We arrived late Saturday night at Cocoa Beach. In fact, the boys were completely zonked out in the car. We stayed at the Hampton Inn Oceanside.  What a nice hotel! An inviting entry, with a huge breakfast/sitting area, and board games to borrow. The elevator took us up to our third floor room. It was a nice sized room, with two beds and a rollaway. Quite a bit of floor room, which is so good, because we had to reorganize and repack prior to Part 3 of our vacation! There was a large walk out balcony that overlooked the swimming pool, and the trees leading to the beach. It was beautiful.

We fell into bed, barely had time to change into our jammies. We decided to wake up at will. Darren was feeling piquish, as is tradition with him. I can't remember a vacation when he didn't get sick! The beds were nice and comfortable.

The next morning, Matt and I were stirring before the rest. We decided to run down to breakfast, and bring back enough for the rest of the family. Before we could escape, Emily and Mikey woke, so we rushed them downstairs, too. Darren followed, but was too sick to eat, so we sent him to bed.  Breakfast was yummy. I had biscuits and gravy and fruit. The kids had muffins, fruit and juice.

Next, we decided to get ready to go to THE BEACH. We showered and dressed, and decided to go to the outlet, because, can you believe it?—we forgot our beach towels! So we bought some of those cheapie towels, and they were more than sufficient. Emily also got a hat, and Matt and Mikey got visors.  Then we went to...

THE BEACH!  Okay, it was simply breathtaking. Darren, Emily, Matt and Mikey had never seen the ocean, so it was a lot of fun seeing their eyes. Emily had watched a show about shark attacks, and was nervois going into the ocean, but once we convinced her, she was fine. The waves were beautiful, and we caught several really nice crests. We body surfed, and did a great job. Well...most of the time. Once, I got surprised by a second large wave, and in the attempt to keep my upper body covered by my suit, I lost my sunglasses. WHOOPS! Luckily they were my old ones!  I bet some marlin looks cool, wearing my shades.  We had a blast. But we had to hurry back, because we were meeting StephanieG and her precious family for dinner at Dixie Crossroads for dinner. So we got dressed and headed out to Titusville.

Okay, I have to say...Stephanie and her family are beyond precious. She is FUNNY and SWEET and I love her. It was just like talking to a long lost friend when we got together. Her son and my son are idential in their behavior. We were cracking up, wondering what on earth would come out of their mouths next! Her husband is really nice, and I think Darren really enjoyed talking to him. It's hard to get Darren to talk, especially when he's under the weather, and honestly, he couldn't quit talking that evening. It was neat. We had delicious food and wonderful fellowship.  After dinner, the kids went outside to play with the fish, and we chatted even longer. It was sad when we finally had to leave, but we did have laundry to do, and we wanted to go to Ron Jon's Surfshopbefore we left. So, a bit sad, we had to say goodbye.

We headed back to the hotel, where we stripped down to the bare minimum. Emily and Darren washed and dried the clothes, and Matt, Mikey and I reorganized the suitcases and re packed everything for the next day's adventure. We fell into bed just after midnight, and slept until 8:00 in the morning.

We seriously want to come back to the beach. We're thinking of renting or even buying a beach timeshare, because we had an amazing time. I didn't think I'd get the kids out of the surf!