Day 8 at Indian River

 7-17-2021 - Saturday

We had made tentative plans for our nephew Mike and Lisa Sullivan to drive up today to visit, but since we changed our plans and packed up to leave, that didn't work out.

We did NOT sleep in this morning.  We got up at 5:30 to go fishing at 6:30.  we even got to see the sunrise,  

And we were not the only ones out early, but there were not many of us.

Joe didn't exactly pop right out of bed, but he did manage to drag himself out.  I think he is still half asleep here.

we passed under the bridge and into the Sebastian River.  We were surprised to see alligators in the river here, we thought it would be too brackish but I think we saw 5.  

John stays busy on these fishing trips.  besides driving the boat, and taking care of his and andrew's poles, and sometimes mine, I really don't know how he ever catches a fish.  but he does.  He spotted some kind of shark fin out of the water, so he grabbed a pole and cast it a few times toward it, but it didn't grab it.

It was a clear morning, and we saw 3 ultra-lites overhead.  eventually, they came right down the river above us.

we caught several catfish, again, a couple mangrove snappers, and andrew caught a red drum.  It had 8 spots on it, which is very unusual.  My picture isn't very clear (the fish moved obviously) but you can see some of the 8 spots.

Here's our fishermen, hard at it.  we had some kind of shark playing with our lines, we hooked it 4 times but it cut our line every time.  andrew was so excited to try to catch it.  John first thought it was a black tip shark, but got a better look at it and decided it was probably a bull shark.  (I had to go check with andrew on the technical names of these sharks).  too bad none of us could catch it.  andrew hooked it twice, me once, and John once.  then we all had to tie on new line.  but we eventually ran out of bait. 

so then all we could do was head back to camp.  we did see a big white bird on this ride, andrew told me it was a snowy egret and I should take a picture of it.  so I did.  He said it is pretty rare to see them.

My shift key on the computer keeps getting stuck from my sugar disaster making the cake.  Joe has sprayed the keys several times but apparently haven't gotten that one cleaned out yet.  I finally got tired of the caps lock so I just went with it.  

we went back to camp and immediately started packing up.  It was hot so it was an ordeal, but we got it done.  we headed out about 12:30, stopped for lunch, and another stop for fuel, and got home about 4:15.  It was a long drive, but it rained on us a few times so that helped drop the temperature.  It was only 141 miles but seemed to take forever, and we were all tired.  Joe and I are still fighting the bug bites, and didn't sleep very well last night, so that added to the ordeal.  we were glad to be back at the froeschkes, but then the unloading began.  besides laundry, Joe and I didn't have too much to unload.

tomorrow Joe and John are going to start the garage wiring project.  I have laundry to do.  and bridgette has laundry, unloading, grocery shopping, etc.  It will be a busy day.

Day 7 at Indian River

 7-16-2021 - Friday

We slept in again this morning, and found out Bridgette had gone back to Vero Beach for the exercise class.  John had the kids inside, so Joe and I went in to Melboune Shores for breakfast and to get some more itch cream.  We stopped at a couple of yard sales and I found some horses for Catalina to add to her collection (she probably has 100 already).  I found a couple books I thought Andrew might like, too.

John and Andrew were fishing at our campsite when we got back.  They had caught a red snapper, but then puffer fish kept taking their bait.  So they moved down to the dock at the boat ramp.  When they came back, Andrew came over to play Rack-O and the rest of them went swimming here at the campsite.  Meanwhile, some new campers moved in next to us.  They spotted a raccoon in the weeds next to the water (we had seen it when we first got here).  They took some watermelon over to entice it out of the weeds, and it finally did come out.

I had a birds-eye view from the dinette table in our RV, and I saw the raccoon come out again and sneak up under their easy-up and grab a lunchable.  They saw him then and chased him back into the weeds, but he kept sneaking back up for more food.  

He kept coming back for more, and they kept trying to scare him off.  John said it had visited his campsite several times, and gotten into their trash.

The kids went home for lunch, and Joe and I took a nap.  Everyone was tired from our long day in the sun yesterday.  When we got up, they had left to go to a turtle sanctuary in the area.  When they got back, I gave Catalina her horses, and that put me back in her good graces.  Then we all went into Melbourne Shores to Texas Roadhouse for dinner.  John and Bridgette decided to go home tomorrow evening since it was so hot and humid here.  We are going for a boatride up the river early in the morning, then I think that will be the end of this vacation.  I do not recommend Florida in July.

Day 6 at Indian River

 7-15-2021 - Thursday

We all slept in a little this morning.  Bridgette decided to drive into Vero Beach for an exercise class at 9:00 but that was more energy than any of the rest of us had.

Its not supposed to rain for the next 2 days.  Of course, we all know how reliable that weather forecasting here is. When Joe got up at 9:00 (with a little coaxing from me), I gave him a morning update -- Suns lost, Bridgette had gone to Vero Beach, it isn't supposed to rain today.  He headed out the door for his coffee (we had set our coffee maker outside so John could get a cup every morning), and said "it's raining!"  So much for my update.  We entertained the kids again with Mexican Train, then Andrew started lining up all the dominos, in order, which was good because he had dumped them all yesterday on the dash of the RV and we weren't sure if he found them all.  That was right after my cake disasters.  Just before he finished, his dad came in and something happened that made them all fall, even though Joe had John coming in very carefully.

When Bridgette got back, they decided to drive over to Sebastian for lunch, then to go out on the water, swimming and fishing.  We got on the water about 2:15 and played for an hour or so, just to cool off.

John had thrown a fishing line in from the boat, and when he checked it later, a catfish had managed to get on his hook.  Joe finally decided to get in the water, and he just started fishing right away.  He caught a catfish too, then he hooked into something big.  It took a little while for him to get it in, John grabbed the net, and Joe finally brought it in -- a 10-12 lb catfish.  

That inspired the rest of them, so more fishing lines hit the water.

Andrew caught one then.

As captain, John gets to spend a lot of time taking fish (especially catfish) off hooks, tying hooks back on, etc.  The kids usually do get their own bait (shrimp) though.  Joe caught another one, and came dragging it in over his shoulder.  It was just a normal size one though.

And another one.

Meanwhile Andrew got distracted -- he's over picking crabs and other sea creatures off the post until his dad gets a fish on, then he rushes over and cranks it in.

I finally couldn't stand it anymore, I got my pole out and headed over to the hotspot.  I caught one pretty quick.  So I drug mine in over the shoulder too.  But Joe was the only one that caught the big one.  John guessed we might have caught about 15 catfish there.

We continued to fish until about 5:00, but then they quit biting so we loaded up and headed back over to Cap't Hirams for dinner on the harbor.  We got a little damp on that drive.  Then we headed to the mangrove area we fished yesterday, which is just past our campground a little ways.  This is a pretty ride through the tunnel of mangroves, but it gets pretty buggy back here.  There are always lots of big birds here, including osprey.

Joe got to cuddle with the kids on this ride.

We stayed here until about 8:00, almost dark.  John managed to anchor the boat right in the hotspot again and the kids were bringing in the fish one right after another.  Joe and I each just caught one (his bit his finger).  Mine was so little I gave it to John for bait, which was a mistake because it led to another boatride back to the inlet where we had seen the sharks the other day.  Bridgette likes to fish with live bait fish for sharks.  So, just before dark, we headed down the lagoon, getting soaked by the splashes, to get back to that spot.  I did get a nice picture of the sunset.

She got one big hit but missed it, and of course it took her bait fish, which was an Atlantic Croaker.  John informed us that it is illegal to use game fish for bait, but this particular fish is not considered a game fish, so it was ok.  So we felt our way back to the campground in the dark.  We had more bug bites, on top of the ones we got the last couple days, so we were pretty miserable.  And we were very tired.  

Our week here is fast coming to an end.  The weather is miserable, but it certainly helps to get in the water.   Playing games inside with the kids has been a lot of fun, and a life saver for us because we get to stay in the air conditioning.  I'm just not sure where we can go to find cooler weather when we leave Florida.

Day 5 at Indian River

 7-14-2021 - Wednesday

I made a mistake about the Jungle Trail, it's 7.8 miles instead of 14.5.  I guess it extends the other direction as well.  So I went back and changed that in my blog. I hate to give out bad information.

After the prediction yesterday of rain all day today, that didn't happen at all.  They finally took rain out of the forecast.  But we hadn't planned on an early start because of the forecast, so John built a early fire.

Not sure if the kids are harassing Grandpa, or the other way around while they wait for John's campfire to take off.  Grandpa likes to create chaos, so it could be either way.

Who says you can't have roasted marshmallows for breakfast???

The guys decided to drive over to the inlet and fish off the jetty.  I chose to stay at the camper.  Joe still hadn't caught any fish here, so I thought I would give him a chance to catch up with me (and my one fish).  I read for a while, got sleepy, and took a nap.  Meanwhile, Bridgette is looking all over for me, called me, Catalina knocked on the door, texted me, called John (who didnt't answer).  She finally decided I must have gone fishing with the guys.  When I woke up, I texted her back and she was surprised to find me still at the camper.  The guys got back with the fishing report, Joe had caught 3, Andrew 1, John none.  I guess they fished off the catwalk by the jetty (I couldn't figure out exactly where Joe was telling me.)

Anyhow, I decided to make a banana cake with the bananas that were getting too ripe on the counter.  Well, that was a disaster, and the kids were standing by to help (I created all my own disasters though).  While looking in an overhead cabinet for my mixer, I knocked a jar out of the cabinet, which hit my mixing bowl with some of the ingredients already in it, knocked it over into the sink.  Then I had to guess how much stuff I had lost.  I could see one egg had fallen into the sink.  So I made the adjustments I guessed at.  My next disaster was trying to get the sugar into my measuring cup, which had a small opening.  I didn't have a small cup so I thought I could just pour it in from my canister.  Well, it had clumped up, so a big clump came out over the table, including on my computer keyboard, and the floor.  I'm still dealing with some keys sticking on my keyboard, even though I thought I had got them cleaned off with a little bbq brush I had in the drawer.  I didn't have the right size cakepan so I used a different one and had to keep adding time to the oven to get it done.  Then I knocked over a glass of soda that went all over the table and the chair cushions at the table.  The kids thought this was hilarious -- me, not so much.

Finally, I got the cake baking, and we played Mexican Train.  Then John came over and suggested we go fishing for a while, so when the cake got done, we loaded up and headed out into the Lagoon.  It's 5:00 by now, and we are hoping it will begin to cool off soon, but that didn't work either.  He took us to the area we had fished before, right in the mangroves, and there was no breeze.  He anchored the boat into a corner of the mangroves, and Joe and the kids were fishing off the back.  Bridgette was helping Catalina, and they were all bringing them in one after another -- small ones, but they were kept busy.  Andrew caught a catfish, they all caught mangrove snappers and pinfish.  Then Andrew caught a stingray.  We also caught a few tree limbs, in and out of the water.

Meanwhile, John and I were fishing off the front of the boat.  We were catching a few small ones too, but not at the rate they were in the back.   Of course, John doesn't get to fish too long at a time, between taking fish off the hook, re-tying the kids' lines, getting lines off the trees, etc.  Bridgette was doing her share too, especially with the ones Catalina was catching.  And Joe was helping Andrew.  (Ijust try to stay out of the way and not cause any problems.)  Finally, it just got too hot there, and the bugs were biting, so we moved back over to the island by the inlet where we fished yesterday.  We all waded out into the water to cool off.  I was the only one fishing to start with, and I caught a catfish right away.  Then I caught another one.  And suddenly Andrew has a pole in the water, so does John and Joe.  Bridgette and Catalina are catching the Sea Stars again (Andrew had been finding them too, but he gave that up after I caught 2 fish).  They learned, when they went to the aquarium yesterday, that the ones they had found were not "brittle sea stars" but instead were called "9 armed sea stars."  And they found several of them again.  Andrew caught a catfish, and John had a couple good hits, but he never got one in.  We fished until almost dark (8:00) then made our way back to the campground.  It was definitely cooler now, especially since all of us were wet.

We all got showers, had a bite to eat, then called it a day.  Another day in the books!

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.