April 10, 2024 - Stuart, Florida

Wednesday

We talked about our plans yesterday for what we wanted to do today, and here we go:

No more lumps on a log!!  We are going to ride our bikes to the Florida Oceanographic Society Coastal Center on Hutchinson Island.  It is very windy, so the bike ride over the two bridges should be interesting.  We had a really fun time there.  We were able to pet the stingrays, touched sea urchins, saw huge fish, sharks, and sea turtles.  We also took the nature walk through the mangroves and walked through the aquarium exhibits building.

After purchasing a manatee Christmas ornament, we rode bikes across the parking lot to Publix and picked up chicken tenders and fruit for lunch.  We went to the Stuart Beach picnic area and ate lunch, and the birds were yelling at us the entire time for some food.  

We then walked the beach.  There were no shells, but I did pick up a small amount of garbage.  The wind was crazy, and the sand being blown around felt like needles on our legs.  We left the beach and sat on a shaded park bench for an hour so we could walk across the street to see the 4:00 car show in the Elliot Museum parking lot.

I noticed as we sat on the bench that the contrast between the clear blue sky and the greenery was pretty, and the light pole for the basketball court looked like a cross, so I had to take a picture.

While we waited for 4:00, we texted with Ashley and Brittany.  They arrived today at Fort Lauderdale for a quick vacation.  We hope to see them one day this week before they go home.  

At exactly 4:00, we walked over to the car show.  Well, it took is exactly two minutes to view all of the cars...  all seven of them.  What a bust!  We were cracking up.

We rode our bikes back to Stuart and, since we weren't hungry for supper, stopped at Kelwin's for ice cream.  Then we rode back to the marina and relaxed for a while.  Our attention was suddenly on a catamaran that kept going back and forth by the shore.  We weren't sure what he was doing.  Finally, the catamaran tried to tie to a mooring ball, but couldn't get it connected.  

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's.......  Super Kip to the rescue!  

Kip took the dinghy over to the catamaran and helped him tie to the mooring ball.  The guy said he only had one engine and was by himself.  Way to go Kip!

We had a fun day today, and I'm sure we will be tired from the biking and the wind.