Start of the Holidays

 The start of the holidays, when do they officially begin? When I was young, Thanksgiving and Christmas was separated by a whole month, but in this day and age, the holidays have become a blur. The candy aisle, which I try not to visit very often, seems to go from Easter candy directly to Halloween and immediately followed by Christmas candy canes.

Family gatherings were always important but this year I was alone on Thanksgiving. I did not even make a turkey or a ham. I had a bologna sandwich, and even that was not turkey, as I have been having trouble finding that at the store. At least the TP has come back. I was somewhat depressed but I decided I needed to make my own happiness. And you know what, I found my Happy Place.

Well, it actually was a sign in Cocoa Beach, behind a small restaurant or café. Every year I like to go to the Art Festival and have a few beers and listen to the local music. For a few years, my good friend Bobby Bicknell has joined me, but he was unable to make it over this year. We both like the band Delgado, but they broke up during the pandemic after over 30 years together. The unhappy pandemic, which has messed up a lot of things.

But the Aquanauts were playing and they play surf music...and I was at the home of many surfing stars.

And I saw that I was being watched, as I watched others...

The band stage was located on Minuteman Causeway, in front of where the restaurant Bernard Surf use to be, next to the north bound lanes of A1A. The back of the restaurant was an oyster bar called Rusty's, which has move to Port Canaveral. Bernard was Rusty's uncle, and Rusty still runs the place at the Port.

Next to the empty lot was a new place which is called Area 142. Is that a take on Area 51? I see that the street address is 142. Two floors, looks like it is going to be both a bar and a restaurant. They were not open but they were letting people look around. View from Minuteman Causeway.

On the lot were the organizers of the famous Cocoa Beach Surfing Santas. They had this nice surfing vehicle up in a give away. It is a charity that only started in 2009, but has grown to over 800 surfing Santas and about 10,000 spectators on the day before Christmas.

As I mentioned that Delgado broke up, well the leader of that band, Anna Delgado has started to sing again. Her partner here is Sam Tritico, owner of a local music store. He use to own a store in Nashville and also played as a musician for hire. They were really great together. After their set, I talked to them for a bit. I have been following Anna's music since the early 1980s. Anyone remember Desperados?

Another view of the Area 142. The sign on the left wall was being installed and he had only put up the "Ar". I asked the surfing santas if this was some new pirate bar called "Arrrr". They laughed.

The Art Show has lots of people walking their dogs which is okay with me. This guy was an Italian Greyhound, full grown at about 20 pounds and 15 inches high. Honey, I shrunk the dog!

It is not every Art Show that has a SpaceX launch during the proceedings. A Falcon 9 took off and the local announcer even had a countdown. Pretty Cool!

Heading back to my car after a few hours of looking at art work, drinking beer, and listening to music, I found that a place I use to go had closed but reopened as a new place. I had to stop in for a beer to see what it was. It is called Salty Sisters and they do serve food. I will add it to my new restaurant bucket list.

Two young ladies sat next to me at the expansive bar and ordered shots. They came in these beautiful shot glasses so I asked if I could take a picture. The bar top looks like a beach. The crowd was hopping and it looks like it might be a nice place to go again.

On Monday after the Thanksgiving weekend, I went to the beach. Here are a few of the shells I collected. Our beaches are usually partial shells but I did find this large, unbroken one on the left. I was so proud of the find that I kept showing it to other people walking the beach, most looking for shells. My story turned to that I found it next to the Hilton, where they put out the better seas shells to collect. Ha ha.

On Tuesday, my regular day at Lou's Blues, I stopped at the beach after drinks since it was such a beautiful day. Flying next to the Radisson was this Frigate Bird, an unusual sight for Canova Beach.

frigate birds were plentiful in the Galapagos on my visit there, and the males show off their inflated red pouch under their neck to pick up women birds. You can see the red sac in the next picture.

This father was showing his daughter the newly expose worm reef, since hurricane Nicole.

We do have some lazy ospreys around who sit on the roof of the Radisson to fish. I guess it is much easier than continuously flying...

Canova Beach is a dog park and this quartet was enjoying the surf...

I mentioned the newly exposed coquina rock. The sandpipers were enjoying the little standing pools and were taking mini-baths. It was cute to watch...

As I was taking more photos, a couple approached me and asked about the rocks. I explained that they had been covered by sand but the recent storm Nicole had taken all the sand away. As we talked, I could here a foreign accent. I have learned that if you ask, most people are very happy to tell you where they are from. This couple was from Denmark. The wife was better at English than her husband, but we talked for over 20 minutes. I should have taken their photo.

On Wednesday, I took another walk on the beach. I approached two fishermen who were surf fishing and one had a great bite on his line. As I approached his pole he started to pull the catch in and it was obvious that the fish was big. He finally got it to shore and it was this two foot shark. The guy said he needed to get a tool to remove the hook and handed me the pole. Next thing I know a wave came in and caught the fish who started to swim away. I reeled it back in and decided to take this picture with my phone. Realize, I was holding a surf fishing pole with a shark at the end. My excuse for the bad shot.

So the holidays have started and I have learned that a happy place is any where you are with other nice people...and a shark, osprey, frigate bird, sandpipers, dogs, liquor, music...Happy Holidays.