Travel: Cocoa Beach, Florida

 

Those sunglasses on my head did not come back home.  A wave knocked them off and I never found them again.

We were due for a beach vacation.  Or it felt like we needed a beach vacation until I realized this would be our 3rd summer in a row going to the Atlantic Ocean (Amelia Island, Acadia).  In January I started seriously looking at possibilities.  Our plans changed about 10 times, I think I looked at every available VRBO or AirBnB in our price range along most of the entire coast of Florida.  Cocoa Beach wasn't plan A.  Or plan B.  BUT...it ended up being wonderful.  One of our best beach vacations yet.

The timing
We knew we were going at the end of July.  My husband had requested that week off months before I booked anything.  Then my mother-in-law died in July and life was pretty chaotic and not at all what we had expected.  We ended up leaving for this trip about 65 hours after we finished with her funeral and burial.  It was a crazy time and it felt like a huge thing to push aside all the grief so we could pack and prepare for this trip (which I almost entirely did in the 2 full days before funeral day and leaving).  I told myself I didn't have time to cry because I had to pack.  And then I started to cry literally the second we had the car loaded that morning before we left.  It was all A LOT and the fact that we made it to Florida with nearly everything we needed and not much excess was a minor miracle. (Turns out, the fact that we made it to Florida at all was a minor miracle, given the car problems we had hours after getting there...I cried about that too.)

Where we stayed
My husband and I have decided that we are at an age where we no longer want to drive through the night.  We did our bigger driving days first, both going south and heading back home.  We like Tru by Hiltons for these one night quick stops and I literally plan where we are stopping based on where there is one of those by the highway.  We stayed in Macon, Georgia on the way down and Knoxville, Tennessee on the way home (that one was WAAAAAY too cautious about germs (the apples and bagels were individually plastic wrapped) but the floor was dustier than it should have been).  

In Cocoa Beach we stayed right on the beach.  It was the best beach condo we've ever had, despite all of my initial worries that it wouldn't be.  We had TWO bathrooms and the boys even each got their own full size bed in their shared room.  We had a balcony over looking the beach and even watched a rocket launch from there (more on rockets later).  It was incredibly clean and well stocked, had everything we could have been looking for in a vacation rental but not an annoying amount of things.  

The condo complex itself wasn't the nicest.  It was fine and we had no problems but it definitely felt a bit shady in the beginning, especially the staircase.  And going to the beach involved going down 2 flights of stairs, walking around the building up some stairs, walking through grass, and then up another set of stairs to get over the dunes.  We got used to it but slightly annoying.  And although I initially deemed the pool to be sketchy...it was a perfect temperature and we stopped there nearly every day after the beach (and showering off the sand) as a transition back to the condo.  We did come back in a rainstorm, in the dark, after all our car problems, to barely be able to get in the parking lot because of police cars...but nothing more came of that and we just kept the blinds closed that looked over the parking lot.  Matt & I ran along the road twice and there were houses very close by that were very nice so the neighborhood was much better than I had thought it might be.  (Sometimes I like being wrong.)

So: condo: wonderful, A+!  Complex: B- and the pool is helping raise that grade quite a bit.

 

What we Did

BEACH.  Like it was our job.  Just beach.  

We went on this trip to go to the beach.  We collected more shells than was necessary.  Boogie boarded.  Floated.  Built sand castles.  Drank seltzers on the beach (adults).  Accidentally gave our kids caffeinated energy drinks at 4pm on the beach (they only got a few sips in before I realized the caffeine and took them away).  It was a lot of beach.

We ate out once, other than fast food suppers on the long travel days, and that was at Coconuts on the Beach, mainly because it was steps from our condo (I could see our balcony from my seat).  Ate right by the sand and it was easy and lovely.  We also ate lunch at Kennedy Space Center the day we were there but otherwise, ate food we took from home (plus a few items we picked up at the grocery there).

The water was warm (82°, per a sign on the lifeguard stand).  We found plenty of shells but the part we swam at every day didn't have a shell-y or rocky start to get in the water like we've had other places.  There were waves but they weren't too crazy but enough to be fun.  The water was a beautiful color.  It was a great beach!  And I SWAM WITH A SEA TURTLE.  Or saw one 10 feet away while I was on the boogie board.  We also saw what we are pretty sure were sharks a ways out on our last day.  But had very few fish bumping into us as we swam and floated!

Kennedy Space Center
This is the one thing we did that wasn't the beach.  We didn't go to Cocoa Beach because of the space center and I had initially looked at going when I had booked the condo but somehow thought it would be $800 so dismissed that pretty quick.  Then some texting convos with my family once I realized we could see some Space Center things from our beach...we realized it would NOT be $800 and went. 

We went to the Huntsville Space & Rocket Center two years ago and that place was very cool.  The Saturn V especially.  But Kennedy Space Center was even cooler.  My interest in the space program came from my Dad (he graduated high school the summer of the first moon landing so his formative school years were during the space race).  My husband is interested because of his general science interest.  And amount of artifacts and amazing things they had at KSC was just astounding.  We were there 7 hours and still could have spent double that time (at least Matt & I...a 5 year old only has so much attention for rockets that aren't going off).

Supposedly the catwalk the 3 Apollo 11 astronauts walked across to get in the rocket for the moon.  But then they said another one of these in the gift shop was also that...so I don't know. 

The recreated command center for a Gemini mission.  They acted like people had just stepped away, like sweaters on the back of chairs and coffee cups out. 

 

Logo from the side of the building in the Mercury era...although it didn't match with the picture next to it showing that.  Maybe it got repainted since.

 

The actual VAB which was very cool to see in person.  I've seen this in movies.  The largest doors IN THE WORLD and it's been in use for ~60 years. 

Apollo 14 maybe??

 

Saturn V.  The display was nearly identical to Huntsville but different things around it.

Maybe launchpad 39a, one of them that has been in use for decades.

 

We saw an actual space shuttle that flew in space on 20+ missions.  A Saturn V.  TOUCHED A MOON ROCK.  Saw various parts of various rockets that actually went to space.  Moon suits that walked on the moon.  On and on and on and on.  There was so much stuff.  And they LOVE a dramatic reveal there.  In nearly every building we entered you had to watch a dramatic movie clip (5ish minutes), some with effects like wind.  Then go into another room and watch ANOTHER clip.  THEN you could see something amazing.  After we did the building for the shuttle and the shuttle was revealed...the whole room of 80ish people clapped like they had just landed the thing for the very first time every (it had been on display for a decade).  I guess being so close to Disney they felt the need to dramatize everything???

It really was an impressive place to visit, just the history! From a distance, we saw the launchpad used for Apollo 11! So many artifacts and so many rockets launched right near where we were.  I'm glad my sister figured out it would be $800 so we could go.  

  

Other items of note

We made our second stop in 3 summers to The Bookshelf in Thomasville, GA.  I didn't think I'd get Matt there ever again but made it happen on this trip!  Actually got to meet the lovely Annie B. Jones this time.  I've been listening to her podcast for 7 years and been following her on Instagram for nearly that long.  Surreal to meet someone you feel like you already know!  Also, picked up books for the boys (and me).  When I buy new books, they are nearly always from here (they've done A LOT of custom orders for me.  I need to work on another one for Christmas), even though nearly all of those orders are long distance.  (The shirt I am wearing came from the bookstore, back in April.  I've worn it A LOT since.)

We also made our first Buc-ee's stop ever.  We had seen many of them on our trip but the one (only one) in Kentucky finally lined up with when we needed gas.  Bathrooms were super clean.  Turns out TWO of my sisters had stopped at this same one (separately) earlier in the summer!  It was an experience!

And we saw TWO rockets launch from the Kennedy Space Center area.  We watched one on the beach with the boys around 9pm and another from our balcony, steps from our bed (I woke Matt up for this) at 12:01am on the day we were leaving.  It was not something we were expecting to experience on this trip and they were very cool to witness, even from miles and miles away.  We could still hear the noise!  Although it took a minute or two for it to reach us. 

In Conclusion...
This was a wonderful trip.  After the crazy 12ish days that preceded this trip, it felt both crazy and exactly what we needed to get away, just the 4 of us.  The weather was wonderful (turns out we WEREN'T crazy to go to Florida in late July...home had some hotter days than we had...and we had the beach!), the condo was wonderful, the space stuff was fun, the beach was great!  It was an awesome trip and I would gladly do the whole thing all over again!

Travel: Cuyahoga Valley National Park

 

Only about 4 hours away from us is one of the newer National Parks - Cuyahoga Valley.  My parents visited last year, actually while we were at Acadia, and enjoyed it so we added it to our plan for 2023.  We went in June, not too long after school got out.  And with schedules and other trips (we were home from this trip for 24 hours before leaving for two nights at Jellystone) we only had 3 nights near Cuyahoga.  We could have fit in more hikes with more time but felt like we saw a good bit of the park with the 2.5 days we had there!

We stayed in a deluxe cabin at a KOA nearby.  It wasn't our best KOA experience (our cabin wasn't stocked when we got there like it should have been) but they also said they almost completely new staff and we were there early in the season.  They were always quick to fix any problem that arose and I think with some time it probably got smoother for them.  This is the first cabin we've stayed at where the boys had a loft AND a bunk room...I wanted them to sleep in the bunk room because it had blinds on the windows.  They wanted to sleep in the loft...where there were a lot of windows and no blinds.  But Matt was able to use a lot of our empty Vera Bradley market totes to block enough of the windows that it worked. 

Cuyahoga Valley felt like a little gem, tucked away.  Until my parents went, I don't think I had really even heard of it!  It is the only thing we did on this trip other than attend weekend Mass and I think stop at a grocery store.  We went there for Cuyahoga.  

We did 3 main hikes although one we did a bit of twice. We started with Boston Mills Visitor Center, going straight there from home on a Saturday morning.  Picked up maps, got a junior ranger book for the boys to share (they were running low on them so sharing was encouraged).  We asked for suggestions for an easy-ish hike with kids.  They said Brandywine Falls.  This was around 1:30pm and we were going to Mass at 5pm, hoping to unpack at our cabin in between.  "It's about 3 miles" they said.  Great!

Brandywine Falls
This is one of the more well known parts of Cuyahoga (as much as any part of the park is "well known").  We were told that the parking lot can get full but you can hike there from the Boston Mills Visitor Center so we decided to do that.  Flat at times, some stairs, some winding up and down hills.  Very wooded, very peaceful.  Figured out a bit in that this hike was going to be more than 3 miles.  By the time we got to Brandwine Falls we were about 2.5 miles in and still had to get back to the car before Mass.  We didn't go see the falls but pretty much headed back to the car (we could have turned around at any point...but we didn't).  It ended up being about 5 miles and an extra 2 miles with a reluctant 5 year old is a big difference!  (He was carried for about 75% of those 5 miles, most of that by Matt).  

We ended up with about 15 minutes at our cabin to unload most of the car, unpack perishables into the fridge, change, and run back out the door for Mass.  But we made it to Mass on time!

 

The next day, our first stop was to the Brandywine Falls parking lot where we did the short path to actually see the falls this time.  Then we ventured a bit on the path we had been on the day before so the boys could play by a creek we had passed.  Some nice climbing over rocks and skipping stones made them a bit more willing to do a hike.

 

Ledges
When I was asking my Mom what hikes we should do at Cuyahoga, this is the one she said was her absolutely favorite.  So this was our stop after lunch.  And she was right, it's amazing and was our favorite too.  You start on the top of some rocks (this was parking lot level) and then went to the bottom and walked along these amazing rock formations in the woods.  It was nice being at the bottom of them because I wasn't constantly worried about a kid falling off them.  And there were boulders to climb here and there to keep the boys entertained.  This was gorgeous and definitely worth doing if you stop here.  It was perfect for kids and Matt & I enjoyed it quite a bit too.  Just a wonderful hike that was very scenic.  

The crazy thing to me is that we ended by climbing to the top of these rocks where we had a view of the valley.  Felt like we were so high up.  Then we walked over just a bit, thinking we were so high up, wondering what we could see across the little clearing...I thought a view of the parking lot.  No, turns out somehow we were back to the parking lot level, just across a grassy field from our car.  I hadn't realized we had done so far downhill that we had to climb that much up to be at the parking lot level again.  It still blows my mind a bit because that is NOT where I had expected to end!  

At this point in our 1st full day there was rain coming so it was back to the cabin mid-afternoon.  But had gotten in 2 things!

 

Sense of Boston Quest
This was part of the boys' junior ranger book and started at the Boston Mills Visitors Center.  It told you where to start, where to turn, things to look for, where to pay attention to each of your 5 main senses.  It was fun following it along to the box at the end where we recorded our names and the date.  Plus, completed an item for the boys!

 

 

 

Blue Hen Falls
Since we were already at the visitor's center and had some time, we picked Blue Hen as our last hike of Cuyahoga.  I was a bit leery because it said there were a lot of elevation changes and it was about 3 miles round trip.  I knew how that had gone a few days earlier but it was close and so we set off.  There were A LOT of stairs on this one and part went along a maintenance road.  BUT...the parts that weren't that were very peaceful among a ton of trees.  When we got to the Blue Hen Falls we had them to ourselves for 10 minutes before anyone else even showed up!  We were able to get near the base of the falls and the boys made a path across the stream (they still got wet feet).  It wasn't as hard as I expected it to be and, even with more stairs, Sam did more of this one than he did our original hike to Brandywine two days earlier!  

Then it was back to camp so the boys could swim (on our coldest day of the trip - 65° or something, they were crazy).  We made one last stop to Boston Mills in the morning before heading home so the boys could get their junior ranger badges (we definitely did most of the activities in the final 24 hours) and then a 4ish hour drive back home!

A little gem of a park in the midwest, pretty kid friendly.  I'm sure it's extra gorgeous in the fall!  Definitely a worthwhile stop if you are within easy driving range. 

 

Travel: Chicago part 2

 

Yesterday I covered the first part of our spring break trip to Chicago, including our eventful trip there, where we stayed, and our first full day in the city.  We spent 3 nights so this will cover our second full day and our (also eventful) trip home!

Day 3 (Tuesday)
When I checked the weather this morning it gave alerts about how Chicago should expect extreme weather and possibly tornadoes this day.  So...it was a good thing we mostly had inside time at museums scheduled!

First up was the Shedd Aquarium.  This was one thing we knew we wanted to do when in Chicago.  Matt & I had done a few aquariums before (Maui, Seattle) but never with the boys.  I had, apparently, been twice with my family although I didn't realize it was twice until I got home and was looking at pictures.  The first time I don't remember but knew we went when I was a little (I still have a Muppets book with a Shedd price sticker on it).  We went again when I was in high school.  I remember that trip but nothing about Shedd was familiar AT ALL until I came home and saw pictures of the dolphin show room...I guess I blocked out all the fish.

And at Shedd there were A LOT of fish.  A LOT.  I think we got fish fatigue by the time we got to the larger sea creatures like penguins and beluga whales.  We went through ALL. THE. ROOMS. and it was a bit confusing.  Then there were different levels...trying to cover it all in a morning was maybe a bit much but I also didn't need to spend all day looking at fish.

We ate lunch in their (overpriced) cafeteria and finished seeing fish.  Then walked over to the Field Museum.  We had given the boys the option of the Field Museum or the Museum of Science and Industry (and had explained what was at each) and they picked Field Museum.  Which was handy because it was a 3 minute walk from the aquarium. 

The Field Museum is in a very impressive building but we were there for mainly one thing.  We wanted to see Sue.  We had read a picture book about Sue, the most complete T-Rex skeleton ever found and how, after a bidding war, she ended up at the Field Museum.  When we read that book a few years ago I promised the boys that we would take them to see Sue someday and this was that. 

We did a few other parts first - the Egyptian section and then all the stuffed mammals.  It was making me, a non-animal person, rather sad, thinking of all these animals being killed to be in a museum until Matt told me that they mostly came from zoos when the animals were dying anyways???  I think there was a sign that said something along those lines and that was helpful.  I hadn't ever been that close to many of the animals.  Also helpful, showing what a human is. 

There was quite the build-up in exhibits to get to Sue.  Saw many dinosaur fossils but then Sue had a whole room with a light show that highlighted which parts of her were real and which were man made.  Notice her lower rib cage, they said that was a fairly recent discovery that it should be like that.  Also, Sue had arthritis.  I have something in common with a dinosaur from millions of years ago!!  Sue was impressive and very much worth the trip (although they should have sold the book about her in the gift shop...). 

 

We also have a kid who has picked triceratops as his favorite dinosaur so he was excited to see this one too.  There were MANY more dinosaurs than these two.  Not as many as the Shedd had fish, but many.  We stayed until closing and our final stop was the gems.  Those were also very impressive and cool.  

Then we Lyfted back to the hotel (it was 2-3 miles and raining and we had been on our feet most of the day.  We Lyfted there too.).  There was a Whole Foods across the street from Embassy Suites and we stopped there for a random-ish supper.  We found some pizza bites we could microwave for the boys and I got a salad kit.  Some fruit.  It was more than we'd spend on groceries at home but less than we'd spend eating out! 

We supplemented our hotel room supper with the BEST snacks we had had at Happy Hour the whole trip - hot pretzels with cheese which are my FAVORITE.  I waited in line 10 minutes for them to make more and they were delicious.  Matt & I also discovered Tequilia Sunrises on this night and that was also delicious.  (The boys have some sort of fruit punch here.) All in all, our best happy hour yet. 

The view from mine & Matt's room was spectacular, especially at night, and the boys were entranced with it too.  I LOVE a good city view and we very rarely have them, this was the best one we've ever had at a hotel!  

Day 4 (Wednesday)
Hotel breakfast, packing up, and checked out of the hotel.  The walk back to the train station where we had just a little time to stall between check-out and when we needed to catch our train.  It wasn't raining which was helpful!  Picked up some Subway at the train station for lunch on the train, got on our first train, prepared for the switches this time!  And they went much smoother knowing we'd be moving.  

On the final train to South Bend, we sat on the upstairs deck and the boys LOVED that.  They were up and down the stairs, moving between seats.  It made it a bit more secluded AND there was a rack for our luggage.  Got to experience 3 different kinds of seats on this trip!

That was it! Our spring break in Chicago.  We had mostly decent weather for April, saw many big sights in the city, took the boys somewhere new, and got Jamba Juice!  It was a great trip.