I woke up early and worked on the newsletter. Once Bob woke up, we made a plan to check out Cocoa’s Main Street. We left the boat around 10:30. Although we were disappointed because some of the shops were closed on Saturday, we found a lot of them open to explore. We really wanted to check out Travis Hardware Store, built in 1885, with floor to ceiling shelves filled with everything and anything you could think of. Unfortunately, it was closed today. We had to be content with looking in the windows.
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On our walk through town, we passed the 1916 Porcher House. (Edward Porcher came to this area as a young man in the late 1800s from his home in South Carolina. Edward became very successful with Deerfield Groves and is credited with being the first grower to grade fruit for shipping. He also invented a machine to wash the fruit, and was a founder of the Indian River Orange Growers Association. Construction started on this home in 1914 following Mrs. Porcher’s design. Her love of the game of Bridge prompted her to have stones cut to represent the suits of cards and placed in the front of the house. The home was completed and the Porcher family moved in on October 31, 1916. The Porcher House is an excellent example of 20th century classical revival architecture, adapted to the Florida climate.)
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We came upon a very interesting antique store that drew us in. We wandered around looking at everything. It brought back lots of memories.
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We also walked through the “mall”, but most of the shops were closed.
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Bob really liked this poster in the window of one of the shops.
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We checked out some of the restaurants that were recommended to us by the marina staff, in the hopes of finding one that we could eat at tomorrow. One of them was Norman’s Bar and Grill. We decided to sit at the outside bar and have a beer…..or two.
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We met a nice gentleman who was having lunch while his dog sat at his side. At least I thought it was a dog, but it looked more like a small pony. He told me it was his 161 pound Great Dane who was as sweet as could be.
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He was only 4 years old, but he was HUGE!
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We met Lee, our bar mate on the next stool, who had some funny jokes and good stories to tell. A bunch of bikers pulled in, but they were not your typical Harley riders. They had some pretty unique bikes.
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One of the bikers even bought a round of drinks for everyone at the bar, so we had to stick around a little longer. We left Norman’s in time to walk back to the marina to watch the rocket launch from the balcony of the marina office at 1:51. The Delta 4 Heavy Rocket was being launched from Kennedy Space Center carrying a spy satellite. (These next 2 pictures were lifted from the TV.)
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We had a great view from the balcony. There were lots of low clouds in the sky, but we could see the smoke from the launch pad and then the contrails after it lifted off.
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Eventually, the rocket punched through the clouds and we could watch it climb higher in the sky. We could hear the roar of the rocket long after it had disappeared from view.
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We came back to the boat and relaxed a little. Auggie and I sat out back on the boat enjoying the afternoon watching the boats go up and down the ICW. It was quiet at the marina for a Saturday. It was cooler today (84) and definitely less humid. We ate dinner on the boat tonight so that we could be around to watch the Belmont Stakes. Unfortunately, the horses I picked didn’t even place in the top 4. Good thing I didn’t bet on this race. Auggie and I took our evening walk on the boardwalk that runs the length of the marina and got back to the boat just as it started to sprinkle. We got the boat all closed up and settled in for the night.