We’ve begun our tour of the east coast.  I’m having trouble remembering that we are now traveling north.  We’ve been traveling south for a lot of months.  I’m so excited about all we get to see on this coast but a little sad that we’ve made that turn north which means we’re over half done with this trip.  We spent just shy of a week in Ft. Lauderdale when we got back.  Madelyn lost a tooth.  She’s had four loose ones since we left Chicago 7 months ago and one of them finally fell out!

We spent a day at the West Palm Beach boat show.  We’ve been boat shopping after the Bahamas feeling like we need a different style of boat to comfortably do more island cruising.  So since we came back from the Bahamas early we figured what better place to do that than Ft. Lauderdale and the West Palm boat show.  We met up with Marilyn and Scott from Lady Catherine for lunch and to catch up.  We met them in the Bahamas and it was fun to catch up.  The girls loved the mega yachts at the show (no we aren’t in the market but it was super fun to take a tour of one with a hot tub, elevator and a zillion bedrooms).  We looked at two other boats in Ft. Lauderdale and found one we really like.

 

 

We also had time to visit with Chris and Ozzie from E dock in Chicago!  We had a great day grilling and swimming and hanging out at their place.  It was great to catch up with them as well!

 

 

The Wilson family made their way north from the Keys as we left the Bahamas.  We were so excited to meet up with them again.  They are one of the two other families doing the Loop right now.  They traveled up to Pompano Beach.  We had a rental car so we drove up there a few times.  Their marina had a great pool and it was a close walk to a fantastic ice cream place and the Pompano Beach.

Gorgeous beach and wonderful playground.  The kids had so much fun.  The waves were WILD that day.  We brought the wind back with us from the Bahamas.  The girls played in the sand and with the boogie boards.

We left Ft. Lauderdale last Tuesday and headed north to Lake Worth, North Palm Beach marina.  We found a Thai place by the marina for dinner. We haven’t had Thai in months so all of us, except Madelyn, were excited!  But she does love edamame and had fun with the chop sticks.

The next morning we pulled out and met the Wilsons in the ICW – they were also there but in a different marina.  We traveled north together.  It was a pretty trip with lots of bridges and it was fun to watch everyone enjoying the water.  We passed the Jupiter lighthouse – we may trek back south a bit and check Jupiter out some more.

We pulled into the St. Lucie River and anchored together at Hoggs Cove.  We rafted up and the kids immediately jumped in. We got the lily pads down and the noodles out and everyone got in.  All 10 of us!  It was fun to be together and let the kids hop back and forth between boats playing.  They went to sleep and the adults got to visit.  And then the next morning they were playing again first thing.

The girls took out the Wilson’s paddle board and kayak and all took turns with the paddling of each.  The current got the better of AnnaMay and Molly on the paddleboard and Ella took Maddy and paddled out to get them in the kayak.

We pulled out around noon and headed back to the ICW to head north to Ft. Pierce.  Quite the current in the intersection of the St. Lucie River, St. Lucie Inlet and the ICW.  That mixed with wind that also seemed to appear out of nowhere made for some quick maneuvers.  We got turned into the ICW heading north and it all seemed fine again.  We had AnnaMay and Ella on our boat with us.  We got to Ft. Pierce and had planned to anchor that night.  We went to drop AnnaMay and Ella off at the fuel dock in the harbor first.  But Mother Nature intervened again.  The winds picked up considerably and the current was crazy strong.  We could barely get into the harbor.  We were being blown sideways in the channel and it got really shallow.  We got into the harbor with the Wilsons behind us.  Needless to say we decided to stay.  There was no chance that we could make it back out through that channel in the wind and current.

I got up early and walked the next morning and caught a beautiful sunrise.

Saturday Ft. Pierce has a pretty famous farmer’s market.  It lived up to it’s reputation.  We stocked up on a lot of fresh fruits and veggies, really good cheese, fresh squeezed juice and more.  Ft. Pierce has a smaller version on Wednesdays so we may get to check it out again.  The library is also right next to the marina so we’ve been there a couple of times as well.  The girls and grownups have enjoyed the time together.  The winds have once again altered plans and instead of a sad goodbye this morning both families are both now staying until Thursday.  Nina (the Wilson’s 20 year old daughter) babysat for all 5 little girls on Friday night and we got to go out for an adult dinner!  It’s been a LONG time since we’ve had a dinner out so it was a treat to eat kid free.  Thanks Nina!

Sunday Mike and Leann from Rowe Boat made their way to North Palm Beach in preparation to cross to the Bahamas.  We were able to go see them for lunch and spend the afternoon visiting and catching up with them.  It was great to see them and we hope they had as fabulous a time as we did in the Bahamas!

We had hoped to visit the Manatee Observation and Education center here today but it was closed on Mondays.  So after school the girls all got together to try to paddleboard and kayak in the wild winds.  They have had great time playing on the docks, going back and forth from boat to boat, meals together, etc.  Thursday is going to be a hard goodbye.  The Wilsons have to head north and we are staying in FL a bit longer taking our time with all the grandparents coming to visit this month.  We’ve already made potential plans to see them in the fall as we make our way south out of Canada.

We will try the Manatee center again tomorrow and potentially head somewhere on Thursday.  Stay tuned!