Orlando to the Beach in less then one hour! Real Estate Break..
Instead of speaking about property values, inventories and the like, today I would like to focus on one of the many reasons my family loves to call Central Florida home. Having a young family with two great kids Nicholas 7 and Cristian 6 we really enjoy running to the beach during the summer. This past Saturday we decided, last minute, to run to Cocoa Beach. The drive took well under an hour from our home in Belle Isle, a small city just south of Orlando and very close to the international airport.
Cocoa Beach is the closest beach to Orlando. In Cocoa Beach you will find great little shops, Ron Jon’s Surf shop, many hotels and some good places to eat. Our favorite place to eat usually is the Pizza Hut right across from the beach and parking. We always get what we call a “Cocoa Retreat” which is a thin pizza with pepperoni, ham and pineapple. Taste great and we only get it when we go to Cocoa Beach hence the name. I call them from the beach on my cell phone and the pizza is ready in 15 minutes or so, which is about the time it takes me to walk and pick it up.
We park right off E Gadsden street (I believe that is right) and they have parking available for $1 per hour, bring your quarters or dimes! I perfer this location as opposed to the larger public facility at Alan Sheppard State Park due to the numbers of people that go there. It is amazing what a difference a hundred yards makes. I guess people just walk on the beach and take any open spot they can find. I recommend walking a little and finding a nice open spot and some elbow room or park at the same area we do and deal with much less people. You can visit this link to get some additional details on the areas beaches. http://www.visitflorida.com/articles/cocoa-beach-area-beaches
What a great time we had! We had our cooler filled with ice, drinks and snacks to last the day. We spent a full 7 hours at the beach or 28 quarters for parking and what an adventure. We saw several cruise ships leave port to destinations unknow, a huge military plane flying around in patterns, a few helicopters ran up and down the beach, a group of surfers hitting the waves and plenty of sail boats drifting by in the distance. A real neat thing happened when a guy brought us a horseshoe crab shell, and the kids loved it. I am currently in the process of bleaching it, and letting it sit in the sun for the kids to keep as a momento because who know what is on that shell, but it sure looks cool!
All said and done I bet we spent less then $30 dollars inclusive of the gas. It is hard to beat a great day at the beach, especially when it is just around the corner and a world away from our day to day activities. By the way, if you are going to the beach be sure to pick up one of those water proof Nerf footballs, they only cost $10 and provide hours of fun. If you are going to live in Florida, enjoy it, as I believe God spent a little extra time on our great state providing us with an amazingly beautiful playground and the perfect place to call home!
Ok, now this is a perfect day…..
Horseshoe Crab Shell free from the nice man in the green kyak!
Nicholas and Cristian digging up sand fleas…yes sand fleas (great for fishing)
Victory…a Sand Flea in hand…now what do we do with it???
Cocoa Beach Pier in the distance…the green cart coming at me is the beach patrol…quick hide the beer!
