Cocoa Beach

Melbourne Marina was a good place to stop for the night.  It is a tightly-run marina and pretty much a one-man operation.  Don't expect to be greeted with a smile or hustle, but once you finally get in and get tied and plugged in you can be sure to get a good night's rest.

Our cruise from Melbourne to Cocoa Village Marina was a straight shot north in smooth water.  Our friends that met us in Melbourne live here and invited us to stay Friday night at their condo.  We had a good visit and caught up on what's going on in their lives while enjoying exploring old town Cocoa and taking long walks along the Atlantic shore.  The food and atmosphere here were just as you would expect, a 10+.  Many Looper boats were found with their white burgees flying, and we got to swap boat cards and meet some new Loopers!

That's the news and here are some views:

We are here

Route from Melbourne to Cocoa Village, FL

Our morning view from our friends, Jeff and Annette's balcony. 

Our long time friends, Jeff and Annette, welcomed us to Melbourne, FL with dinner at Smokey Bones. We all had smoked wings and a great time catching up

 Annette was practicing her photography with her new camera.  We're on board Dash Away with a fellow looper Captain Mike

This is the outside dining area at Ossorio's Bakery and Cafe in Cocoa Village.

What a lovely place to have lunch before we "launched" into shopping. They even have homemade ice cream!  I had the banana caramel nut.  It was a 10!  

A yummy lunch before shopping!  

Travis Hardware in Cocoa Village...established in 1885 and George's description of this store was Hardware Heaven

Breakfast with our little friend

Dinner at Murdock's in Cocoa Village.  The food was delicious.  We started the meal with the traditional Mac and Cheese.  The pasta they use is imported from France and the cheese sauce was  flavor packed.  Everything was housemade.  The guys had a burger called The Southerner which was a burger topped with a fried green tomato slice and a big dollop of pimento cheese.  Annette had cobia, the fresh catch of the day,  and I had an Apple, gorgonzola and walnut salad topped with grilled chicken and honey white balsamic vinaigrette.  I'm going to try and recreate that lucious salad dressing.  We brought a quart of our favorite honey, Sweet Life, along with us so I'll have to find a bottle of white balsamic vinegar and give it a try.

Bentley, we've got to go now :-(

A good ending to the blog today!  Bently Jack, a friendly fellow!