"All Together Now"

 I mentioned in my last post that I had attended the St Patrick's Day parade in downtown Melbourne and I would share more photos in this post. In actuality, most of the photos look like any other year and there was nothing outstanding I caught in my photos.  One of the bands, the Space Coast Highlanders, are always a treat to watch and hear. You gotta love bagpipes.

While waiting for the parade to start, I ended up conversing with Tim Shortt, who happens to be one of the photographers I admire working for the local paper the Florida Today. He was covering the parade for the paper. Here he is taking a shot while the parade starts, only about 30 minutes late. He is a nice guy and I enjoyed our pre-parade chat.

Another guy I met while waiting was Michael Spooner, aka Rockin' Michael. He makes guitars that he gives to businesses. This one was made for Meg O'Malley's which he was handing to a cart in the parade with Meg people. He kept saying he may "do a Kramer" and join the parade.

Sheriff Wayne Ivey was in the parade. Look, he wore green...

Tim went to work...

I ran into Rockin' Michael again and he had gotten the Sheriff's autograph on his guitar. It is in the lower left. It was not in the previous photo.

After the parade I went for lunch and then home. Lunch was at Hell n's Blazes, a Brewery located in the old Christmas store near the railroad tracks. I should have gotten my meal at Megs because this was not that good of a corn beef and cabbage. The stout beer was good. This was the 18th different restaurant for 2026.

On Sunday, March 15, I watched the Oscars. I saw that a few of the movies were being shown on HBO so I saved them on DVR. The first I watched was Weapons. It won one Oscar, Amy Madigan as Best Supporting Actress. It was one strange movie but it explained Conan opening the Oscars as a crazy red-wigged lady...

I was planning to go back to Meg O'Malley's for more Guinness on March 17 but a cold front went through. It was too cold. I like to drink my Guinness warm...

On Thursday, March 19, I visited the Zoo. It was still a little cool so I left after just 45 minutes. I usually stay for about 2 hours. I did get a few interesting shots...

One of the many beautiful flowers growing around the Zoo...Hibiscus I think.

My rule for visiting the Zoo is not to stop if there are more than five buses in the parking lot. I counted 13 and yet I still stopped and went in. Some of the buses were from out of County, and the kids were from ages 4 to 17. The cool weather may not be the only reason I left early. Here is a young lady making a drawing of Khan, the male Jaguar. I checked out her pencil drawing as I walked by, it was pretty good.

This young boy was standing next to the fish in the Rainforest loop. It looks like the Arapaima, about five feet long, was trying to sniff the boys hand. Perspective.

Also in the Rainforest loop, the Black Howler female Raina enjoys some cookies or treats, as Reggie, the male in the background, is wondering where she got them from.

In the Expedition Africa Loop, one of the three male lions was cleaning his paws, just like a domestic cat. I shared a video of the activity on my Facebook Feed.

On the outer part of the Africa Loop there was a section where they had fresh cut flowers hanging down. It was very pretty and the kids seemed to be memorized by it.

Also on the Africa Loop, I caught this photo of two of the Klipspringers. Not a great shot but if you look closely, the one on the left has only one horn. A little boy was asking the adult if it was a unicorn. Maybe having the kids around isn't so bad...

After leaving the Zoo, I stopped at my 19th different restaurant of 2026, Cabana Shores on US1. The special of the day was a turkey Reuben with chips. I got it with a side salad. Normally they call a turkey Reuben a Rachel, but that is served on Rye. This was a sub roll with grilled turkey covered with Sauer kraut and thousand island dressing. Swiss cheese melted on top. It was actually delicious.

On Friday, March 20, I usually go to Lou's Blues. One of my favorite servers, Jess, is from the York, Maine area. So I always give here my latest issue of Yankee Magazine. This issue named the 25 Best Small towns in New England.

My hometown of Middlebury, Vermont was #2 in the list.

On the drive home, I always hit heavy traffic in the Eau Gallie Arts District (EGAD). At the light at Highland, I was behind this old car, with Florida plate "48 LIMO". My guess the car is a 1948 and was used as a limousine.

Nothing exciting happened on Saturday but I decided to do a Sunday drive down to Sebastian and have lunch at Capt. Hiram's Resort. It was a beautiful day and I guess everyone else had the same idea. I could not find a parking spot so I turned around and headed back to Melbourne. Although I had just visited there, I decided to see if there was any parking at Ichabod's Dockside. There was!

Lunch was a Cup of their Clam Chowder and since I am making an effort to try new items on the menu, I ordered the Caribbean Chicken Salad Sliders.  What came out from the kitchen was my soup and Caribbean Chicken Wings. I told the bartender Arty of the mistake and he said he would fic it, it was his mistake.

The soup was great as always...

And then the sliders arrived. They were delicious and so big I had to make four halves to eat. BTW, the lady next to me at the bar took the wings for herself because they did smell great. When I got my check, Arty only charged me for the beers and the soup. 

On Monday, March 23< I went to Dillard's and bought some new shorts. I then wore my new shorts to Lou's Blues for a few beers. I did trivia with my friend Ken, asking him to name the top singers from the last five decades. Interesting, there was only one repeat and that was Whitney Houston.

On Tuesday, I had a cleaning scheduled for my teeth with Pat at Dr. Kara's office beachside.

My friend Tim Whitney shared this photo he took in Montana. Google Lens says it is a Rough-Legged Hawk. Tim took the shot with his camera from his car.

On Thursday, I finally visited the new Barnes & Noble in West Melbourne. They closed their other store and moved into this smaller store. The Grand Opening was last week. Although smaller, it is still very big and they have completely changed the setup of the displays. I was impressed and I know I will be back. Well, I am a member...

I did buy a cookbook. 670 recipes for soup. If I make a different soup every week, it will take 12.88 years to complete all the recipes. Soups on!!

About Title

"All Together Now" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles written primarily by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. The song was recorded during the band's Magical Mystery Tour period, but remained unreleased until it was included on the Yellow Submarine soundtrack. It was released as a single in 1972 in European countries such as France and Germany, backed by "Hey Bulldog".

"All Together Now" appears in an animated sequence in the film Yellow Submarine, and is also introduced by the Beatles themselves in a final live-action scene of the film. During the latter scene, translations of "All Together Now" into various languages appear written on-screen.