This day, like most days on this vacation, started with rolling out of bed around 9am (no alarm clock) and very little in the way of a plan. That is something we got used to in a hurry!
Bagel & Cream Cheesecheck!
Coffeecheck!
Rings in the safecheck!
Sunscreencheck!
Cooler bag with Gatorades and icecheck!
Mickey bag with phones, camera, eReadercheck!
Now off to the pool!
The weather was nice again, and we enjoyed the fairly empty pool. We did notice a few guests at the pool, however. Mr. Squirrel spent quite a bit of time running around, but was all-in-all not a bother. Our dog (Penny) is very intense about squirrels. When she sees one, a switch just flicks in her brain and shes like the dogs from UP. Luckily we live near a lot of trees (squirrel escape routes), so Penny has never really gotten close enough to say hello the way she wants to. She would have also made our situation MUCH less relaxing if she were with us
The other guest wasnt
still there, but a bit of animal Sherlocking gave away his visit. Any guesses?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
If you said bunny poop, pat yourself on the back! Joyce works at an animal shelter, and we actually have a bunny at home (George), so it was easy for us to figure out. Some of you may be thinking EWWW, but honestly, bunny poop is probably the least gross poop around. They are essentially dry, round, fairly-odorless balls of well processed plants. Joyce is probably going to yell at me for over-sharing, but our cats and dog LOVE them. Since they are tiny marbles, the cats find them to be perfect toys to bat around and chase. They reach in Georges crate and try desperately to get them, on the chance that some are not in his litter box. Penny, on the other hand, is more interested in them as bunny gum. If we leave George's crate open and unattended, chances are that Penny is poking around trying to score some chew. If you didnt EWW before, feel free now
. On the plus side, this makes us extremely aware of keeping our house extra clean!
The pool gave way to the beach, another walk, dip, and return to the pool. The icy Gatorades were an excellent addition to our adventure, but by about 1, we were getting pretty hungry. Since we had tried Bleachers yesterday, we decided we'd do lunch at Shutters.
Once we got inside, we realized that it was Sunday, so they had their brunch going from 10-3pm. It was a bit pricey, but the food looked really good, it was all-you-can-eat, AND you got a complimentary mimosa or Bloody Mary
so, yes, I believe that we will
Im not going to say that the reason we got brunch was because of the Bloody Mary, but it was a big factor. As a background, neither Joyce nor I had had a Bloody Mary until about 4 weeks before the trip. I know, I know, youre thinking, theyre in their 30s, HCTEBP?!? Im not sure why, but neither of us had ever gotten around to trying one. A month before this trip, one of my friends got married, but Hurricane Irene forced him to bump up the wedding time from 5PM to 10AM to be ahead of the storm. (Can you imagine getting that call from the venue 23 hours before youre getting married?) Luckily he was able to switch all of the vendors, and at 9AM Bloody Marys were replacing coffee for about 200 people.
THAT Bloody Mary left us with an eh, OK feeling, but we saw the drinks potential and had heard wondrous stories of olives and spices and celery that were lacking in the mass-produced-wedding version. I figured we should get one of each on the chance that Joyce didnt like it, she could fall back on the mimosa.
THIS Bloody Mary turned out to be delicious, so we did halfsies.
The food was also excellent! If I had to pick one thing that stood out, it was the seafood chowder, but there was a looooong line of tables of good food. I thought they did a great job with Eggs Benedict which can be very hard to serve to the masses, and the desserts were exceptional for just a brunch. Needless to say, we unintentionally ate our weight in food. You know when youre so full that somehow your brain tells you the only way youll feel better is to take another sip of soda or perhaps finish that half of a crêpe? Yeah, that was us
Waddling back up to the room, we let our food coma set in and somehow needed naps after being awake for only 5 hours and having spent most of that time lying down. While we lay there, I saw that Bolta movie I had never seenwas just starting, so I actually caught that instead of some ZZZs.
About 2 hours later, we showered and changed and planned to head to re-explore a bit north of the resort. We wanted to eventually go to Squid Lips for dinner and check out Earls Biker Bar for some late night festivities. Squid Lips got great reviews on Yelp, and Earls reviews said it was full of bikers, but a friendly atmosphere for non-bikers and had a cool tiki bar out back. Joyce and I are always game for anything, so it sounded good to us!
We drove north and found both places, then continued north just to see what else was around. The short answer to that is nothing
haha
. We turned back and drove by Squid Lips again, but at this point it was 6ish and we were still FULL from brunch. Time to head south and check out the
real Vero Beach!
Vero Beach also didnt seem like it had a lot going on, but we probably drove around for another hour or so just poking around. There was a restaurant on our list in this area called Brewgrrs, so we decided to check it out. It actually only had about 2.5 stars on Yelp, but we realized that it was skewed by some stupid people. One person complained that they had too many beers on tap. Another complained about wooden benches being hard. HAHA, really. With an open mind, we went in and found it to be awesome. The place looked fairly new or newly revitalized, so there was no problem there. They had about 50 beers on tap, and not just a lot of taps of the standard variety. Many of them we had heard of, and some of we hadnt. Joyce and I are beer people, so this was perfect! The bar stools were actually kegs converted to have a round squishy seatfun and comfortable! After half a beer, we werent
hungry, but it was late enough that we figured we
could eat. The menu was different, too. Joyce had a grilled cheese with ham in it, and I tried the Aussie Burger. Mine was a good size burger with bacon, cheese, pineapple, fried egg, and a slice of beet. Lemmetellyou, it was on the short list of best burgers I have ever had! Be warned, I have a large mouth, so it quite literally would have been difficult for many to eatJoyce failed her attempt to bite it. I also have a penchant for weird food. Im not talking about eating dirt or chalk or dryer sheets, but in college I invented the Colonial Sammich (peanut butter, jelly, and ham), I enjoy dipping marshmallows in Tostitos Queso, and loooove whipped cream on cold pizza. I've tried other combinations that did not work well, but if you've got courage, those 3 are some of my better weird combinations.
We had another beer or two while watching late night football and decided to it was time to head back. On the way out, I quickly sat down in a bench along the wall and confirmed that wood benches here feel exactly like wood benches in other parts of the country. The bartender (who had been great all night) gave me a funny look, so I told her I was just testing it. Joyce and I started laughing, and the bartender played along, but I am positive that she did not get it. With that, we were on our way to the resort to go to call it a night.
! With this being our last full day in VB, it seems like Squid Lips would have to wait for a future trip
.
