Surf’s Up at Cocoa Beach
Our lovely friends Josh and Brenda invited us over to their place at Cocoa Beach – actually a smaller beautiful beach near to Cocoa Beach – on Sunday. The weather was perfect and we were all set for a day at the beach!
On Friday Stephen had agreed to learn to surf, but on the drive over he was quiet, gazing out the window spotting wildlife that could potentially endanger him while on the board – gators, sharks, dolphins. It’s fair to say he was a little nervous.
But Josh was amazing and got us all loaded up in his jeep, boards and and all, and down to the beach straight away (just a few minutes away from the house). Boom.
After waxing the board like a true professional, Stephen followed Josh into the freezing water. The weather was beautiful but the water still so cold. Brenda and I hung back and acted as dutiful photographers of this exciting event. Stephen had wanted to try surfing all of last summer in Cornwall, but it was expensive, so he was very lucky to have a friend to teach him.
He seemed to get the hang of it pretty quickly and stood up a few times, at which we squealed with delight from the shore and I snapped away, hoping he would appear standing up in one of these pics. Luckily Josh had set up a go pro on the end of his board, rad!
After about an hour or so of surfing, Stephen had acquired a surf injury, tick, was freezing cold, tick, and was starving hungry, tick. He’d had a blast out there on the waves though, and we were all ready for lunch.
Brenda and Josh took us for an incredible meal of blackened Mahi, mango coleslaw and some delicious coconut rice, in a tiny independent place by the beach called Fat Kahuna’s. It was so good I forgot to photograph it to show you how good it was. But I can assure you it was the most fabulous meal we have eaten in Florida so far.
Soon it was time to check out the rocket launch, which was taking place out in the sea from a launch pad at 6.10pm. It was the most beautiful sunset, so perfect, and we waited patiently on the beach in awe of the pink sky, following the lights and helicopters of the space center across the water. There were crowds of people gathered eager to see the blast, even the Disney cruise ship anchored up to check out the show, but it wasn’t meant to be this time. Sadly it was cancelled, postponed until this evening.
Instead we drove down peacock road, looking for the peacocks that live there! Again, they let us down, we could hear them but we couldn’t see them. Until Stephen noticed a sneaky male in a tree outside a house. Spotted! We discovered that peacocks sleep in trees! Well at least they do on this particular street in Florida!
We ended our night, relaxed and warm by Brenda and Josh’s fire pit – the perfect end to the perfect Sunday! We are truly very lucky to made such lovely friends here.
