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February 16, 2013

February 16, 2013 Day 281

Vero Beach City Marina
Vero Beach, FL
Total miles to date: 4801.3

Farmers Market
full of Indian River fruits and vegetables

This was day two in Vero Beach and the sun was shining. We took a 20 minute walk to reach the Saturday Farmers Market which is a block from the beach. We bought tomatoes, asparagus, new potatoes, green peppers, and fresh bread to bring back to the boat – and crab cake sandwiches for our lunch! We walked out to the small boardwalk on the beach to see the ocean. This was our first glimpse of it since we were in New Jersey last May. There were just a few brave souls in the water (70 degree water temp) and a few playing in the sand or collecting shells.

Vero Beach is an upscale community with many high end boutiques and clothing shops, spas, etc., along the main street, Ocean Drive, that faces the beach. There are numerous well groomed parks, some of which are on the beach front (where we had lunch!). Definitely not the touristy beach scene with t-shirt shops! Vero Beach is also known as "Velcro Beach" - once you come, you don't want to leave!

Ocean Drive, Vero Beach

The city also has a free bus system with scheduled stops that include the marina and the farmers market, so we rode the bus back to the marina. We spent the afternoon doing some boat chores including the ever present laundry. Bill tightened our lines because the wind started to pick up in the afternoon. We have wind forecasts for 20-30 mph tonight.