Sunday, February 11, 2007

Picture Post, Sunday February 11, 2007

The city I live in, Palm Bay, doesn't have a distinct old downtown area. It's grown so big in so few years that it's just spread all over the place.

But Melbourne, Florida, which is just north of us, has been around a long, long time. There is a classic downtown area, with old buildings and strange shops and stuff that is just a real pleasure to walk around.

Melbourne has about 60,000 people, and Palm Bay has grown from 10,000 to over 105,000 people since 1980. Crazy fast growth.

Unless you know where the boundary is between the two cities though, you wouldn't know that you left one city and are in the other.

Brevard county is growing fast, from the creep northward from south Florida, as well as the traditional out-of-staters like us who moved here for work.

Anyway, here's a few shots of a walk around downtown Melbourne. It's pretty, and there are lots of interesting shops in which to browse around.



The flags were at half-mast due to the death of former President Gerald Ford.


I waved and tried to get those kids inside to look at the camera, but only the one in the back/middle looked right at the camera. The one in the front/middle appears to be turned right at the camera, but since he doesn't have a head, I'm not quite sure if he's looking at the camera.

This shop had the most amazing mish-mash of stuff. Lovely Wife was quite taken with all of the poodle stuff she had in there, but most of it was kinda pricey. I'd love to go back with a little extra jingle in my pocket and buy some stuff though.

2 comments:

Norma said...

I think I've seen a painting of the child manniquins in the window!

Great photos.

Travis Cody said...

Old style downtowns are so much fun to walk around. I always feel a little guilty though - because quite often I'm there for the atmosphere, but don't buy anything in these shops to help sustain them.