Post #49: ‘Sittin’ On the Dock of the Bay’ for 6 Weeks (Part 1)

 Wednesday, January 13, 2020

You know that feeling when you finally admit to yourself that you should have been working on your term paper way, way earlier than today? Yup.  So how do I capture 6 weeks at a dock in Cocoa Village in just a few paragraphs?  Here goes:

In my last post I shared some photos of Cocoa Village and tried to convey the funky, artsy, and  laidback feeling of the town center.  There is a lot of civic pride in Cocoa—we enjoyed watching the Space Coast Marathon (Florida’s oldest marathons and a qualifier for Boston) from the end of the dock:

Although the town’s waterfront park and docks were decimated by Hurricane Irma in 2018, they have since been rebuilt (with FEMA funds) and provide welcoming access to all traveling the Banana River and landlubbers alike. Hundreds of spectators (few with masks—this is Florida, after all) came out to see the Christmas Tree Lighting, Holiday Boat Parade, the Bicycle Parade, and the 40th Annual Art & Craft Fair. We truly appreciated being able to walk to all of these family-oriented events since we didn’t have access to a car until December 14. 

We did have access to Upward, our 10.5’ inflatable dinghy.  Inspired by the lighted boat parade, we drove it across the river and walked to Home Depot to purchase Christmas boat decorations.  Gotta have a Christmas tree and wreath and lights, right?? 

One afternoon we drove the dinghy north about 5 miles, went under the bridge that leads to Port Canaveral (home to Disney’s now dormant cruise ships) and headed down the Canaveral Barge Canal. Originally constructed to allow transport of crude oil by barge to the enormous two power plants in Titusville, the canal crosses Merritt Island from the Indian River (where we are) to the Banana River and then through a set of locks to the Atlantic Ocean. We only went as far as the Banana River but were treated to some pretty spectacular wildlife sitings—a kingfisher, a rather large alligator, and some dolphins:

We definitely wanted to share this with Sarah when she arrived. Later tonight I’ll share more of the adventures we had with her in Part 2 of this post.