Space Coast Christmas

It has been 5 years since I last set a foot on the beach. 2004 in Bloubergstrand to be exact. It has been even longer, far longer than I can remember, since I last stayed seaside for a week or longer. For someone that grew up not too far from the sea I never realized how much I missed it.

The very next day after my previous post about snow and the cold that arrived in Kentucky, we trekked south to Florida’s Space Coast, Cape Canaveral to be specific, for a week of sun, sand, wind and waves. The weather was mostly good, high sixties to mid-seventies. Can’t expect much more, after all, it is winter down there too, but it was a far cry from the thirties and below in Kentucky.

We took little M with to experience the ocean and the big sandpit for the first time in her life and, because Orlando is just an hour’s drive away we also popped into Disney World’s Magic Kingdom the day after Christmas to introduce her to Mickey, Minnie and their many other friends. Man, there were a lot of people! I would like to utter the old South African saying of ‘there were people for Africa’, but in reality they were from everywhere over the globe. What adults won’t do to get into a traffic jam was the thought that came to me while there.

The Castle at Animal Kingdom

For the rest of the time it was just lazy-ing around on the beach or around the swimming pool, feeling the sand between your toes, walking in the shallow waves, or what I liked most, with a condo overlooking the beach, just camping out on the balcony with a glass of wine or a bottle of Sangria in the late afternoon, watching the surf and listening to the rhythmic song of the waves crashing on the beach as the sky got darker. Inevitably Jean-Michel Jarre’s Oxygene Part 4 and especially Part 6 came to mind.

Unfortunately, after a week this idyllic life came to an end and we had to return to gray skies, frozen soil and icy winds blowing snow flurries around. But there is always the hope of returning soon.

A single fisherman on the beach on Christmas morning.

 Port Canaveral is home to several cruise ship companies. From here they launch their ships to the Caribbean islands. One of the interesting things that we saw was how the cruise ships came in to port. They just seem to disappear into land as they enter a narrow channel that leads to the docks.

Just south of our condo was Cocoa Beach and its famous pier that jutted 800 feet into the sea.

Cape Canaveral on Dwellable