It’s Monday morning and we are here in Cocoa FL for a few days enjoying this very quaint town on the ICW. Two years ago, on our last trip passing through this area, we stopped for a few days and it’s nice to be back again.
Last night we went to a restaurant downtown for a drink and appetizer and while we were sitting at the bar, we asked the bartender what there was to do that would be fun while we visited. She immediately suggested that we visit the Kennedy Space Center, but when we said that we were here by boat her expression became perplexed as it seems that there really isn’t ANYTHING to do in the town itself if we didn’t have a car? Well, at least not from the point of view of a local. Anyway, we think it’s a nice place to walk around or go out to dinner. Perhaps we should find a car and visit the space center. I’ll think about that.
One thing that I plan on doing is to visit the local hardware store. It’s a terrific store and perhaps one of the best old time hardware store I have ever been in, the sort that were everywhere before Home Depot and Lowes redefined the genre. I was quite taken by the place on our last visit and wrote about it in this post.
When we were in New Smyrna we enjoyed walking around town in particular as there was a street fair going on with lots of activity. 
I particularly liked this snack truck built on an old Model A ford truck body. 
In Cocoa there is a great waterfront park as is so often the case in towns along the ICW. The ancient live oaks are very beautiful with resurrection ferns growing on the limbs.
We visited a nice little craft gallery in New Smyrna and outside they had a “beehive oven” . This reminded me of my plans to make a “mud oven” at home. I have been stymied by my inability to find a source of good clay near where we live so perhaps I will build one like this, out of firebrick and cement. It would certainly be more weather resistant in winter CT weather. 
We were first introduced to mud ovens in Maine a number of years ago. I was smitten and wrote a post about our first experience at a mud oven garden party. Perhaps this summer I’ll build one. Hope so.
We had a very nice lunch at a new restaurant in New Smyrna and I particularly like this photo of Brenda. Notice that she stopped looking at her phone long enough for me to take her picture. When we are aboard and away from family, we are pretty desperate for contact. “Bob, call your mother!”
That evening we had dinner aboard Pandora and went for our first “cocktail cruise” around the mangroves nearby. We enjoyed watching the water birds watching us. This Ibis was quite beautiful. I tried to get a photo of him in flight but alas, just one of him on his perch.
Nice shot of what I think was an Egret.
We also spied a bright red spot within the mangrove roots which turned out to be a good size crab. His color suggests that he’s already been boiled. Not so, as he’s just that color naturally. I guess he’s tough enough to not worry about being well camouflaged. 
Back aboard we enjoyed a nice evening and dinner. Brenda’s “birthday flowers looked particularly nice in the evening light. Perhaps I will title this photo “florials with mixed media, stainless steel, plastic and canvas”. How artistic. 
Yesterday morning we were greeted by a lovely sunrise just before raising the anchor to head to Cocoa. 
Along the way we passed a spot with thousands of birds that took off in a cloud as we passed by. There are plenty of birds along the ICW but for some reason there was a huge number in this particular area. What a din they made as they parted to make way for Pandora’s passing. It was pretty obvious that they weren’t enthusiastic about us disturbing their peace.
Well, it’s a nice sunny day here in Coco so I think we’ll head ashore soon. Perhaps it would be good spot to get, well, a cup of cocoa. Yes, that would fit.
With that in mind, perhaps we should head over to the Bahamas and visit Rum Cay. That would be even better than a cup of Cocoa if a bit more rustic. For now, Cocoa seems perfect.