Day 2:17: Hollywood, FL to Cocoa Beach, FL

We got up early and packed up the car, closing out our stay in South Florida and grateful to Andrew and Lauren for their hospitality, both while they were in town and while they were away. We found a Kinko’s en route for Arielle to print some materials for the training she ran that morning for JFS at Home in Boca Raton for therapists, companions, case managers, social workers about how and why to engage in end-of-life conversations with clients and loved ones. Abe didn’t see it so he can’t attest to its quality, but we all know that it was certainly superb. After the session, we went down the street to Pei Wei so Abe could get a teriyaki tofu stir fry and Arielle could get sushi she wasn’t sure she really wanted. We completed the free survey to get a cookie, and waited around for a while because of some miscommunication with the very enthusiastic actor-turned-cashier about our order being takeout. We drove about fifteen minutes to Brendy’s, which was Bubbe’s favorite ice cream shop, and Arielle got peanut butter and coffee soft-serve yogurt.

We continued up towards Cocoa Beach, stopping in Merritt Island at a Pep Boys that was much more helpful than the one we had been to earlier, explaining to us that the new brakes we got before we left Los Angeles aren’t yet sitting in the rotors, and as a result they’re going to make a grinding sound because the metal has been tempered (when they’re very hot and then cooled very fast, metal becomes brittle). The mechanic spent a while telling us everything, and we were grateful for his extremely helpful analysis. We drove the remaining twenty minutes or so to Cocoa Beach, where we arrived at the rented home of Ron and Pam, who we met for lunch last week. Pam was back in New Hampshire, so Ron showed us around after we dropped our belongings and we walked about ten minutes to the beach, where we enjoyed a lovely stroll along the sand. We walked back to the house and drove to downtown, where we parked at Coconuts on the Beach. Abe and Ron both enjoyed the drunken salmon, while Arielle got the largest pretzel in the world. There was a band playing for the entire time we were there, doing a series of extremely long songs and making conversation relatively difficult. It was nice to sit outside for our last meal in Florida.

Of course we had to go for ice cream, and wandered down the street to the Fat Donkey. When we asked, they said you could split a scoop into two half-scoops, but then they gave us three scoops each instead! Arielle got Birthday Cake and Mint Chip, while Abe got Chocolate Cake and Cookies ‘N Cream. It was good but definitely too much, and Arielle had to throw out some of her ice cream for possibly the first time in her life.

We drove back home and played 3 games of Ticket to Ride: Rails to Sails with Ron, who had lapped us by two hundred points the first few times we had played in New Hampshire in August. Abe was delayed to have won one of the games thanks to his always-utilized and often-publicized strategy of being the one to finish first, ensuring that the game ends before the other players are fully prepared to have finished their moves. We enjoyed the game and resisted the urge to play again, heading instead to bed.

Approximate number of miles covered: 182