Gardens and Beach

Sunday 11/15/2009 Day 3: Florida Institute of Technology and Cocoa Beach

On Sunday we took a break from our traveling to relax before the shuttle launch. We did go south to Melbourne and the Florida Institute of Technology to walk through their botanical gardens which was nice. There were lots of varieties of palms, bamboo, and lizards too. A lot of the trees had giant pathos plants growing all over them, but the leaves were huge compared to how large they get indoors in Rochester.

Butterfly
Butterfly

Brown Lizard
Brown Lizard

Green Lizard
Green Lizard

Trees and Vines
Trees and Vines

For me, it was fun to see lizards everywhere, but I have a hunch they are like squirrels down there to Floridians. I took the opportunity to take some infrared photos while we walked through the gardens, as the palm plants make really stunning pictures.

IR Gardens
IR Gardens

IR Gardens
IR Gardens

IR Gardens
IR Gardens

IR Gardens
IR Gardens

After we walked through the gardens, we went back to the hotel to spend the day at the beach. There were strong rip tides because of the remnants of Hurricane Ida that went up the coast, but we still did some wading. It was a very rough surf, and you really got pushed around by the waves and currents. But you gotta go in the ocean when you go on vacation, so we did.

Beach North
Beach North

Beach South
Beach South

As always, larger pictures of our full trip to Florida are available from my Flickr photo gallery. Day 4 includes our photos of the shuttle launch.