A Busy Day in Cocoa Beach

As the sun rises over Cocoa Beach, Jon and Erin are getting ready for a busy day in Florida.

The surf was wild, the sun was hot, and they had a great time at the beach.

Today we all went to the Brevard Zoo to visit the animals there. Jon and Erin had exciting encounters with the birds.

Here we see them posing at one of the zoo paths.

The seven giraffes at the zoo added a touch of fun to the adventure.

In a visit to Ron Jon's Surf Shop, Gary tries on a new hat that changes his hair do!

We end the day with a trip to the Cocoa Beach pier, and a trip out for ice cream.

Here Erin is photographed on a surf board with her purse! What a day!

Departures

Bridget, Bob, and Gina left for home yesterday. We have had a fun week and have so much enjoyed spending the time with Bridget. She liked Florida. Here you see her on a beach walk with her father.

Here she poses with Grampy in her Ron Jon Surf Shop outfit!

Here you see her at the airport ready to fly home. You can tell from the look on her face that she would have gladly stayed a little longer at the beach!

To add to the excitement yesterday, we watched a launch of an Atlas rocket from the beach at sunset. It went right over our heads, and the exhaust picked up the colors of the sunset.

So ends another day in Florida.

Bridget Comes to Florida

On Saturday night Bridget came to Florida with her parents. She is enjoying the warm weather and sunshine, and a new environment with her grandparents Cole. Here we share a few pictures of her in action.

She seems happy here, as you can see!

The Magic Kingdom

Andrew, Jessica, and Gary ventured to Disney World yesterday where they spent the day and much of the night at the Magic Kingdom. They had an exciting time and went to all of the attractions they could fit into the day.

At Fantasy Land they saw a parade and met many of the Disney characters. The most exciting one was to meet Mickey Mouse in the Hall of Presidents. You can see pictures taken with him below.

Jessica's favorite was Space Mountain. They went on this ride twice, accompanied by Gary the first time.

One of the favorite spots of the day was the tree house of Swiss Family Robinson.

This is the kitchen in their tree house. Below Andrew and Jessica look into one of the bedrooms.

This pictures shows the water conveyor to bring water to the kitchen and upstairs.

 The excitement of the day filled with rides and adventures ended with a spectacular fireworks display as you can see here. The tired trio returned home after 11 last night.

Up the Lazy River

What a lovely day! The sun was shining, the weather was warm, and the Coles went for a boat ride. Here you see the river tour boat. We spent two and a half hours looking at the wildlife, homes on the river, and many sights along the way. We saw many dolphins, lots of unusual birds, and manatees.

Jessica was enjoying the scenery and taking pictures along the way.

 The pair in the picture above have been enjoying  the break from winter as you can see.

 Gary and Louise seem pretty relaxed also.

This is an unusual sight as white pelicans are rare and seldom seen fishing. We spotted a large group of them.

 As we leave the boat tour, Andy and Jess return to the beach and play in the water as the sun sets on another beautiful day in Florida.

Busy Day

Today we watched the launch of the space shuttle Discovery. The cloud cover was so low we saw very little of it, but we have one picture to share.

Most of the day was spent at the Brevard Zoo where we enjoyed animals and climates very different from ours. The giraffes were especially enticing as they came out to be fed, and the zoo had six giraffes including two young ones. Here we have Andrew trying to interest on of them in some hay.

The aviary was also a high point as Andrew and Jessica fed the birds and were used as perches.

Here are three of us at the entrance to the zoo.

On our return to the beach, Jess and Andy went back to the ocean for a cool down.

An exciting day was had by all.

Visitors at Last!

Andrew and Jessica flew to Florida last night to begin a week of vacation in the land of sunshine. Here we have two pictures from the airport after their arrival. It is hard to believe that a four day drive can be reduced to three hours in the air!

This morning everyone was up early to enjoy the sunshine and walk along the beach. Beautiful day!