Cocoa Beach, Florida. Blog post #4

Cocoa Beach, Florida was absolutely ideal for a great Spring Break trip. I have traveled to Cocoa Beach twice with my friend Haley, her family, and some family friends of theirs. This trip was full of relaxing beach days, shopping trips to Ron Jons and crazy adventures! There are a few people who you will see in some photos. The girl in the photo above, is my friend Haley. There are two boys we were with, one is Haley's brother, Zac. The other is the family friend's son, Ryan.

To start off, Haley's grandma lives on the Banana River. We stayed with her because she had the extra space and was very inviting to all eight of us. A lot of the time, after a long day, we would go out on the dock and use a spotlight to see the large fish out of the water. Also, her neighbors had paddle boards, which we would stand on and trail through the water. Actually, I remember paddle boarding and seeing large whales just swimming right past us! It was an incredible experience being next to such a large creature, that you would usually only see at an aquarium. The boys, being the immature 18 year old that they were, would chase us in a little boat and try and knock us into the water. I, of course, got extremely mad and would rather have died then fall into waters that I was unfamiliar with. I was so grateful for Haley's grandmother for opening her home to us!

One of the most incredible things I've ever done, was fly a plane all on my own. There is an aviation program in Cocoa Beach that allows kids to go up and literally fly the plane on your own, with verbal guidance from the pilot. I never thought I would be able to do that in my lifetime and the fact that I also got my aviation certificate, made the experience even better. I will never forget how we spent the afternoon flying a plane and I will probably always brag about it! The pilot was so kind and trustworthy (which I probably would not let some kids fly my plane.) I was just in awe at the situation and know that I was very lucky to get to experience something so amazing.

Another incredible experience was completing a rope and zipline course above the Cocoa Beach Zoo! Usually, when you get there, they tell you the three levels of difficulty and you get to choose which one you would like to accomplish. When we were asked, the boys, answered for us. So, of course we ended up doing the most difficult course. As you can see, I am not exactly built to concur incredible strength courses but somehow, we did it. It was so amazing to see what the zoo looks like from above. It felt almost like an out of body experience, flying through the air and being at the top of the trees. Your safety was all up to you and whether you clipped and unclipped your harness correctly. My favorite part was probably the actual zip lining. I love heights and loved just soaring through the sky. I was so happy that we chose to follow with our plan to go to the Zoo that day.

At night, we would go to Ron Jons to shop. It didn't matter if we had anything to buy or not, we would still go and look around. It seems silly, but it always felt like they had something new each time we went and we had this weird idea in our head that we would miss out on something if we didn't go. We bought Boogie Boards from Ron Jons and would crash through the waves with them at the beach. We bought sweatshirts and sunglasses, and probably funded their business for a solid month. 

The final thing about Cocoa Beach, that I fell in love with, is their beaches. The sand was white and soft and felt like you were lounging on a tempurpedic mattress. It was spring break and there were a ton of people at each destination, and especially around the pier! We spent hours upon hours, laying on the beach and playing in the water when we got over heated. Sometimes, we would even walk down to the beach if no one else wanted to go with us. I loved the hot sun on my skin and hearing the waves crash up onto the shore. Cocoa Beach was absolutely perfect and I hope that I get to visit there again, sometime soon.