we all had breakfast, we loaded up the boat and headed out, about 9:15.  It was already pretty warm, and there was no breeze.  He drove us over to a nearby island where he had luck before, and we did catch a few fish there.  John caught one as soon as he cast out, then Andrew caught one.  We ended up with 4, 1 for John, 2 for Andrew and 1 for me.  But Andrew caught the best one, a small sheepshead.

We moved across the water to another island we have fished before. 

The good thing about fishing here is that we can get in the water and cool off.  Joe, John and I started fishing; Catalina and kids did a little exploring (they found an anemone and some crabs).  

 Here, we wade out in the lagoon, the water is quite shallow.  John caught a catfish here, but the rest of us didn't have any luck.  We did see a couple dolphins pretty close.  We stayed about 1 1/2 hours, then it got to be time to head in for lunch.  It had gotten cloudy, and we could hear thunder in the distance, so we loaded up.  We were ready to get out of the sun for a while.

John got a little help driving us in.  I forgot to take a picture of Andrew, but here's Catalina at the helm, taking us under the bridge to our campsite.

We got the boat unloaded, then went into our campers to cool off and have some lunch.  The sun drove me and Joe inside again for the afternoon, but the other Froeschkes spent most of the afternoon in the water right in front of our campsites.  Andrew went for a long swim.  Joe and I came out about 5:00.  Grandpa played ladder golf with Andrew and I took Catalina over to the playground.  I found a bench in the shade by the playground so it wasn't too bad over there. She played until it was time for dinner.

We had dinner inside tonight, but John and Joe got a campfire going (84 degrees and a campfire!) and before we called it a night, they roasted marshmallows for s'mores.  Both kids were a mess from the marshmallows so John took them over to the showers, and Joe and I came in to watch the Suns game.  

We didn't have any rain today, just heat and humidity.  But rain is in the forecast tomorrow, thunderstorms including the possibility of hail.  The plan is to be on the boat by 8:00 so we can be back in before any weather front moves in.  We can do without the storms and hail, but a break in the heat would be nice.  And maybe fishing will be better tomorrow.