cocoa, FL.

the leg from new smyrna beach to cocoa was remarkable for the number of "slow speed" signs that we saw along the way - we saw more of them than we did dolphin or manatees!  there were also a great number of little islands on the waterway as well. 

a zillion little islands like this along the way

cocoa is a cute little town that is very accessible through the town dinghy dock at the waterfront park.  we stayed two nights at the anchorage.  like most of FL, there are a bunch of "floating homeless" types and it was the first time during this trip that we actually felt that we had to lock both TADHANA when we left her at anchor, as well as lock the dinghy to the pier.  you just never know - peace of mind, etc.  heck, even the friendly questionable types said to lock! 

cocoa is a really nice town to walk around in - lots of little shops and the place was all decorated for christmas, which i seem to have forgotten about somehow.  and there are several restaurants to choose from with pretty reasonable prices.  we had lunch at the thai thai restaurant and it was pretty good. i had the fried tofu in peanut sauce. cocoa also had the travis hardware store which was pretty amazing - all kinds of (dusty) stuff - it seemed like the building went on forever.

but the main highlight of our visit to cocoa was that my brother and sister-in-law drove in from orlando to have dinner with us.  i last saw mikey in 2012 when we were at herrington harbour north and the last time i saw marie was in 2007 so we were way past due.    it was a grand reunion and we had dinner at ryan's upon the recommendation of the lady at the ice cream store and ordered an enormous 24-inch diameter pizza along with some chicken wings.  there were lots of leftovers to split up and take home.  not to mention that they brought food - cassava cake and hopia!  anyway, the visit was way too short but we will see them again once we get settled in sanford.  

my crazy brother with the enormous pizza