Day 5
Happy Fathers day. This is the first morning with have woken up at a decent hour 6.30 am. Jayne handed over the three Fathers day cards the kids had given her, I am told to purchase myself a new shirt and the kids would reimburse me (yeah I bet!!!)
They are all busy themselves at the Isle of Wight Festival, I hope it is not raining like last year. They look forward to it so much.
What to do today? We have three options.
1. A visit to Celebration and enjoy a great breakfast at the Market Street Diner. Then a walk round the farmers market, which is there every Sunday.
2. Breakfast in the condo. and a visit to the local garage sale (jumble/boot sale) at one of the communities on Ronald Reagan Parkway or
3. Head out to Daytona Beach, stopping for breakfast on the way. Spending most of the day there. Then travelling up to St Augustine and staying the night with the intention of having a look round the next day.
It is now 0750 and I’m tapping away on this report still undecided. It’s great not having a schedule to keep to. Just decide at the last minute.
The only thing we do have planned however is a visit to Universal to see Earth Wind & Fire who are performing on stage next Saturday. These concerts are great, in the past we have seen The Beach Boys, Sheryl Crow, a girl from Disney’s ICarley show (can’t remember her name) and Mannheim Steamroller performing the Grinch at Christmas as well as some of their own music.
At Epcot we saw David Cassidy a couple of years ago and Chubby Checker this year.
There is no additional cost to watch these shows, entry is with the normal ticket. You can go as early as you like and stay all day to watch the performance at night.
Good fun.
(This is now 11 hours later 7.12pm)
I had just finished the above paragraph when Jayne decided that she would cook breakfast (Canadian bacon, fried egg, fresh toms and toast) and after I had washed up we would set off for Cocoa Beach. Within the hour having showered and readied ourselves, we were on the road. It only takes just over an hour to get there from our place. On the way we took the turning for Cocoa itself as I remembered there was a farmers market/flea/boot sale on a Sunday. We paid it a visit but the only thing Jayne purchased was a large plastic container of chunky pieces of fresh fruit. Inside were two types of watermelon, strawberries and pineapple. Now I don’t normally like pineapple, but this was so fresh and sweet. We ate it later on the beach.
We always park by Cocoa Beach pier it costs $10 but that is for all whole day and its right on top of all the action. The pier is just what you could imagine a pier should be like. It is made from old worn out wood and houses a bar/restaurant at the start, toilets half way down and then another bar/restaurant half way along. At the end is a fishing area. This was a great spot to watch all the Apollo and space shuttle launches. You can still see the gantries in the distance. I still get knots in my stomach as we start to get near Cocoa Beach because in the distance you can see the gigantic black and white NASA building at Cape Canaveral. One small step for man!
Our deckchairs were positioned near the sea and ‘people watching’ commenced. Right in front of us was the surfing section of the beach. The lifeguard is constantly keeping bathers out of the area and keeping everyone safe. It’s fantastic watching all the young children trying to surf for the first time. Americans really know how to enjoy themselves. There are a number of volleyball courts on the beach and they are all busy. Mostly locals who, I think must be in local leagues. Everyone on the beach has umbrellas and cooler boxes and the atmosphere is great. Every now and again a bi-plane flys over and completes some aerobatics. He flies low enough for everyone to see his contact number printed under the wings in case you might fancy a go! I don’t know if they would allow him to fly like that in the UK.
The water was just right, cool enough to refresh but not hot enough to feel like a bath. The waves were quite big, so any children must be watched over.
After sunning ourselves for about four hours we decided that we were due for afternoon eats. We hadn’t eaten any lunch (apart from the fresh fruit) and so were getting a little peckish. We loaded up and set off for the car, making use of the public showers, which are situated just where the fine sand ends. After putting all the gear in the boot, we decide to eat in the bar area on the shore end of the pier. Jayne had heard live music coming from the area, and as the man was singing Jimmy Buffett songs, I didn’t have a say in the matter. Again it is what you would expect situated near the sea, the place has got a very nautical feel about it. We both weren’t over hungry and choose beer battered coconut shrimp with fries for me and Jayne had a small portion of fish & chips. In the background the live act was singing ‘Its 5 o’clock somewhere’, good timing I thought as I drink a cool glass of beer.
Off we went to pay the visit to Ron Jon surf shop. It’s got to be done. Although there is nothing I could think of that I needed. Jayne needed a new pair of flip-flops and so she selected a pair, handed me a 10% off coupon (there are lots of coupons over here!) and told me that I was buying them for her. Again for those who have never been to Ron Jon, they sell everything to do with surfing and other beach activities. From sunglasses to surfboards. Over the road from Ron Jon is a smaller surf shop, which sells a lot of non-brand named goods. So it’s worth popping there to see if the item you want is any cheaper. Both stores have teaching facilities if you fancy a go at surfing. They will even hire you a surfboard.
Time to start heading for home. The roads are getting a bit busy as everyone has the same idea but there are no traffic jams like you would get at home. A pleasant 60 miles an hour journey until we reached Orlando airport and the heavens opened up. It can really rain heavily here but after about a minute the sun was out again.
I think we are having a night in tonight, Jayne was trying to persuade me to take her to the outlet mall but after having had a shower she now feels a bit tired and is reading her kindle on the balcony as I am typing this. There are still a couple of slices of key lime pie in the fridge. That will do for our tea with a scoop of ice cream, yum.
Glad some people are reading these reports. I am going after a set of those headphones when I get back, ‘Dads Taxi’ thanks for the info.
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