Cocoa Beach, FL

Saturday, I stayed in Cocoa Beach, Florida.

It's my first time to visit Cocoa Beach...and it seems to be a mecca for surfers, and wind-surfers (along the bay)...

Spring breakers, and volleyball players...

...and men carrying metal detectors.
If I ever move to the beach...I'm definitely taking up metal detecting as a hobby...it looks exciting. Surfing...not so much, it just looks scary. Because THIS is swimming with the surfers...

I think it's a star fish, but it has too many legs for my expertise. It washed up on the shore (still alive). I took a picture, and then a pre-teen set it back in the water. She was so brave. I probably would have put it back too (after swearing to never swim in the ocean again if it was going to continue to live there too), but before putting it back I would have needed to rig a Rube Goldberg machine to do so. I could not have just scooted it out with a stick or bucket b/c if it moved and I even FELT the vibration of it moving I would have died, and then when I was done dying, I would have been scarred for life. I would have needed something to move the stick to move the scary starfish looking thing. It's a good thing that pre-teen was there and I can pretend I don't know what happened to that alien starfish. I have enough issues...

I also stopped at the famous Ron Jon Surf shop....because the 8,643 billboards along the tollways that lead to Cocoa Beach said I had to visit. (Two things-1. I thought I was going to have to take out a loan by the end of the tollway, there were soooo many tolls. 2. Maybe I didn't spend enough time at Ron Jon's, but....it kinda reminded me of 'insert any big beach shop here.' Colorful, big, but, like I said....'insert any big beach shop here.' It is open 24 hours, so maybe that's the difference. You should go though, because 8,643 billboards can't be wrong.)
Another thing, I'm not sure there is anything but fast food in Cocoa Beach. My plan was to eat somewhere along the ocean so I could enjoy the view, but I only found smokey....questionably clean bars on the beach. Most of the stores and shops are along a road that is backed up to hotels and private condos that overlook the beach, so you just 'know the beach is back there' when traveling along the main roads with the shops and fast food restaurants. Other than the lack of food, and one scary sea creature, it was a pretty beach, fun for people watching.
Lastly, I took this picture of a hotel just b/c I thought it was a fun angle...and I think it's appropriate to end with a picture...just because I 'like it.'

Now....I'm off to the Bahamas...