Last Week at Cocoa Beach
Finding more and more to do as we pack up to head north again
The Cocoa Beach chapter is winding down. We have come to the end of our mission. Alex and Mary’s beach house is listed, and guests are arriving tomorrow.
The last week or so has been the best. We keep discovering things in this quirky town, but have not had time to explore more of Florida, though we did make a quick trip to Naples to be present at Iris’s third-birthday party at her other grandparents, Nancy and Mick Scherba. Her birthday coincided with Mardi Gras, Ramadan, and Chinese New Year. The focus was on the latter.
P.F. Chang did the cooking that night, and the food was tasty. I had never tried the brand, but Naples has every conceivable popular restaurant. In an homage to Disney, since the family was there for 5 days the week before, Minnie Mouse made the party as a cake. Yes—they sipped the Kool Aid and the kids, especially Iris, are in deep Mouseketeer mode. Kirk, we heard, was more interested in looking underneath the rides to see the gear mechanisms than in meeting the princesses. He’s a builder.
Leaving the west coast of Florida the next morning, we opted to drive around Lake Okeechobee and explore that region. It is a huge, shallow lake, with an average depth of 9 feet. There are sugarcane fields in the surrounding fertile soil, and a lively sugar-processing industry that employs many Caribbean workers. We wondered about the smoke, but learned how it is part of the harvesting process in this great Rolling Stone article by Michael Adno. We enjoyed lunch that day at El Prado in Belle Glade, and the Cuban sandwich and beef Papas Rellenos were delicious.
During our last week, we explored some iconic Space Coast properties. The Moon Hut in Cape Canaveral was popular with early astronauts, as was The Mousetrap, now called Cocoa Beach Fish Camp Grill. Unfortunately, my breakfast at the Moon Hut was not out of this world, but the decor was. I would give them another try. This recent CNN article by David G. Allan came out just in time for us to check in on some highlights of the area
Alex, Mary, and Coco came up from Miami for our last weekend, and we had an early celebration of Coco’s 4th birthday, though he was a bit under the weather and subdued that day. We went to Seafood Atlantic in the evening and had delicious local tuna
But our lunch that day was truly local. John discovered that he could put in the kayak just a few blocks away and get out into the Banana River Aquatic Preserve, where he paddled with manatees, a curious dolphin, and scores of herons and hungry pelicans. And he brought home sea trout for lunch when they arrived from Miami.
The day before we left, we took all the comforters from the house to the laundromat. We walked down to the Kava Bar, not knowing anything at all it. Chandler, the young man behind the bar, gave us samples of kava, which you sip from a metal “shell”, as well as some kratom tea that they brew on site. The place looked like a cross between a coffee bar and a nightclub, but otherworldly, like the Milk Bar in Clockwork Orange. Chandler’s enthusiasm for his beverages reminded me of Sc’Eric Horner, the passionate bartender at Pine Hall back at home. We enjoyed sampling the bitter brews, but are not ready to give up coffee and proper black tea quite yet.
We finally found our groove, and not just on the record player, where we have been enjoying our old albums since we arrived. We found our path, our roots now extending into this lush, slightly bronzed (due to the cold weather, when the foliage took a big hit) environment. We will be back. The house is ready for rentals on VRBO, and if it’s not booked for a spell, we can thunder back down I-95. Especially when there is a chance to get the cousins together. That is what it is all about!
Fine fine journey, thanks for including all of us! We welcome you back joyfully