Sleeping in a barn

On January 8, 2025February 5, 2025 By dinajohnstonIn Vacation4 Comments

Brett and I spent 2 nights in a renovated barn (on the 2nd floor) near Vero Beach. We got there late in the afternoon and looked around a little before heading to the beach for dinner.

It was a little weird driving down a long dirt road after dark to get back to the farm.

The next morning I was awake early and could hear the horses down below. I got up and ran to the kitchen window and saw the above. The sun hadn’t come up yet. I quickly changed and ran out to see what was going on.

The horses were being let out of the barn. We were able to walk around the farm so I ran back upstairs and had a quick breakfast with Brett and we went out for a walk down to the main road.

We were also able to feed the animals and I had brought a bag of apples with us from our hurricane stash so the goats got a treat for breakfast.

Most of the cows were far out in the pasture but one Mom with 2 little ones came close to the fence for a drink of water.

The sun coming up through a spiderweb.

We walked out on the main dirt road and passed by a farm with a No Trespassing sign that said “Don’t even think about it”. Who would want to walk around on that cow poop filled pasture?

It was a beautiful farm. I don’t think they actually grow anything but they do board horses. They also had chickens and a few pigs.

The next morning I was up a little later. Some of the horses were already out of the barn.

A few were still in the other barn and I gave them all of the apples we had left since we were heading home soon.

We had a great time and even though we were sleeping in a barn it had all of the comforts of home.

A botanical gardens on the other side of the state

On January 6, 2025February 5, 2025 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography3 Comments

While Brett and I were on our “No power” trip (no electricity from Hurricane Milton) to the east coast in October we spent an afternoon at McKee Botanical Gardens in Vero Beach. It was our first time in the Vero Beach area and I had heard about the Gardens from friends who live nearby. It was a beautiful place to wander around and the gardens were full of things blooming and flying.

The gardens were started in the early 1920’s and there were a lot of tall old trees.

I managed to find a few migrating birds including a northern parula, a black throated blue warbler and a Swainson’s thrush.

A pileated woodpecker flew in while I was looking for migrating birds and started eating the seeds on a nearby palm tree.

There were so many different types of lizards. Tons of them in all sizes but we didn’t see any bigger iguanas. The bottom one is an invasive Peter (or rainbow) rock agama that was introduced into south Florida’s wildlife in the 70’s. They have recently made their way farther north and are now plentiful in Vero Beach.

We were taking a break on a bench and this squirrel brought his snack over and ate in front of us.

The Hall of Giants is an original building of the gardens and was built to house the largest table at the time (found in New York City), built from a single piece of mahogany.

The gardens also had a lot of tiny waterfalls.

Linking to A Stroll Thru Life

Sunsetting on dolphins

On December 18, 2024January 21, 2025 By dinajohnstonIn Florida animals, Vacation13 Comments

While on our “No power” road trip we booked a sunset/dolphin cruise in Vero Beach. We booked the tour through the Environmental Learning Center on the causeway and headed out at 4:30 pm with only a few other people on the boat since it was a little chilly.

We saw a few stranded boats along the way.

I was hoping thick clouds didn’t move in and hide the sun but the ones there made for an interesting sky.

We first saw a few dolphins chasing after fish and I barely caught a fish trying to get away.

We saw several more dolphins before the sun starting setting.

We ended the tour with a beautiful sunset. And, as the sun was setting I got a text from my neighbor that our electricity had just come back on after 7 days of being off. Luckily we were planning to go home the next day.

The sun was really putting on a show as we came back under the bridge and back to the dock.

Grinning ear to ear knowing we would have power when we got home the next day. We were very fortunate that we could pack up and leave and take a mini-vacation while the electricity was out back home. Some of my neighbors were able to go stay with friends in the area but since the power outage was so widespread there wasn’t many that had power the first few days.

Destruction and a sunset

On December 16, 2024January 21, 2025 By dinajohnstonIn Vacation4 Comments

Brett and I spent 3 nights in Fort Lauderdale while on our “no power” road trip. Since we still didn’t have power back home we left our rented condo in Fort Lauderdale and headed to Vero Beach for 2 nights. We had never been there and found a rental in a renovated barn on a working farm. We thought it would fun and something different.

We started on the highway but decided to take back roads near the beach as we got closer to Vero Beach. Just outside of Vero we came across a lot of destruction. Houses with roofs off and trees all torn up. We were wondering if Hurricane Milton made it this far east but after doing some research online we found out that 2 tornadoes had hit the area as Milton was approaching the western part of the state including one of the three F3 tornadoes that hit Florida. Before Milton flooded the eastern half of the state over four dozen tornadoes hit the state with most in the western part.

Parts of Vero Beach were completely devasted and other parts were fine. The beach was beautiful as we stopped for a quick walk before heading to our rental.

We had some time before we could check in so we stopped at a park along the causeway.

We saw a lot of big lizards (or small iguanas?) at the park. When we stopped for gas Brett pulled off the nozzle and this guy was taking a nap underneath it.

We had an early dinner at a cute seafood restaurant on the intercoastal right next to the bridge back to the mainland. As we walked on the fishing pier under the bridge the moon was coming up over the restaurant.