Cocoa Beach and Good Friends

I had the chance not once, but twice this past week to share with family members of ours how great of friends we have made since living this lifestyle.  I was so fanatical in my sharing with one of them that I think I may have scared them a bit.  It's hard not to be really passionate when trying to explain how special of a crowd we have been lucky enough to hang out with the past few years though.

We have said time and time again what exceptional people the pickleball crowd in particular are. This past week was a great example of that.  Rich and Donna invited us to their beach condo.  I can honestly say we have never had friends invite us along on their vacation to stay in their condo with them, let alone a beach one!  I am so grateful to them!

We had to squeeze this trip in around my work schedule so we only had a few days to visit, but we made those days as fun filled as possible.  We were also spoiled rotten by Rich and Donna who definitely have the gift of being great hosts.  I do not have this gift, so I will have to bake extra goodies when they come to stay with us to make up for it!  First thing we got to tour the facilities at the place where there condo is at, and we were very impressed with it.

We then headed out to do a bit of sight seeing.  We have never actually visited Cocoa Beach so it was neat to visit some place new in Florida.  There was the typical touristy Florida beach stuff of course, but they took us to some non-touristy unique spots.  We stopped at Manatee park where they have been able to see manatees and dolphins in their previous visits.  Sadly, we did not encounter any wildlife but the park was really pretty so we still enjoyed the stop.

We then visited the pier there, which Donna already wrote about so I'll just send you to her blog Florida Picklers.  The first thing I saw there was this cool 3-D mural on the side of this building.

We stopped to catch a few waves, with the ladies trying out the surfboard first.

Then on to the pier, where we visited a shop and I found a pair of flip flop earrings that I loved (and bought).

We saw some fishing being done, birds flying around, lots of beach activity and real surfing in the water.

I thought the pier itself was really neat.

Donna had a great idea for a group shot, taking a picture of our reflections in the water.  Love this!

We also managed to squeeze in dinner at an Italian restaurant they have eaten at before.  Nathan was able to try one of their small stombolis.  Yes, folks, that is their small size!  The food there was very good!

After all of that, we still were not done with our day.  We took our drinks outside and lounged by the pool and chatted for a bit.  Once we digested enough of our dinner we headed over to the tennis courts and chalked off lines for some pickleball.  It was very windy and we had fun even with the frustration of not knowing at all where they ball would go after we hit it.  I didn't realize until the next day how hard I had really played because the wind really kept me cooled off.  After so much fun, we headed to bed for the night gearing up for another fun day the next day.