Cocoa Beach, Florida

Last week I went on a cruise with my mom's whole family—my first (my last?)—and our first stop was in Port Canaveral, Florida. Neither my mom or I are really adventure excursion people, so we opted for a shuttle that took us to Cocoa Beach. We're not really beach people either, but it was nice to feel warm—really warm—for the first time in a very long winter.

I was hoping that there would be more I Dream of Jeannie-related things around, but I only found a few: a street sign (that I walked nearly two miles to find), a painting on the side of the "I Dream of Yogurt" shop and a commemorative sign explaining Cocoa Beach's significance to the show.

There were a few kitschy beach shops, one with an amazing concrete (?) shark on its sign, a beautiful (to me, at least) Waffle House and what is surely the beach souvenir shop, Twombly's Seashell Tables. Unfortunately Twombly's was on the other side of a very busy divided highway and my blistered, sunburnt feet weren't too happy about me walking half a mile to the next crosswalk. Now, of course, I regret not checking it out because based on its sign alone, I'm sure it's incredible.

There really wasn't much to Cocoa Beach and it definitely wasn't a very walkable town. The Ron Jon Surf Shop is there, if you're into that, and the actual beach was as nice as any Atlantic Ocean beach I've been to, but it was indistinguishable from Coney Island or Long Beach—and not nearly as kitschy or as close.