By Daniel (Favorite Son) and Tori.

Day 1

Early Thursday morning, we took off from Pittsburgh for Forever Friday. We arrived at the Orlando airport for Mike to pick us up, and stopped at an awesome little diner on the long drive to the Cocoa Village Marina.

We were thrilled to meet Mary at the marina then head over to the village to check out some of Mary and Mike’s favorite spots. First on the list was Dan’s favorite – Travis Hardwares. Time did not transform this General Store. It was established in 1885, and walking through the door you’re immediately greeted with old pictures of riverfront Cocoa from the 40’s. Dan was way more impressed with the hundreds of nuts, bolts, and any tool you could ever need in your life. As Mike said, “If you can’t find what you’re looking for at this store, you don’t need it.”

(alas… They did not have 1 3/4″ Marine Steel carabiners, so the above theory quickly fell apart)

After Travis Hardwares, we stopped at a few places for drinks. Murdock’s definitely had the coolest atmosphere. It was a bitchin’ restaurant with white picket fences upside down on the ceiling with old cassettes hanging from them, vintage posters of perfume advertisements, and an awesome menu. We stopped at Murdock’s a few times for the food, the drinks, and the band. Some of the more eccentric folks were just as much fun to watch as the band–a two for one special.

Crydermans Barbecue really deserves its own blog, but it should be noted as delicious. It was honestly some of the best barbecue I (Daniel) have had in a long, long time. The only caveat was that they were closed when we went back for seconds, if you looked closely enough you would have seen the single tear that rolled down my cheek.

Day 2

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The weather was a little cloudy the next day, but that didn’t stop us from checking out Florida’s own Golf’n Gator. Yes, you did read that correctly. It’s a mini golf course with live gators. We got to the course and found out they had a live Mario kart so we did a lot of left turns the Florida way. After, we had a challenging game of putt putt. We were only mildly disappointed to find out that the gators were not obstacles on the course. Although a novelty on a mini golf course, they were all rescues. We were informed that the gators are raised here until they became four feet in length, and then transferred to a larger facility equipped to handle them.

From there, we went to the Cocoa Beach Pier. It’s no wonder why this pier is low key famous. There are a few restaurants looking out onto the water. We stopped at Rikki Tiki Tavern where we had some great food and (mostly) great views. Right from our table on the end of the pier, we could see the moon looking over the sea.

Okay, so it was some guy’s pants down WAY farther than they needed to be, but the views of the ocean were stunning.

We couldn’t leave the beach without stopping by the original Ron Jon’s Surf Shop. We almost bought way-too-many-things, then walked around for five more minutes, realized we didn’t need any of it, and Dan settled for a new pair of flip flops with a bottle opener on the sole.

After a long day bouncing around, it was nice to watch old home videos and compete for the best hand at domino’s. (The game, not the pizza.. we had better pizza later.)

Day 3

Brunch day! There’s nothing better than a rainy morning on the boat when you’re sipping mimosas and eating Eggs Benedict Casserole (shameless plug for the recipe at www.endlessbrunch.com).  After a delicious meal, we took off to explore the Kennedy Center.

“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard…” and so we did. This is a portion of history that fascinates people of all ages, and it’s easy to see why.

Once we got back to the boat, Mike made his famous pizzas. Dan and I haven’t recreated the Thai pizza yet, but absolutely expect to! On our walk around Cocoa Village, Dan noticed the playhouse had a poster for The Sound of Music. We couldn’t stop singing “The Hills are Alive,” so we had to check it out. We snagged the last four seats in the 1920ish theater and got some culture. The theater was stunning with art deco style and several chandeliers. Plus, the singers were incredibly talented.

After the culture, we hopped around the bars, ending our night at the Haufbrauhaus where we sang a few songs with the piano men, drank another round, and had great conversation.

Day 4

On our last day, Tori tried to steal the Cinnamon Roll recipe from the Wanderlust Cafe. However, the real show was the 6 foot gator (named Sweetie) we saw at the Key Lime Pie Co. Every Sunday, the store brings in an Alligator trainer to educate the public on how harmless the gators can be. Not only did we pet the gators, Dan picked up the baby gator and Tori let one sit on her lap. It was a wild experience.

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Only in Florida 🙂