Day 96, Year 10: Temporary Residents of Florida
Date: Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Temp in the High 70’s F, Evenings Cooler
Location: Anchored Between the City Docks in West Palm Beach, FL
We’ve only been here since Sunday, but I have decided that it is time to switch from our ‘Passage to FL’ status to being temporary residents of the state. We will be here for the next month and a half, so why not declare residency? We dealt with our bilge problems early this morning. We used the shop vac, a magnet on a boat hook, and a long coat hanger wire to remove various objects from the depths. Then we added New Dawn dish detergent, scrubbed a bit with a brush attached to the boat hook, and then left things to ‘soak’. We had one little mishap when the shop vac shot out oily sudsy water onto the carpeting, so clean up took a lot longer than anticipated, but at the end of the day, all is well and the bilge is definitely cleaner. Sure hope the bilge pumps are appreciative!
After the clean-up, we headed into town with Lee and Lynda. We all walked a little more than a mile to a CVS drug store so that Mark and Lynda could get prescriptions filled. On the way back to town, we stopped by the Johnson History Museum inside the old 1916 Palm Beach County Courthouse. The building has been restored beautifully and we enjoyed the museum and seeing the old courtroom. There was a special fire rescue exhibit as well as lots of information and a video about the development of the Palm Beach area. ‘In the day’, Palm Beach was where the rich and famous hung out and West Palm, across the waterway, was where those that worked for the rich and famous lived. We have not yet ventured across the waterway to see Palm Beach, but that is on our agenda for Friday. After our little museum tour, we walked back to the center of town and caught a trolley headed for City Place. This is the upscale shopping area and the location of the closest supermarket. We walked up and down the main shopping street, enjoying the sights. Lynda needed a new handbag and she found the perfect little shop to meet her needs. We then went to Publix to buy some food items. We took the trolley back to the waterfront and returned to our boats for a couple of hours before heading back to shore for Happy Hour at E.R. Bradley’s. This gave us a chance to talk about plans for the next couple of weeks. West Palm Beach has been most welcoming, but we understand that Fort Lauderdale could be a problem. There are only two anchorages and no place to land your dinghy without paying a significant price per day. But we have decided to pay the price and enjoy the city for a couple of weeks despite their unfriendly nature. But for now, we will continue to enjoy our time here. Tomorrow Mark and I head back to Fort Lauderdale for Mark’s cancer treatment at Holy Cross Hospital. So it is trolley to the train station, train to Fort Lauderdale, bus 1 and then bus 2 to the hospital. Hopefully all of that goes smoothly. We are just so impressed and amazed by the transportation system here and hope it doesn’t disappoint.
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| 150114 Day 95 Florida, USA–County Court House and City Place in West Palm Beach |
