February 28th to March 7th
Day One
Up at 0300! Who scheduled a 6:00AM flight?!?
Arrived at Orlando Airport and picked up our rental car – a new Toyota Rav4 – time to compare to see if it’s time for an upgrade! Stopped by historic Cocoa Beach for lunch at Time Out Grill and a look around. And of course, we had to make the obligatory stop at a Walmart before getting to the cottage.
Day Two
Kennedy Space Center
Spent the day at KSC to see the launch of the new GOES-T satellite on an Atlas V rocket!
Day Three
up early to catch the sunrise
Spent the morning on the beach, then headed down to the pier for an early dinner.
After dark, we went on a glass bottom kayak bioluminescent tour! March isn’t the high season for the bioluminescent algae or “jelly fish”, but still cool and Erin and Freedom were great tour guides with lots of info.
Day Four
Early morning sunrise on the beach, then back to the beach for another rocket launch – this time a Space-X Falcon taking up a load of Star-Link satellites. Not as impressive as from the KSC viewing location, but still really cool!
Lunch at Coconuts on the Beach
Decided to continue driving south down the A1A and stop at Lori Wilson Park and Melbourne Beach south of Cocoa Beach
Stopped at Sebastian Inlet and walked out on the fishing pier.
Headed back up for dinner at Squid Lips in Cocoa Beach to watch an awesome sunset!
Day Five
Slept in and hung out at the cottage for breakfast, lunch on “our” beach, then heading out to Manatee Sanctuary Park and Ulumay Sanctuary for some trails.
Dinner at Sunset Grill in Cocoa Beach
Day Six
Up the coast to the north today! First stop, New Smyrna Beach for lunch at Yellow Dog Eats. Lots going on in the streets with the Arts & Crafts Festival in town.
Continuing up the coast, it soon became evident that this was Bike Week in Daytona Beach
Views of the ocean from the A1A
Stopped in St. Augustine to look around town and get some dinner.
Dinner at Gourmet Hut – beautiful setting and delicious food!
Day Seven
Up early for sunset – hoping low clouds would provide a nice sunrise.
We literally spent the entire day on the beach, wandering back down to the pier for dinner at Riki Tiki.
Day Eight
Back to Kennedy Space Center to check out a bunch of the attractions that we didn’t have time for on Tuesday. Much less crowded on a non-launch day. Then we stopped by a Azteca D’Oro for dinner before the flight home.