Spending Money

Sunshine Travel Rv Resort – Vero Beach, Florida

Well, after we had the kayaks sold (and cash in our pockets) we did a little shopping :)

That’s a dangerous thing…$850 cash in your pocket and the urge to shop!

Well we came home with about $20!

First stop was to Walmart, where Mr. Al got some new shorts, socks, and a new kayak hat.  We looked at some iPads :)

Second stop was Sam’s club.  Saturday is a great day to go there for “lunch.”  They were giving away free samples and we got the meal, drink and dessert and left full. We each got a nice light weight rain jacket.

Third stop (and most dangerous) was to the Verizon store.  Al’s cell phone hadn’t been working since we got here.  It kept saying “no service.” Mine worked fine so we didn’t understand the problem.  His battery was shot as well.  It turned out there was some setting on his phone that had  gotten changed, which caused the service issue.  He ended up getting a new phone.

While we were there we looked at the iPads and decided to splurge and get one for Al.  He has been without any computer since we’ve been here because we’re too cheap to pay for the internet from the park…which isn’t free.  He’s not a real computer guru, so we thought the Ipad would be nice for him.  Touch screen and little little typing needed!  We considered the Verizon Motorola Xoom, but went with the Ipad. 

We like it so far, but it’s a bit different than my laptop or Droid.  It is taking some getting used to.  He is really enjoying reading some newspapers on it.  He loves his morning newspaper and especially likes the USA Today.  We’re getting it free on the iPad, plus some of his sporting magazines and websites.  He really is enjoying it.  I’ve been told that it is “his”  and I can borrow it on occasion :)

I haven’t yet found many apps that I like.  Mostly what I’ve found are games and we’re not really into games.  Any suggestions for good iPad apps?    It seems it’s easier to find good ones on the Droid.

We went down to Juno and West Palm Beach on Friday and I wanted to post some of the pictures we took since it was so pretty.

The following picture was taken from Phil Foster park, which is under the Blue Heron bridge in West Palm Beach.  It’s a pretty little park and a good place to kayak.

In the Palm Beach area, the Gulf Stream comes the closest to Florida and with it brings in clean, clear water.  The Gulf Stream is like a river of sea water and has a major affect on the weather.  The Palm Beach area usually has some of the clearest and prettiest water in the state and that’s why we always loved PB.  The water gets very deep, very fast near Palm Beach and you never know what kind of marine life you might find.  We did a snorkel in the Gulf Stream one year on our Bahamas dive trip.  The water was some 2000 feet deep, cobalt blue and very, very clear.  It was really cool!

It was very windy the day we went and the surfers and kite surfers were taking advantage.  It wasn’t as cool at the beach as it had been, thankfully.

There were warnings every where due to Portugease Man o War in the water.  Here are the bodies of some dead ones that had washed ashore.  The blue thing you see is puffed up with air and looks like a balloon.  If you step on them, they are dried out and crunchy.  When alive the tentacles from them give you quite a nasty sting. 

This is what they look like in the water, but they are a lot larger than they appear here.

The Portuguese Man o' War has a reputation for swarming in groups of thousands. It is also known for its powerful sting.

They look like a jellyfish, but they really are not. The Portuguese Man o' War is not a single animal.  This is a colony of four kinds of zooids, which are very small, individuals, which are attached to each other.

I don’t know how the surfers avoid getting stung as they didn’t have suits covering their arms and legs.

Some beautiful scenery on the way to West Palm Beach.

This is a very beautiful part or Florida with lots of very expensive homes/mansions.  Many very, very rich people have winter homes in the area.

Palm Beach is home to the very, very rich.  You can drive onto Palm Beach, but don’t plan on parking and looking at the beach.  You’ll get stopped by the police within minutes.  There is parking in town at the restaurants and shops.  It’s fun to window shop where the rich and famous go.  You can also walk along Lake Worth, which is actually not a lake but the intercoastal waters, behind the mansions.  We used to roller blade there and it was fun.  This area has some of the most expensive real estate in the country and it’s very beautiful.  It’s worth a trip to Palm Beach if you’re in the area.  Note…I’m not talking about West Palm Beach.

We also spent some time in Juno Beach and walked out on the pier.  They charged $1 a person to go onto the fishing pier.

This was a real  surfer below and a group of “surfers” on the other side of the pier appeared too be pretending to surf.  They sat out in the breakwater on their boards but never even tried to catch a wave.  I can imagine they their friends, “ I went surfing all afternoon, dude.”  The good surf was on the other side of the pier and a few guys were actually catching some waves.  The others were pretend surfing!

Sunday was cloudy, windy, warm and humid.  We made a run over to Fort Pierce.  We found a few places that will be nice to kayak….one we have kayaks again! 

The new kayaks are scheduled to arrive today via Fed-Ex.  I hope we’re not the last delivery of the day.