There's a public park in the city of Palm Bay called Castaway Point Park. The park is along the Indian River Lagoon, our local section of the Intracoastal Waterway running up the full length of the eastern seaboard.
Within the park is a bay in the Lagoon called Palm Bay, which the city is named after. Lots of people who live here don't know that there is an actual body of water here called Palm Bay. The newest high school in the area, Bayside High School, is nowhere near the body of water called Palm Bay. Bayside High School is all the way across town, a good 10-15 miles from the bay. The name Bayside is kind of silly, seeing as how it's nowhere near ANY bay. (Interesting note, Bayside High School is in the news today because it was in total lock down this morning due to a bomb threat. Those silly kids.)
Back to Castaway Point Park; the park has been there for years, and the city of Palm Bay has threatened to work on it and create a nice walkway along the water, but in our 11 years here, we saw little action in the park. But on this day recently when Lovely Wife and I were out for a drive, she mentioned that they had finished the walkway, so we went to the park and walked on the walkway.
They did a really nice job of it too; it's very pretty and peaceful with a number of nice benches along the way for sittin', ponderin' and generally enjoying the view.
This first photo is looking along the new walkway in this park.
This second photo is nothing special, just a view of the north end of Castaway Point Park. There on the right were you see the big chunks of concrete, there used to stand an old restaurant that was here for many, many years but was more or less beat up beyond repair in the one-two punches that were hurricanes Frances and Jeanne in 2004. They ended up demolishing what was left of the restaurant.
Palm Bay and Sebastian, just to the south of us, were the recipients of the north side of the hurricane's eyes (where the worst winds are). Frances and Jeanne were one month apart and came on shore a mere five miles from one another; the hurricane equivalent of the same exact spot getting struck twice by lightning.
We KNEW we were doomed when The Weather Channel's Jim Cantore stayed in a Palm Bay hotel when the hurricanes were coming. When Jim Cantore comes to your town to cover a storm, believe me when I tell you it's time then to batten the hatches, folks!
Can't throw any purdy pictures at ya without at least one of them being of the Atlantic. This is looking south along the Atlantic coast on a windy day, from Ocean Park in Melbourne Beach, Florida.
Later, folks.
1 comment:
Nice stuff John. I like the sunkissed wave crests. The walkway looks like a grand place to spend some time getting a bit of excercise.
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