I wanted to do something different for Alicia’s birthday in 2016, and so I found a night at Disney’s Vero Beach resort. She and Mel had actually stayed here before and said the place was very nice. I would have liked to make it a 2-night ordeal, but because of the holiday, we could only get one night. Still, we enjoyed the place. What was fun was that we used it and a nearby botanical garden for taking Alicia & Melvin’s Save the Date photos for their wedding. It was a short trip, but nice.

 

In 2024, Dana was going to stay here with a friend for two nights, but that fell through and so Madeline and I went instead. We chilled at the resort and visited some nearby parks. It was nice to get away.

Twice in Vero Beach: 2016 & 2024

The resort is to the left, with our kitchen and the view from our balcony. Below we walked to the beach and took a couple of photos before Madeline and Mel took a dip.

Alicia got a special present for her birthday. At night there was a storm out on the Atlantic, and I was able to capture a streak of lightning coming down from a cloud below the full moon.

We had breakfast at the resort and a couple of real characters joined us at our table.

The McKee Botanical Garden was mostly about trees and green plants more than about brightly colored flowers. There were some cool lily pads, though.

 

Taking engagement photos was definitely a lot of fun, but towards the end of the morning, we were getting rather hot and sweaty in the Florida humid weather. We got a little silly.

05/20/16-05/21/16

09/06/24-09/08/24

We left fairly early in the morning and just drove to the resort. We couldn’t get into the room yet, so we hung out at the pool and had a couple drinks. We stayed on the property for dinner, but then went into town and found some vegan ice cream where they rolled the ice cream into your dish.

On Saturday, we got up and went to Oyster Bay Marsh for a little walk. We then spent the afternoon at the pool, even trying the slide out for fun. We found a nice place for dinner along the water. It was a very relaxing day.

On Sunday, we got up and took a walk through Captain Forster Hammock Preserve before going back to the resort and cleaning up. We then left and drove up the coast a little, ending in Melbourne Beach for a nice lunch along the beach.