The trees are awesome around the marina.  Less than a half mile from the marina is a dog park.  How nice is that for Vero Beach residents and all of us transient boaters with dogs.  There are a lot of boaters who have dogs aboard, by the way.

Vero Beach Dog Park

We talked briefly to a gentlemen raking the grounds.  He said it took 12 years to make this dog park a reality.  The first 11 years there was no fence so his dog always ended up down at the water’s edge rolling in some dead fish carcass.  No longer.  It is completely fenced in.  There were lots of big dogs and big dog owners.  We enjoyed watching the dogs romp and play.

The second most impressive thing:  “GolineIRT” (http://www.golineirt.com).  The impressive thing?  The bus is free.  Clean.  On time!!  Very nice.

GoLine bus

Route 1 goes right by the Vero Beach City Marina and takes us either to the beach OR to the city.  The city route is just one of many.   Without having to go the the “Hub”, we got off at the Publix grocery store.  Across the street is a West Marine Express store for you every Marine need.  How convenient is that?  Our first foray using the GoLine was to Publix.  We have never shopped this fast in our life!!  The rule posted on a placard on the inside of the bus is you have to carry your goods onto the bus in one trip.  No multiple trips to the curb and into the bus.  That makes sense.  We don’t want to inconvenience other bus riders, right?  We shopped for our goods and got back to the bus stop in less than 25 minutes!  That included repacking our food into Wayne’s backpack and my cloth bags.  I think our timing was superb.  We really didn’t know that the bus came back within 25 minutes.  Wayne said this was his “first” ever city bus ride in his 60+ years of living.  Another “first” to write home about!!  We forgot the tomatoes.  Maybe another trip via the bus is in our near future!

It was such a pleasant trip, the next day we took Route 1 bus again, transferred to Route 14 bus and walked to Walgreens.  Then back again directly at the front door of the Vero Beach City Marina.  This bus service makes it so convenient for transient boaters.  We didn’t have to rent a car to ‘stock up’.  Very nice.

The beach route?  Yes, we did got to the beach.  It was windy and cool.  No pictures, though, of sand and surf.  I was feeling sorry for all you ice, snow, sleet family and friends and didn’t want to rub our wonderful weather in your face.   OR… I just didn’t see a good shot?!  We didn’t actually walk in the sand or dip our toe in the water.  Maybe later.  We had lunch at a ocean side restaurant that was so-so.  Nothing special really.

BUT, I did see some artwork that was fascinating along our walk from the bus stop to the restaurant area. Looks like the Ponce deLeon story.  This was outside of a hotel.  No story to go along with the art.  As a kid growing up in Florida, you had to learn the story of “the discover of America with Ponce DeLeon” and the quest for the fountain of youth.  yada yada yada.  Can’t remember too much of the story since grade school has been long gone in my memory cells.  Suffice to say, those helmets give it away.  Conquistadors!!  Coming to the New World all in the name of Spain.  The angel in the sky?? Guardian angel that hovers over us all?!?!  Pretty neat 3 D casting.

Conquistators

Right around the corner was this artwork.  It is a tile piece imbedded in concrete wall.  But, around the wall, you can’t tell anything significant.  Just a side of a building selling Tshirts or a restaurant.  Something definitely touristy.  So, why here?

Asian artwork inset

Again. No story.  Just a random piece of art that I just cannot explain, fully.  Distinct.  I thought it was unusual enough to catch my eye.  I looked around and didn’t see any other insets in the side of buildings.  One of these days, I will have to find out what this means.

In the meantime, as we were waiting for the bus today, we saw at least 3 dozen of black birds? or crackles? or something congregating at the top of this tree.  Of course, “The Birds” movie by Alfred Hitchcock came to mind.  As it always does when we see birds congregating randomly in large numbers.

Birds congregating

Ka-Kaw.  Ka-Kaw!!

Lastly, tonight’s shot from Vero Beach, Florida.

Vero Beach – Night Time

Night- Night