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| 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.)
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).
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| Apollo 14 maybe?? |
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| Saturn V. The display was nearly identical to Huntsville but different things around it. |
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| 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.
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!
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!
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