Grills Riverside
We hadn’t circumnavigated Merritt Island in a while, so the merry crew of Captain Andy, Dinghy Admiral Annie, Skipper Troy and Boat Bunny First Class Miss Audrey Hopburn motored out of Marina Village on Friday afternoon and dropped anchor at Ski Island, just West of the Port Canaveral Cruise Ports.
The next day we proceeded counterclockwise through the NASA Haulover Canal, down the Indian River, and anchored off of Grills Riverside. Grills riverside has a great dinghy dock so we launched Bonus Track and with Annie at the helm we docked there and had a delicious lunch of fresh fish and frozen drinks. They even had a dinghy dock valet!
Annie, Troy, and Seadee at Grills (look closely over Annie's left shoulder for Seadee).
Back onboard, we rounded the southern tip of Merritt Island and snuck under the Mathers Bridge before anchoring for the night.
Saturday night was the very important rematch between the North Carolina Tar Heels and the Duke Blue Devils. Fortunately, the Tar Heels trounced the Blue Devils and everyone went to bed happy.
Sunday morning proved to be windier than anticipated and we were almost trapped on the south side of Merritt Island, but we did make it home by mid-day. We even fit in an impeller change on the way home. You never know what to expect in a weekend of boating!
The southernmost tip of Merritt Island once held a dragon sculpture known as Annie. The remnants of the green dragon can still be seen today.
A slightly larger ship…
Over the Christmas Break we decided to let someone else cook and steer for a few days and took our first ever cruise — on a cruise ship. Since we live in Merritt Island, Port Canaveral is right next door. In fact, we use the Canaveral Lock routinely to get to the ocean aboard Seadee as it is less than 4 miles away up the Banana River from our home port.
We selected the Carnival Dream for our cruise since it had the itinerary we wanted and generally pretty good reviews. We decided on a 7 day cruise (“Go Big Or Go Home!”) and on December 24th we boarded the ship and began exploring.
Annie & Joel
The Carnival Dream is an enormous vessel! It’s over 1000 feet long with 122 foot beam. The ship was packed on our cruise, and the number of people involved in cleaning and cooking on that ship was dizzying. The food, comedians, and staff were generally pretty good. Our waiter, Joel, was the best waiter on the entire ship. We ate Christmas Dinner at the ship’s steakhouse (The Chef’s Art) and it was excellent, too. The high tea was a bit of fun, and the Serenity Adult-Only area was sooo nice.
The ship docked at Cozumel, Belize, Roatan, and Costa Maya. We were a little disappointed in the cruise ports themselves, but not completely surprised. We are nothing if not spoiled into doing exactly what we want when cruising aboard Seadee. We rode horses in Cozumel, and that was a shore excursion highlight to be sure!
All in all we had a great time and met some wonderful new friends, but it sure was nice to get back in Seadee and be in charge of our own itinerary.
The "whale-tale" exhaust that makes all Carnival Ships recognizable is also on the Dream.
“Jim” Lucas Theatre, Savannah
Well, the photo says it all. While walking around the historic downtown, we stumbled on this beautiful, restored old theatre called the Lucas.
Here’s the story of the restoration and a few photos: In 1986 the owners obtained a demolition permit and made arrangements to turn the once thriving Lucas Theatre into a parking garage. The news motivated a group of Savannah citizens who founded The Lucas Theatre for the Arts. The group pooled their resources, purchased the building and began what would be a $12 million restoration.
With a starting budget of $3 million and a looming workload ahead, the nonprofit Lucas Theatre for the Arts planned to restore the building in just a few years’ time. Several feet of water stood in the seating area, boxes were torn off the wall, all the seats were removed, the roof was leaking and the building had been stripped of its fixtures, all making the original estimated budget overly optimistic.
Supported by donations from Savannahians and celebrities such as Kevin Spacey, Clint Eastwood and the cast and crew of the film “Forrest Gump,” the complete restoration spanned nearly 13 years.
Merritt Island Weather
