Saturday we celebrated Ben’s birthday in Melbourne, FL.  I was surprised Ben didn’t want to spend the day on the water….he commented that he was fine to be stationary for the day and that the water hasn’t been overly kind lately.  The wind and currents have just become annoying.  So, we started the day with donuts and gifts and a lazy morning.

Molly put together a photo grid for Ben and I was able to walk to a CVS that morning and get it printed for her.  She then taught me how to use the photo grid app later in the day and I put one together too.  Love learning about new apps from my 9 year old!

There were manatees and dolphins all over the marina basin.  We watched them for quite awhile from the back of the boat.  We have missed the dolphins and are glad we seem to have found them again.

Ben’s request for the day was to rent a car and run errands.  He said he knows I’d never want to spend my birthday that way but that’s what he wanted to do!  So, off we went to Home Depot, Sam’s Club and Best Buy.  We now have a new rug in our salon, a new shower handle in the girls’ bathroom, and an Amazon echo dot.  I’m not a fan of Alexa but the girls like to talk to “her” all day long.

We closed out the day with a family dinner at The Mansion in Melbourne.  Cute place with interesting drinks, pretty good food and an amazing slice of Oreo ice cream cake for dessert.  We sang at the table and avoided any fanfare from the restaurant.

Sunday morning Madelyn commented, as we were walking down the dock, “this is a nice little place”.  It was indeed.  Before we pulled out Sunday I walked back into town to do a little birthday shopping for the next April birthday in our family.  On my way back to the boat I stopped at the new Seafood Station right by the marina and got a pound of red shrimp for dinner.  We were new to red shrimp.  They are already pink so it was a bit tricky to tell when they were fully cooked but they do curl like Gulf shrimp. We sautéed them up for dinner and they were quite tasty.

We pulled out of Melbourne harbor and traveled about 4 miles to Paradise Blvd. anchorage.  There was only one other sailboat anchored.  We pulled in among the crab pots and enjoyed a beautiful and peaceful late afternoon, sunset and evening.  Madelyn managed to knock out one of her loose front teeth just before bed.  Crazy kid!  She was so excited and it’s now so strange to see the huge gap in her smile!

It’s hard to think about looking at land out the window after seeing such beautiful views each night.  Of course, once I went to go to bed, I reverted back to my frequent anchoring issue of not sleeping!  Anywhere with a current means water hitting the hull.  Many find this soothing. It keeps me up much of the night.  But again I got up this morning to the beautiful and tranquil views and I suppose the trade off is ok.  Closing thoughts on Ben’s birthday weekend…the year is off to a pretty good start.