Cocoa Beach 2011 Day 7,8, & 9

Friday April 29, 2011
 We had to get up at three o'clock and get Jewel and the kids' things in the van and leave for the airport in Orlando.  They were flying home to Blissfield at 6:15 on the Spirit airlines.  They will be home in two and one half hours, quite different than our trip down.  We got them at the airport in plenty of time and they were able to check in quickly outside the front doors.  We drove back to Jack's condo and watched the Royal Wedding with Cathy.  This was 6:00 in the morning! 

Prince William and Kate Middleton

By the time it was over, we all needed naps, so we went back to our condo at Ocean Landings and slept until Steve woke us up with mad frantic calls saying he couldn't get in touch with anyone and he needed directions on how to get to either our condo or Jack's.  We told him the best we directions we could and then I texted Cathy telling her Steve was trying to get in touch with her.  None of us have good cell service here.  This was about the time that the launch was scrapped.  We were all so disappointed.  Steve decided to go to Jack's and then they went out to lunch.  We had to check out the next day...Saturday...so we started packing up the things we wouldn't need and put them in the Van.

Jewel called and said they had arrived home safely and it was 41* in Michigan. 
I repeat...I am not going back to Michigan until it gets warm and stays warm! 
Steve, Cathy, and Gene finally came over to our condo.  Steve said they were going to stay until Monday and hoped to see the launching pf the shuttle then, so we decided to stay too.  We don't have anywhere we need to be. I guess Gene ran around with Steve and Mike when they were teenagers, so they had fun talking about old times.

 Lots of good memories for them.  Cathy and I had gone to the grocery store the day before and bought Strip steak, baked potatoes, and corn-on-the-cob.  We used the outdoor grills and just had a wonderful meal.  Gene's wife, Cindy arrived just as we were cooking the steak.   We ate, talked a little longer and then Steve and Cathy went back to Jack's and Gene and Cindy stayed at our Condo in Destany and Tanner's room.

Saturday, April 30, 2011

We woke up fairly early and finished packing and cleaning out the refrigerator and packed everything in the car.  Gene and Cindy had spent the night and they helped us get things packed up and down to the car.  we went to the Resort office to check out and then get checked into our new room.  This was just a motel executive room much smaller and not near as nice as our condo rooms.  It is one room with a bathroom.  It has two queen size beds, a mini fridge, and a microwave.  It is near the front of the resort...not on the ocean beach, but near the first pool.  Steve and Cathy met us and Gene and Cindy at Denny's for breakfast.  Gene treated us with paying for our meal.  then they had to go pick up some furniture and their dogs and go back to there home in Orlando. 
We went with Cathy and Steve back to Jack, Cathy's twin brother's condo.  We visited there for a while and then Jack told us he wanted to go to a tiki bar on the water called Grills, so we all went together. 

 Some of Jack's buddies from the ship were there and we joined them.  Jack's job is to retrieve things that fall off the shuttle into the ocean,  The other three guys, Mario, Jim, and Joe are the ones that use radar to track the things that fall of the shuttle.  Their radar equipment is so good it could track something as small as a bb falling off the shuttle.  Everyone was drinking except me, Cathy, and Mike.  They were also laughing and joking around quite a bit.

 We all had a few snacks and sat outside at a table with a big umbrella. 

My brother Steve and his wife Cathy below.

My sister-in-law Cathy and her twin brother Jack below.

There were a lot of people there.  There was also live music...great songs.  Everyone was raving about how great the Margarettes were, guess my daughter Jewel should have been here...she loves Margarettes!  Jack remembered the way Mike could hold his beer when they were young and kept trying to buy Mike beers.  Mike used to suck down a whole bottle in  one drink...not many guys can do that...and they shouldn't do that...it is not safe.  But finally Mike sucked down two beers in a row and the other guys were quite impressed.  No one else wanted to even try it.  There was a young guy, named Jim, there  who had had a little too much to drink who was trying to get guys to arm wrestle him...finally Jack did and much to the young' guy's surprise, Jack beat him.

 Then everyone was teasing Jim and telling him that he let an old man 60 years old beat him...pretty soon it was a 70 year old man and then an 80 or 90 year old man.  Jack didn't like the way he was aging.  Even the tables around us were joking and laughing.  Jack kept trying to get me to drink and even though I told him that I just didn't like alcohol, he still bought me drinks.  I just gave them to other people at the table.  Maybe I wasn't acting happy enough but I was having a good time.   As we left a young girl in pink came up to me and said she thought I was pretty awesome to not be drinking and to put up with all those drinking guys.  Young Jim, who was pretty far gone by then, heard her and put his arm around me and said he thought I was pretty awesome too, to put up particularly with him.  Before we left a Cruise ship went by.  I can't wait to go on a cruise again.  I want our whole family to go on one together for my big birthday in 2012.

We were going to get BBQ for dinner and Jack and his buddies decided to follow us.  We went to a place called Slow and Low BBQ.  They had calmed down a little but were still trying to drink, but they just didn't seem to have it in them anymore. The meal was pretty good.  By this time we were all pretty tired and decided to go back to our rooms and rest.  Guess we will get together with the Kelley's tomorrow.  Jack has to go out on the ship again to pick up things that fall away from the shuttle.

Today was my sister Lynne's birthday, so I gave her a phone call.  As I said the cell phone service is not good here and it is even worse in this new room....only one place where you can get enough bars to make a call and you better not move from it.  I found that out quickly.  I usually pace when I talk on the phone and I immediately lost my call and had to dial back.  It was a good day...everyone was happy and had fun!