An Overnight Vacation

I have a little bit of free time on my hands, so I thought I had better catch up on one of the posts I have been wanting to write for some time now.

Way back in May (of this year, at least), The Colonel and I had to renew my military I.D. We decided to go to Patrick Air Force Base which is on the east coast of Florida, near Cocoa Beach instead of the closer, MacDill Air Force Base, in Tampa. Patrick is a more laid back, less congested base than MacDill.

It had been several years since we had been to Patrick and we were looking forward to an overnight vacation tied to the I.D. renewal.

We stayed at the La Quinta Inn in Cocoa Beach. That hotel at one time was co-owned by and home to the original seven astronauts (and their families) during their training while in the Cocoa Beach area .

The lobby of the hotel was sprinkled with historical photos and mementos of the Mercury Seven.

Mercury 7 - Back Row: Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, Gordon Cooper. Front Row: Wally Schirra, Deke Slayton, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter.

Across and down the street from our hotel was a park and to get to the park's beach we had to walk along I Dream of Jeannie Lane.

An informational board at the base of the street sign stated that I Dream of Jeannie was part of Cocoa Beach when a television sitcom ran from 1965-1970 starring Barbara Eden as a 2000 year old female genie and Larry Hagman as an astronaut. The television series was set in and around Cocoa Beach. Barbara Eden visited Cocoa Beach in 1996 when the "I Dream of Jeannie" street sign was placed at Lori Wilson Park.

Here are a few photographs of Lori Wilson Park.

The Colonel and I visited The Dinosaur Store in Cocoa Beach. What a terrific place! A must see! The store has two floors of exhibits on dinosaurs and ancient human cultures. The gift shop was amazing as well.

We had our dinner at our favorite place in Cocoa Beach called Florida's Seafood Bar & Grill. The shrimp there are very delicious!

The next morning we stopped at the Cocoa Beach Pier. It has several shops and a couple of restaurants on it. Rikki Tikki Tavern is at the end of the pier. I was closed at the time we were on the pier. I bought a couple of t-shirts and two coffee mugs (one or two items had a mermaid on them of course).

Cocoa Beach is famous for surfing. It is the birthplace of Kelly Slater. He won eleven world championships for surfing.  He was born in 1972 and is a pro surfer, author, actor and model. He is regarded as the greatest professional surfer of all time. There is a bronze statue of him on his surfboard as you come into Cocoa Beach. (We shopped at Ron Jon's Surf Shop while in Cocoa Beach...I think you have to before they let you leave town).

 As The Colonel and I were standing on the Cocoa Beach Pier, we watched a man (we thought he was around 65 years old) and a young woman (maybe in her mid to late 20's) catching some waves along the beach.

As we stood on the pier, we could see NASA's launch areas in the distance.

It was a quick, overnight vacation but we sure made the best of that limited time.

Throwback Thursday

Another "Blast from the Past" to deconstruct.

I think there are 10 or 11 candles on the store bought (yum) birthday cake (the pic is kind of grainy...it was taken in 1971 or 1972 after all, making it a bit difficult to pin down...love digital cameras). I seem to recall having those eyeglasses (what in the world was I thinking?) in sixth grade, so I was probably having my 11th birthday that day. I also have the straight (although you can see a corona of frizzy curls), parted-in-the-middle, long hair that nearly every girl in the 1970's sported (Marcia!, Marcia!, Marcia!).

As you can see by my dazzling white t-shirt, I was active in 4-H at the time and until I was in high school. I enrolled in the usual activities for a young girl: Baking (I was awarded decent ribbons...I do not care to bake much now as an adult), Sewing (I made a drawstring bag...did not get a stellar ribbon and still not a fan of sewing but wish I had paid better attention and had more discipline back then), Home Furnishings (I refurbished an antique frame and trunk...lots of time and elbow grease involved) and my favorite, Fine Arts (one of my drawings made it to the State Fair where it won a Reserve Grand Champion ribbon).

You can see my younger sister's arm in the picture. She would have her own birthday seventeen days later and between our birthdays would be another sister's birthday...can you say September Sugar Overload?

On the other side of the photograph, opposite my sister's arm, is the hindquarters of my birthday present. It is a Breyer Hereford Bull statue. That was the first of many Breyer cow/bull/calf statues I collected as a youngster. I believe I still have the bull somewhere but all other statues were given away through the years, post marriage...military moves do not lend themselves to the hoarding of collectibles (although Yam's Breyer Horse collection replaced my bovine one).

As you know, I like to look at the background of photographs. In this photograph, the wall behind me is minimally decorated. My mom always had a clock on the wall (you can barely see the bottom of it above me). It was a kit she purchased. The face of the clock was a cross stitch she had to sew before she assembled the clock. If I recall correctly, it was a battery powered clock. I wonder whatever happened to that clock? There is a round, ceramic plate on the wall that looks like it is a basket full of flowers. I do not know where my mom got that. Finally, on the wall you can see a small framed picture. I think it is a Currier and Ives winter scene containing a cabin of some sort. I can see why my mom would have liked that on the wall, she lived in a cabin in for a while as a girl in southern Indiana. She and my dad were married in a little log church also in southern Indiana.

I think it is interesting to see what people choose as "hang-worthy" on their walls. They are important enough to them that they hold special places within their homes.

This "deconstruction" has made me look again at what I have on my walls. I am currently happy with what is displayed upon my walls. I would not mind if they showed up in a photograph that may one day be scrutinized by someone like me and hopefully they would not give them cause to say, "What the heck was she thinking, hanging that on her wall?"

Now, what is piled upon my dining room and coffee tables at any given time is another issue altogether... 

Wordless Wednesday

Marking History: Hickory Bluff Mound

Another county historical marker was dedicated...finally!

On Wednesday, October 9, 2019, the Hickory Bluff Mound historical marker was dedicated at Live Oak Point Park alongside the waters of the Peace River.

Back in 2017, The Colonel, acting as the Chair for the county's Historical Advisory Committee (the committee responsible for getting historical markers to become a reality), asked me to write the text for a new marker about the Hickory Bluff Mound. My Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) chapter is named after Hickory Bluff, an early settlement in the local area and it sponsored the new marker.

DAR ladies at the marker dedication

Why the two year wait for the dedication? Well, a hurricane came through the area and caused some damage to the park and that had to be repaired and gross lack of leadership and management at the county level (not involving The Colonel) caused the delay.

Yam, the county's graphic specialist, designed the marker dedication mailer postcard and event program.

So, finally the time for the dedication arrived. It was a nice morning, albeit a bit foggy. The Colonel began the program with a welcome and introduction of key speakers.

He was followed by one of the county commissioners and then the past Regent of the Hickory Bluff Chapter, Valerie Colbert.

Valerie was followed by Rachael Kangas, Public Archaeology Coordinator from the Florida Public Archaeology Network. She spoke about the historical significance of the mound and the early peoples of the area.

Finally, were the closing comments by the Director of Charlotte County Community Services and the unveiling of the marker.

The marker's text follows:

In 1905, Clarence Bloomfield Moore (1852-1936), a wealthy, amateur archaeologist from Philadelphia excavated a mound located on the northern bank of the Peace River about one half mile north of this site. Moore found the sand burial mound containing bones and pottery sherds dating the mound to the Safety Harbor period (A.D. 900-1725). The Timucua Indians, part of the Safety Harbor culture, lived along the central Gulf coast of Florida. Moore noted that the mound had been badly disturbed prior to his excavation. Early settlement of he Hickory Bluff area may have been the cause of the mound's disturbance. Today there is no evidence of the sand mound.

Charlotte County Board of County Commissioners 2017

To date, I have written five historical markers for the county: The Punta Gorda Army Airfield, The Town of McCall, Hickory Bluff Cemetery, Lt. Carl A. Bailey Cemetery and Hickory Bluff Mound.

The Colonel and I love to stop and read historical markers. Having worked the process of getting a marker from idea to dedication, we can appreciate what goes into making each marker a reality. We are proud to be part of preserving and presenting local history.

Wordless Wednesday