The Late Explorer: Vero Beach to Hope Sound

We quitted the hotel at 11:00 and headed for an outlet on the edge of town. The outlet turned out to be a disappointment as the majority of the shops had closed down so we didn’t splash the cash!!

From there we made our way to Hope Sound to see CC’s cousins. We ate lunch and found a really quirky place namely Harry and the Natives - a barn like structure reminiscent of early Florida. The food was excellent and from there we continued to meet the cousins. Later that evening, we all adjourned to a local German restaurant. The cousins’ father was German so that explains their choice! We ate schnitzel - German / Austrian Food is not my top choice.

Later we adjourned to Cousin’s patio, where we chatted and they reminisced on their youth - they’re both in their 80s !!

Saturday, we headed to a nearby town, namely Stuart.

Here, we visited the Elliott museum, situated by the beach.

Of course, there had to be an Irish connection!!

There are various exhibitions in the museum -some permanent others visiting

These refuge houses were built to shelter sailors shipwrecked off the Florida prior to the colonization of the area

The museum included a comprehensive display of the history of the automobile.

Here Karl Benz is beholden to his wife, Bertha took the Motowagon on a 66 mile trip to see her mother. En route she identified and solved many of the automobiles problems and so began the automobile dynasty. The Mercedes model was named after their daughter.

Above, a desire for ice cream on a picnic was responsible for the invention of the motorboat!!

Included in the museum is a store of c. 50 vintage cars which one can choose to be brought forward for inspection, in addition to those on floor display.