Merry Christmas

It was weird to spend Christmas away from family. This isn’t the first time we haven’t been home – a few years ago, Chris, his parents and I spent Christmas in the jungle in Belize. And last year, we had our very first Christmas (celebrated on Christmas day) in our own apartment due to the pandemic. But this time, we were far from everyone we know and love.

Yesterday, we took a morning walk on the beach and stopped off at one of the little local grocers in Vero to get a few last minute things. It was one of those really cute little shops that has really nice stuff, and I had to stop myself from going wild. We did end up getting pimento cheese (I’m now addicted), and I finally found stone ground grits, and we picked up a couple other things I forgot while we were at the store. I spent the morning doing laundry and we filled our fuel and water tanks, then we headed into town to go to the beach. We had a super late lunch at El Sid (the quesadilla was really good!), and we ran into a couple from the marina. I had met Karen while doing laundry, and she and her husband Kevin asked us to join them for lunch. We had a really nice chat, and while it meant we didn’t get much beach time, it was really nice to spend time making new friends.

This morning, Chris made cheddar & asparagus omelettes and bacon along with cheesy grits (which were to die for!). I called home and we chatted with my family for a couple hours, and then we went to Waldo’s. We’d only meant to get drinks and an appetizer, but since they were doing their Christmas dinner menu, we ended up getting a big meal. Again, we didn’t end up spending as much time on the beach as we’d planned, but we still got an hour or so before we headed back to the boat.

Chris made a mushroom wellington recipe that he’d found on NYT cooking (I do miss getting the printed paper just for the food section), and it was incredible. We listened to Christmas music, did several weather checks, and made sure everything was ready for our morning departure.

It’s weird to think that tomorrow morning we’ll be leaving the ICW for the last time and by the end of the day, we’ll be leaving the country for the first time on our own boat.

IMG_0485

IMG_0492