Celebrating 42 Years

Dave and I just celebrated our 42nd wedding anniversary. We had a great time sharing the day with Sue and Len, including a meander out on the Fort Pierce Inlet jetty.

We also went to the Florida Oceanographic Coastal Center in Stuart, where they have nice environmental displays and tours. There is a large lagoon with nurse sharks, sea turtles (that cannot be returned to the wild), and other fish.

The highlight though, was feeding and petting the Cownose Rays and Atlantic Stingrays. 

Inside the center they have aquariums with some of the smaller fish and another favorite, the tiny seahorses.

To top off the day, Sue and Len treated us to dinner out, and who could resist this dessert?

Now we look forward to another 42 years together!

Airboat!

With my sister and brother-in-law visiting us for several days, we decided to try a new experience. Sue and Len suggested taking an airboat ride. Lake Okeechobee is a little over an hour away and Dave made reservations with Kenny from Okeechobee Airboat Rides, and he was the best!

There were only the four of us, so that was even better, so we had lots of personal attention. We even stayed out longer than the one hour tour advertised.

Going through the backwaters was so much fun (sometimes with inches of water) and although we zoomed around, we also went slow so that we could see more. 

Kenny is very environmentally aware and knowledgeable about the lake, birds, plants, and animals, including alligators, which he conveyed info about through the headsets. We even stopped, shut off the engine, and sat and listened to all the swamp sounds. Seeing and hearing the eerie calls of the moorhens, gallinules (including the iridescent purple whose photo below from the internet), and coots brought back memories of when we crossed the Okeechobee Waterway and lake.

Dave was infatuated with the airboat's 6.0 liter, V-8, fuel injected motor and sat in the back with Kenny. 

This was a fantastic outing and we definitely recommend the experience!

Vehicles, Vessels, & More

Yesterday a very windy cold front blew through, so we took the opportunity to go to the Elliott Museum, which is beachside in Stuart. This was another wonderful surprise and we couldn't see everything in one visit. Sterling Elliott loved inventing and came up with prototypes of bicycles that he improved, along with a quadricycle with his patented kingpin steering knuckle. These cycles ended up leading to the eventual invention of the automobile.

Other Elliott inventions included addressing machines and business machines.

The museum is filled with donated vehicles, bicycles, motorcycles, and boats throughout history...

This is a signed 1926 Bugatti and one of the visitors said he looked up its worth... $17 million!?!

1931 School Bus...

Hugh Willoughby's Pelican Hydro-Aeroplane...

There were so many vehicles donated that the museum now has the only one of a kind, 3 level car racking system in an American Museum. It is run by a computer and you can choose which one of the over 50 cars on display you would like to see, and it will come down on a robotic tray and rotate on a turntable to for all to view. 

The second floor had a re-creation of what Stuart looked like in the late 1800's, a hand-carved miniature circus display, Evinrude motors, and much more. The museum also has a gallery that has changing exhibits. In March it will be featuring British Motorcycles, so we know we will return to see that!

Sea Land Air

Dave and I, along with friends Terri, Ken, and Noah visited the Navy SEAL Museum in Fort Pierce a few days ago. This was such an eye opening and informative museum and rated right up there with the Intrepid Museum in New York City. It was very diverse and showed all the aspects of Navy SEALs and all the missions that they have had to participate in. Inside was amazing and outside was too, but it was also fun because you could go on some of the boats, plus there was an obstacle course. What made a big impression on us was the actual lifeboat from the Mersk Alabama that Captain Phillips was rescued from, complete with shot out windows.

Inside they also had a Blackhawk helicopter that you could sit in...

Looks like transiting on land could be fun though...

The guys suited up 😉.

Outside they had the Apollo capsules that the SEALs helped recover.

A Submersible...

There were also quite a few exotic boats that have been used over the years.

Our favorite was the water jet driven Mark 5 (Mk V) Special Operations Craft that could actually fit in a C-5 aircraft.

Then it was on to the obstacle course where Dave and Noah tried doing a few of the easier ones.

Not this one though!

Thank you to the Navy SEALs and all our Armed Forces out there...we salute you!