I made a new discovery somewhat by accident. A cousin of mine and her husband were in Orlando for the week after Christmas and that conflicted with us having the kids here, but we did want to get together. The solution was for us to meet in Vero Beach for lunch which is right at a three-hour drive from here. We were meeting on a Sunday and the well-known Ocean Grill is not open for lunch on Sundays. In searching on-line, I found the Dockside Grille which looked nice. I called to verify they would be open and we were all set. It is not a difficult place to find and the “dockside” is a canal, but it’s very pleasant. (http://www.docksidegrilleverobeach.com) The menu choices included the expected and some specialty items as well. Service was good, the food quite good, and the prices were in line with similar locations. I can’t speak for the drinks since this was a rare case when it really wasn’t advisable for me to have anything other than unsweetened ice tea.

We lingered over lunch about as long as we could considering that a wait was building for outdoor tables, but we wanted to have a bit more time to visit. As it turned out, our waitress had the answer. There was a lovely little city park about a mile from the restaurant. It was tucked away and she told us that it would look as if we were turning into a residential neighborhood. It is a neighborhood, however, one that happens to have a waterfront park. It was not large, but nicely laid out with seven or eight covered picnic tables and several benches looking out on the Sebastian Inlet. The weather was beautiful that day and we sat on one of the benches and finished catching up.

I’m not sure why I didn’t snap a nice photo of either place, but the views from the park were very picturesque and I can happily recommend the Dockside Grille for dining.