I used to say I could live at Barnes and Noble bookstore in Melbourne, now I’m beginning to have my doubts. My plan was to hide in the store till closing every night, pitch a cot somewhere amongst the business and science books and then get jacked up on mocha lattes all night while perusing my private library.

That is now getting less appealing since our local B&N is beginning to more resemble the Toys-R-Us just up the street than it does the once hallowed library like atmosphere of nerdliness. For a good coupe of years Barnes and Noble was apparently working right along side my tastes in reading as I could migrate to my favorite section and look at the latest in books on business, finance and entrepreneurship, then move to the other side of the real wood bookcase to view what cutting edge artists were doing with Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator, moving over to the web design books, then to a short look through the mind numbing world of computer programming and finally on to some scientist or philosopher’s pontification as to how the universe came into existence out of nothingness.

B&N somehow then decided to replace that entire section with teen fiction which consisted of nothing but ashen faced vampires, with just a hint of sexiness, sucking the life out of each other. When the copy-cat Twilight phenom, along with a few zombie stories and some goofy novels you read backwards, finally ran its course (presumably because literary agents tired of such predictable boy-vampire-meets-girl-non-vampire-while-making-non-vampire-girl’s-dad-a-little-testy plots), then came Lego land complete with bright yellow and red colored plastic shelving.

I’m not sure what other B&N Booksellers around the country are doing (I’ll bet probably the same), but Barnes and Noble in Melbourne Florida has turned at least 25% of its store over to toys, puzzles, games and all things related to mindless kid fun. This is to presumably make happy a guilty mom and dad’s quest to please young junior’s pleading for the latest Lego innovation and to keep them from gnawing on a tired parent’s ankles.

What started as a section with games and a few puzzles, including someone’s twisted idea for a Jackson Pollock puzzle (just plain sick, although it is fun to contemplate who I would give that to), has grown like a blob into a confusing array of stuff (probably ending up under your Christmas tree) that makes the old fashioned book store hard to define any longer. The memories of plush chairs, lots of room, plenty of books, eclectic indie music and the smell of freshly brewed coffee is unfortunately, old school these days. In the spirit of baby Jesus (of course), we must sell to the masses.

I’m sure plenty of so-called market research went into decimating 25% of their floor space of real paper books and turning it over to kid friendly colors and plastic toys that will eventually end up in a landfill or floating around in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in a few months. However, there are customers who appreciate things that somehow were missed by the number crunching accountants-turned-market-researchers who birthed the “new” Barnes and Noble plan.

One of the more aggravating things this new plan has done is seemingly turned the science section into a nomadic tribe of paper, thin cardboard and binding glue that appears to have no home. I’m sure in the last 4 months this genre of books has occupied 4 different, now carpet indented, plots of the store. Just 2 weeks ago I purchased a book from the science section which today has since moved 25 feet to the south. The space it used to occupy is empty, I assume waiting to be filled by more toys.

While I do miss the old bookstore that was a book store, there may be uses for some of this cluster of mishmash aimed at a more Merry Christmas. If you open that mysterious unmarked package under the tree on December 25th morn and it’s a Jackson Pollock puzzle, you will know who it came from.

If I wanted to shop for kid nicknacks I would go to WalMart and wade through the Transformer action figure knock-offs strewn about in the vast toy section amid the new rubber smell of knobby tires on cheap bicycles. Interestingly enough, WalMart has greatly decreased the size of their magazine and book section. I’m hoping this tsunami of non-book related paraphernalia in Barnes and Noble vanishes in a 50 to 75% off door busting stampede on December 26th.

It is the competitive sport of seat jousting and it can range in intensity from a subtle dance played out when you walk just a little faster to get to the door of your favorite restaurant trying to get ahead of some Createn and his large family that have just pulled their mini-van into the parking spot next to you, to Olympic level sprinting in a race to claim front row seats when the latest make money in real estate show comes to town.

It is especially prevalent in churches when the faithful (you know who you are) stake their claim on a row of their favorite seats at 8:30 on Sunday morning with the church bulletin firmly planted on each chair as did the Apollo astronauts sticking a US flag in the lunar dirt. Welcome to our sanctuary, but please don’t sit in my seat. Church starts at 10:30 by the way.

Seat jousting has become a competitive sport for me as well. If you were to frequent the Panera Bread on Palm Bay Road between 6:25 and 6:40 on just about any Friday morning you could watch how the competition plays out much as Dian Fossey did when studying the habits of gorillas in the forests of Rwanda. Yes, I confess, it is that primitive.

The competition at the present time is between myself and the snow white haired executive vying for what we both have apparently chosen as the most comfortable booth. My territory faces east, is a large booth and allows me to place my computer case on the left and my bagel and tea on the right. All is in harmony, the world is good (at least on Fridays), and it could be feng shui for those that adhere. For several months it had been my exclusive domain until the white knight unsuspectingly wandered into foreign lands.

Not to be outdone, Friday morning blogging time moved from 7:30 to 7:00 am, only to be repeatedly thwarted in my attempts to reclaim rightful territory. Drastic measures had to be implemented when one last attempt resulted in being right behind my foe in line one morning. A mere 45 seconds less on the Drudge Report before leaving the house would have resulted in victory. Finally, rising at 5:45 and arriving at Panera at 6:30 opening time has brought the seat jousting advantage back in my favor for the last 3 weeks. I only wish I could subtly take a quick picture of the disappointment on his face when he rounds the corner with his giant cinnamon bun and coffee so as to display it here. I would just take a picture with my Nikon Coolpix, but the paparazzi like flash might startle him.

This morning became a little more competitive when after getting my order and preparing the usual whole grain bagel, I heard “Good morning sir, how can I help you?” only to look up and see the white knight riding up on his horse, okay he was walking (sorry for the drama). Luckily, I was far enough ahead of him to claim the favored booth. As he rounded the corner once again I innocently sit there as “the look” vibes my way, inside and under the radar of detectability I’m secretly pumping my fist in the air and yelling, “Winning!” ala Charlie Sheen.

Lords and Ladies, the foe has anew, been defeated.

Melbourne Florida may hold the record for having the largest staghorn fern in the world. While it may not be official, I’ve scoured the internet for pictures and have yet to come up with one as large as the one at the Rossetter House and Museum. As you can see from the pictures here, this is one giant staghorn fern.

The plant is in the garden at the Rossetter house on the northeastern side of the home and we even made a second trip out to the Melbourne historical landmark to get additional pictures. Many times when people take pictures of their staghorn ferns they don’t stand near them or put anything near it so as to be able to judge their size. However, we went back to the house to get some more pictures than what we got on our first visit and had my wife Jean stand next to it so you can see exactly how big this thing is.

It used to be on the branch of the tree you see it next to, but a few years ago the branch could no longer support it so it was placed on a stack of cement blocks that now hold it up. We had to be careful measuring it so as not to break any branches, but as far as we could tell it is probably 10 feet wide from branch tip to branch tip at its largest width and is about 5 to 6 feet tall if it were sitting on the ground.

While I don’t think there’s an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records and no one is officially keeping records this one has to be close if not the largest staghorn fern in the world. I’ve never seen anything like it. If you know of another one that is as large, please leave a comment and a link. You can see this staghorn fern in Melbourne at the Rossetter House for free. You do not have to pay admission to the home to walk through the gardens. Any time the home is open for business, you can see the gardens.

See additional staghorn fern photos here and staghorn ferns for sale.

Enjoy some additional photos of this huge staghorn fern below:

A view from the side:

You usually travel somewhere to see historic homes, sites and attractions and often don’t think there may be something local and almost right in your own neighborhood. Case in point is Historic Rossetter House Museum and Gardens in the old Eau Gallie downtown section of Melbourne. Located on Highland Ave, the attraction features the Rossetter House, the Roesch House and the Houston Family Cemetery with the first person being buried there in 1883.

The Rossetter House was originally built as a small cabin by early Eau Gallie settler John Houston in 1859 and purchased by James Wadsworth Rossetter in 1904. He then added to the property and building until 1908 and what we have today is the original 1908 building. Mr Rossetter was the Standard Oil Company agent for South Brevard County and saw to it that all the gas stations in the area under the Standard name got their shipments of gas. He died in 1921 and his daughter Carrie took over the business at 23 years of age, which was quite unusual for a woman at the time, and she managed it for 61 years until 1982.

So as to preserve the history of her family and the Eau Gallie area, Carrie Rossetter donated the home and property along with her 1931 Model A and it has since been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Your tour of the Rossetter House and Museum begins at the cemetery a block away from the house, goes back to the house, outside to the beautiful gardens and the across the street to the garage to have a look at the 1931 Ford Model A. While not being overly extravagant, the house is filled with antique treasures and nothing in the home is staged with replica furniture or decor. It is all original to the early 20th century era and home.

What we liked best about the tour was that you were able to walk right into the areas that the Rossetter’s actually lived in. Nothing was roped off as you meandered throughout the home with our guide leading the way. The gardens were also a highlight of the tour and featured what may be one of the largest staghorn ferns in the world. Look for a future post about it.

The massive staghorn fern:

Your tour through the Rossetter House and gardens including the cemetery takes about 2 hours and is lead by someone who knows the history of the area and house quite well. Admission is $7.50 per person. Tours are available Tuesday through Saturday 10:00 am to 4:00 pm and on Sunday from 1:00 to 4:00 pm. The house is closed on Monday’s.

Not only can you tour the home, you can also rent out the grounds and garden area as well as the parlor across the street which was the old Roesch house that Carrie Rossetter also owned. The grounds and the parlor are available for weddings, birthday parties and all special events.

Inside the house:

The house is located at 1320 Highland Avenue Melbourne, FL. You can call 321-254-9855 to find out more about the home or renting out the grounds or you can visit their website for more info. Don’t miss this well preserved and historic landmark in Melbourne FL.

You may have seen their beautiful purple to lavender blossoms in a few select locations around the Melbourne and Palm Bay areas as they stand out amongst the other surrounding greenery. I’m referring to the rare jacaranda tree that is a native of South America, but does grow in a few areas in the United States.

As far as we know, there are just a very few locations of these exceptional trees in the Melbourne area. While there are probably a few more jacaranda trees locally with one or two on the beachside, the 2 most prominent ones are located on Dairy Road in West Melbourne (there are actually 2 trees next to each other in this location) about a mile south of 192 on the east side of the road and on Eau Gallie Blvd about a mile north of the intersection of Wickham Road and Eau Gallie Blvd. The second example is on the north side of Eau Gallie Blvd.

Full size adult trees can range in size from 15 to 50 feet tall and the deeply saturated lavender and purple blossoms can last for up to 2 months. They are called the blue jacaranda, but the blossoms are more purple to lavender colored.  The striking beauty of the tree is quite noticeable as the entire canopy of branches is covered in blossoms and stands in stark contrast to all other foliage in the surrounding area. Jacaranda trees in California can bloom twice in the same year, once in the spring and once in the fall while in Florida and most other locations they bloom only once a year.

Unfortunately, the two trees pictured here have already reached their full peak and may not even be blossoming by the time you read this. But at least next year you will be ready by the time April rolls around to go hunting for the few know Jacaranda tree examples in the Melbourne area.

Enjoy some additional pictures of the Jacaranda below:

Unfortunately this tree is surrounded by power lines so it was hard to get a clear picture of it.

A close up of the jacaranda blossoms:

It has been a cultural landmark in the Melbourne Florida area for more than 50 years and now Del’s Freeze of Melbourne is back open after a short closing for remodeling. Delbert and Doris Schmadel opened what used to be known as the Tasty Freeze at 402 N Harbor City Blvd (US 1) back in, get this, 1956. The Tasty Freeze name was kept for 30 years under the franchise and was changed to Del’s Freeze back around 1986.

What is remarkable about this tiny ice cream shop is that while many restaurants of its type such as Dairy Queen, Der Wienerschnitzel and Italian Ice shacks have come and gone over the years, Del’s has stood the test of time and has been open for an astounding 55 years. I don’t know of any other business in the Melbourne Palm Bay area that has been open for that long.

At Del’s you will find a variety of ice cream treats such as custom layered parfaits (used to be my favorite), sundae’s and freezes and their famous chili dogs, but what really made Del’s world famous is their soft serve ice cream. They brought soft serve ice cream to the Melbourne Florida Brevard County area before any of us even knew what soft serve was. We came to the Melbourne area back in 1967 and the first time I saw that huge machine pumping out ice cream, and then it got dipped in dark liquid chocolate, I thought I was in heaven. The machine looked like a throttle on a rocket ship, and it served ice cream, amazing!

The new Del’s Freeze – Super clean, repaved, repainted and remodeled. Nice!

And now for some trivia about Del’s you may not know. After talking with owners Lisa Pope and her son Chris they let me know that they serve lots of customers and lots and lots of ice cream. An average day sees some 400 to 500 orders taken, with some orders being 5 or 6 items and they serve between 200 to 300 gallons of soft serve ice cream a week. Some of the favorite items on the menu are banana splits and Freezies and here’s a really cool bit of trivia, back in the early 1970′s for 2 years when it was still a Tasty Freeze and there were some 1,600 locations, they were the number 1 Tasty Freeze soft serve location in the world. That’s right they served more soft serve ice cream than any other Tasty Freeze location on the planet. You probably didn’t know they were that famous did you?

Now that we’ve covered Del’s history how about some nostalgia. During my high school years from 1976 to 1978 at Melbourne High after football games or after going to a movie at the old Palms Theater (anyone remember that?) it was a custom to go to Del’s (it was actually still Tasty Freeze at the time) afterwords and get some kind of delicious ice cream concoction and either debrief on the football game or whatever ridiculous teenage level movie we had just seen. And for years after that we would always stop by for an occasional treat with friends or for a quick lunch of a couple of chili dogs (which I no longer eat). And the amazing thing during all this time and still up to now is that Del’s has always had a waiting line and we were in fact thankful if we got there on a Friday night and there were only 4 or 5 people in front of us.

Through multiple hurricanes, recessions, layoffs at the Cape, theater and drive in theater closings, widenings of US 1 and probably other hardships I haven’t mentioned, somehow Del’s has managed to not only stay open, but have a booming business as well. It is without a doubt the most famous ice cream shop in Brevard County and may be the most famous one in all of Florida.

For all who haven’t visited Del’s in some time and for all who have been waiting for the remodel to be finished, the good news is, Del’s is now reopened! So, everyone jump in the station wagon…oh wait…mini van and head down to Del’s Freeze in Melbourne on US1 and as always, be prepared to wait in line. It will be worth it.

Thanks goes out to the Date Night Chef for alerting me that Del’s had reopened.

You would think that everyone who owns or manages a business the public frequents would make it a high priority to keep up a tidy appearance. Unfortunately, in many cases cleanliness is the exception and not the rule. Really, how difficult is it to keep your place of business or your restaurant clean? And why wouldn’t you want to keep it clean?

A couple of places that Jean and I frequent seem to have very different ideas about how often they are going to keep their establishments clean and tidy. Panera in the West Melbourne Hammock Landings tends to keep the inside of their restaurant fairly clean. At times we have experienced tables and booths that need to be wiped of their crumbs and coffee splashes, but many times I have seen the managers themselves cleaning and wiping tables. Generally the outside of Panera is also clean, except for this morning as I walked in to grab a snack and write this post, the parking lot had an unusual amount of trash in it.

Barnes and Noble in West Melbourne is another matter completely. While the cafe inside B&N is almost always kept clean, the entrance and front of the bookseller is almost always filthy and littered with cigarette butts and trash. This is even after I have brought the unsightly cigarette butt issue to the attention of someone at the information desk three times no less. It gets swept up occasionally but, more times than not when I arrive there at 9:30 in the morning, only 30 minutes after opening, the entrance is already littered with trash.

Okay business owners and managers, here’s your simple tip for customer comfort and business cleanliness, hire someone for $8 or $9 a hour to keep your establishment clean or assign to each employee on a rotating basis the responsibility to wipe off tables and sweep the front of your book store or whatever business you own 3 to 4 times a day. I’m sure I could sweep the entire front of Barnes & Noble in probably less than 10 minutes. How hard would it be to get someone to do that once every 2 to 3 hours? Apparently it must be quite difficult because it rarely gets done at B&N.

There are businesses that Jean and I rarely to never visit any longer because they have such a hard time getting this one simple thing right. One Mexican restaurant in Palm Bay which will remain nameless for the time being, has been put on our do not visit list because they failed so miserably at keeping their entryway even remotely clean. I’m sure there are plenty of people that feel the same way we do, but never mention it to the owner or manager, they just stop going to the place of business.

If you are a business owner of an establishment visited by the public in the Melbourne Palm Bay area of South Brevard County, or anywhere for that matter, and you can’t seem keep customers and your business isn’t doing all that good, have a look at the cleanliness of your bathrooms, the curb appeal of your parking lot and entryway (clue: trash isn’t curb appeal) and the crumbs left on tables, in booths and ground into the carpet of your dining area. That may be a good place to start getting your business back on line.

If you’ve been down Hollywood Blvd in West Melbourne in the last 2 or 3 weeks you’ve probably noticed some of the homes near the intersection of Henry and Hollywood are being demolished. In the last several years some of these homes, which used to be cozy and fairly nice, have fallen into quite a state of disrepair. So, you may be thinking as I have been for the last several months, what’s going on here and why is the City Of West Melbourne tearing down houses?

If you have looked for any information regarding this matter it is nearly impossible to find out anything. Nothing appears in any of the local newspapers such as the Florida Today (anyone still reading that rag?) and almost nothing can be found online. The only slight bit of information I was able to find out was that there were bids placed to tear down 8 houses along Hollywood Blvd back in December 2010 and January 2011. Unfortunately that information is only available for those that register for the BidClerk.com website, which I did for free, and then the expanded info is only available for those that become a paying member of the site, which I did not do.

Further research turned up information on a Hollywood Blvd 4 lane widening project that supposedly was just in the planning stages and a look at the permit found at the site states that Frank Lin Excavating is doing the work. Even though Hollywood is a major thoroughfare through West Melbourne coming from the intersection of New Haven (192) and Hollywood next to Barnes And Noble and ending at Palm Bay Road, and gets lots of traffic, there isn’t enough money to pay for the project. The biggest drawback at this point may be that the right of way in acquiring all the homes along Hollywood is too expensive or the money just isn’t there yet. There are many small homes along this route and tearing down all of them and paying the owners for them would cost a small fortune, probably as much as widening the road itself.

At this point I’m at least guessing the tearing down of these 8 homes along Hollywood Blvd is the very beginning stages of the widening project and these homes were an eyesore to the community, the money was apparently there so, they came down. I go to Barnes and Noble more than once a week and take this route almost every time so I’m not looking forward to the 4 laning if and when it happens. Here’s an extra picture of the results of the demolitions:

Bruce Cadle, aka Date Night Chef, has written his first cookbook entitled Party For Two that has plenty of fun, fancy, easy and romantic recipes for 2. It will make your evening together with your spouse stress free when it comes to the dinner department. Rather than spending the afternoon in the kitchen preparing a nice, but labor intensive dinner, Bruce shows you how to make simple, yet elegant looking and delicious meals in Party For Two without all the fuss.

For instance, his Salmon Quesadillas with Lime Crema is sure to be a hit and if you grill the salmon the night before, preparation for this recipe on your date night requires nothing more than assembling the ingredients and pan frying or baking the quesadillas for 6 to 10 minutes. It’s that simple. Add Bruce’s Black Bean Corn Salad on page 66 and you have a complete Tex Mex seafood dinner for 2 for probably less than a third of what you’d pay in a restaurant.

Besides Party For Two being filled with great recipes, there are also lots of tips on meal presentation, cooking and grilling tips, food prep tips and plenty of food history, trivia and Bruce’s own personal experience in coming to enjoy may different dishes from his travels in Central America and Europe. Bruce’s cookbook is a wealth of information for simple, but romantic and thoroughly enjoyable recipes.

Party For Two also contains a secret recipe and I haven’t found any other cookbook that has even mentioned it. In fact the recipe is so secret, not even the book of secret restaurant recipes contains it. The secret recipe is…how to have a great marriage.

If you get the book and cook up all the recipes and move on to the next cookbook, you will miss the whole point of Party For Two. While you may be thinking how you would fit in a date night with your spouse and your busy schedule, Bruce and his wife Valerie can’t imagine not having a date night, every single week. Besides the great recipes and food tips, Bruce helps you put away all the excuses for not having a date night such as you can’t afford it, you can’t cook, you’re too busy, you can’t find a babysitter and on and on.

You can sit around and figure out plenty of reasons not to have a date night and not to make your marriage better or you can get Bruce’s book and let him help you make a plan.

Don’t make anymore excuses, get Party For Two and spice up your date night, or start one if you don’t have one already. Your taste buds and your tummy will thank you, and so will your spouse.

There are only 2 of them in the world and one landed at Melbourne International Airport on March 4th, 2011. I’m referring to the Soviet Antonov An-225 pictured above which is the world’s largest airplane. Originally designed for the Russian space program to carry the Buran orbiter, which looks a lot like our soon to be decommissioned Space Shuttle, the An 225 was at the Melbourne Florida airport in early March 2011 to transport an undisclosed cargo to an undisclosed location.

Whatever the world’s largest plane was transporting, it must have been large and heavy because the An 225 can carry an enormous cargo up to 550,000 pounds on the inside or 440,000 pounds on the fuselage. The plane has carried the heaviest cargo ever transported via air freight when it delivered a 416,900 pound generator for a power plant in Armenia, and it has also flown the world’s longest piece of air freight when it flew 2 138 foot long wind turbine blades from China to Denmark.

The plane’s wingspan is 290 feet, just 10 feet short of the length of a football field and it is 60 feet or 6 stories tall. Powered by 6 ZMKB Progress D-18 turbofans producing 51,000 pounds of thrust each, the plane needs an 11,500 foot runway to take off with a full payload. Of course that brings up the question, how did the An 225 land and then take off again at Melbourne Airport which has a runway of only 10,181 feet? Apparently the cargo was large, but not large enough for the maximum length of runway needed. I didn’t know Melbourne Intl could handle aircraft this large because I thought the runway wasn’t thick enough. Apparently I was mistaken.

Thanks goes out to Bill Crotts who took these amazing pictures and was kind enough to let me use them here on the Melbourne Palm Bay Living site. You can view more of Bill’s beautiful nature and landscape work on his photography website here.

Check out the additional pictures of the Antonov An-225 below: