Shadowmeboy's 2022 Encore Christmas and New Year's Southern Caribbean Cruise Adventure

shadowmeboy · March 29, 2023

December 19th, 2022

Edgewater, Florida

So we were plum exhausted when we went to bed, so we slept really well. We woke up refreshed and ready to go exploring. As we woke up later than normal we had breakfast at my parents house and I got some videos and pictures downloaded from the cameras.

We hit the road and headed for Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

A different kind of bird 😉

We stopped at the Manatee Observation Deck along the Haulover Canal inside Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

The guys in the boat were having good luck fishing.

We got to see the drawbridge open to let a sailboat through.

We also saw a dolphin!

A few pelicans had perched on the bridge wings for easy fishing.

Unfortunately, the Manatees were not hanging out at this location today.

Haulover Canal

shadowmeboy · March 29, 2023

We drove through the Black Point Wildlife Drive. This is a 7 mile long one-way drive, with tons of birds and Wildlife! You do need to purchase a Refuge pass to go through the drive.

Turtles hanging out in the water!

Love the reflection on this one!

These birds had bright red beaks.

shadowmeboy · March 29, 2023

More Black Point Wildlife Drive!

A different bird right there!

shadowmeboy · March 29, 2023

These birds were all in a line.

Alligator sunning himself on a sandbar across the pond.

shadowmeboy · March 29, 2023

The day was beautiful and in the high 70's. At home it was in the high single digits!

Palm Trees for Susan!

Some of the birds try to blend in with the plants!

shadowmeboy · March 29, 2023

The number of birds of different kinds was amazing to see!

Moving car and moving birds, not a good combo

shadowmeboy · March 29, 2023

Not sure what was in the water that was so attractive, but the water stunk. The birds liked it for some reason.

shadowmeboy · March 29, 2023

The pink colored birds were cool to see.

shadowmeboy · March 29, 2023

We had an amazing time going through the Black Point Wildlife Drive. It is really close to Titusville which is near Port Canaveral. If you have a chance, I recommend visiting!

Here is the video from the drive!

shadowmeboy · March 29, 2023

After finishing the drive, we drove down to Cocoa Beach. My dad was working down there, so we were killing some time before he was off. Then we were going out to dinner that night.

Look at us! All chill and relaxed on the beach in Florida! Enjoying the way above freezing weather!

a better picture without the lady in it!

pano shot

Susan taking a photo of me taking a photo! Probably the pano!

The extent of my venture into the water!

shadowmeboy · March 29, 2023

Carnival Liberty leaving Port Canaveral

So we headed out from the beach, and headed to my dad's favorite restaurant. He works right behind this Red Lobster, so he didn't have to go far!

salad

So we all got the never ending shrimp which was the Monday special. Susan got the coconut shrimp and shrimp alfredo.

Dad got the shrimp skewers and the fried shrimp.

I got the shrimp skewers and the shrimp scampi

Mom got the shrimp scampi and the shrimp fettucine alfredo.

After dinner, Dad headed home, and Mom, Susan, and I had to run into the Orlando area to pick up an order Mom had waiting at a store and hit up Costco. It got dark, so I didn't take any more pictures.

We got home after running the errands and headed to bed as we were still making up sleep from the other night.

TSUmom · March 30, 2023

Your pictures are fabulous!

shadowmeboy · March 30, 2023

5 hours ago, TSUmom said:

Your pictures are fabulous!

Thank you!

shadowmeboy · March 30, 2023

Tuesday, December 20th, 2022

Edgewater, Florida

Finally on East coast time and recovered fully from our trip out to Florida. Then plan for this day was to go finish setting up Grandma's Christmas decorations in her apartment, take her out to lunch, and then see what else unfolded.

Susan and I had helped my Mom and Aunt pack up Grandma's House in Oregon over Memorial Day weekend 2022. Grandma wasn't able to live on her own without assistance, so my Mom and Aunt moved Grandma closer to them in Florida. Since we were down there, we had to go see her!

We picked her up and we went out to lunch at Cracker Barrel in Ormond Beach.

Susan and I enjoy Cracker Barrel as the closest one to us is over 3 hours away.

I always love how they decorate the restaurants!

Mom got a soup as it was a "cold day" in Florida. It was like 50 or 60. Balmy in my book because it was 2 at home.

Chicken salad

Grandma got a chef salad.

Susan went with the classic meatloaf.

I got the Hamburger steak!

We had a good time with Grandma and got her apartment all ready for Christmas.

On our way back to my parents house, we made a stop Buc-ee's! They had just opened up a store outside of Daytona Beach.

Someone isn't paying attention!

There we go!

No Susan, that is not appropriate cruise attire.

shadowmeboy · March 30, 2023

We were overwhelmed with the huge size of Buc-ee's

Yes Please!

No Susan, we cannot buy one of each.

If we hadn't of just ate, I would have tried one of those Brisket Sandwiches

It just keeps going!

Edited March 30, 2023 by shadowmeboy

shadowmeboy · March 30, 2023

I wanted all of these but we got one to share!

We ended up getting two small souvenirs, candied nuts, and a few X-Large drinks!

Then we headed back to my parents house as it started getting a bit drizzly.

A little later, we headed to the post office to ship ourselves a package of stuff, mainly Christmas gifts, that we didn't want to carry with us on the cruise. We had that box stuffed! Got to love flat rate shipping!

Tuesday ended up being a very chill day, which was well needed.

shadowmeboy · March 30, 2023

Wednesday, December 21st, 2022

Edgewater, Florida

So we decided to go check out a local breakfast spot called the Bagel Barn!

I am a huge bagel fan, so I had a hard time choosing.

Look at all these choices!

Susan got a ham egg and cheese sandwich on a french toast bagel. She was trying to go with a McGriddle style breakfast.

Mom got a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich on a croissant.

I finally chose! I got a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich on a bacon egg, and cheese bagel. It was bacon egg and cheese squared! I will tell you, this was an amazing breakfast! I will go back here next time we go down to see Mom and Dad.

After breakfast, we headed to the beach! New Smyrna Beach to be exact.

Its fun to be able to drive and park on the beach.

It was overcast, but still comfortable.

shadowmeboy · March 30, 2023

So the Daytona Beach/Edgewater/New Smyrna Beach area got hit by both Hurricanes that made landfall in Florida this past fall.

All of these properties used to be behind a dune. They had paths through the dune to get to the beach. As you can see the hurricanes took out most of the dunes.

This picture really shows the decimation of the dunes. The dunes used to extend to where the posts are.

shadowmeboy · March 30, 2023

Susan is standing where my Mom said the dunes used to extend to. As you can see she is a good 20 feet to where the remaining dune is. Also, it was about this point where if you didn't have special tires, you would get stuck in the sand because it got soft.