Port Canaveral and Charleston

10th February 

Port Canaveral

Today we arrived at a very cold and windy Port Canaveral, only 9 degrees centigrade and we had pre-booked a three hour boat trip on the Cocoa Beach Thousand Islands located in the lagoon estuary of the Indian and Banana Rivers.  However we gritted our teeth, put on our warmest clothes and ventured out on our open sided boat, which gave us no protection from the wind.  As promised in the catalogue we saw Ospreys, Blue Herons, Ibis, Kingfisher, Pelicans and Dolphins.  However the Manatees and Alligators were nowhere to be seen.

On route we passed many nice houses all situated on the river banks.

Even this poor heron looked cold in the biting wind and our guide made us laugh as half way round the tour she offered us iced water, iced coke, but regrettable no hot coffee!!!  Despite the weather conditions it was a pleasant enough trip, but we were glad to reach shore and return to the port, where we caught a taxi to a local shopping mall to browse the shops, including another Macys, where Doreen bought some very nice Tshirts at rock bottom sale prices.

12th February 2016

Charleston

Today we arrived at Charleston, in South Carolina, a town we had visited before and had decided to walk around town admiring the beautiful tree lined streets, antique shops and restaurants.  Again the weather was cold only 10 degrees with some rain.  We were out walking for almost 5 hours, before we reached the up-market, market area, where we saw many hand crafted jewellery, baskets, paintings and other craft items.  

In one of the shops we saw this picture of an alligator/turtle sunbathing, which made us smile.

We then returned to our ship for a nice hot cup of tea before preparing for our evening meal, which was followed by two exceptional shows, the first being songs and history of Les Miserable and the second a local Charleston group who gave us a brief history of Charleston portrayed by its music from the Civil War, slavery to modern day gospel singing.

We are now heading directly east away from the USA across the Atlantic, with a brief stop in two days time in Bermuda and a further six days to Madeira.  We are hoping that we get warmer weather as we get closer to Africa.