Day Twelve

Last day in Florida today. It was a beautiful day with some big puffy clouds. After breakfast dad and mom said everyone in the car it's time to go! After a few stops we got on the freeway and headed east. I think. After a while on the freeway, my mom said do you know where you're going Jacob? I said nope! She pointed to a giant billboard that said World Famous Ron Jon's surf shop in Cocoa Beach and said that's where you're going! I was soooooo excited! I saw on a buster tv show a long time ago a special about this store. It's the biggest surf store in the world and they have famous surfers there and sell all kinds of stuff about surfing. So all these years I wanted to go to Cocoa Beach and now I get to go!

We saw some alligators on the side of the freeway. There's these fences by swampy stuff and right along there is where they were laying. Dad was driving and was hoping he wouldn't run any over. Yuck!! Then when it's the middle of nowhere all these bugs started hitting the windshield and front of the car like little asteroids. It was sooooo gross!! They call them love bugs because they always stick together and they look like a two headed bug. And they really do stick! It's nasty because they stick like glue to the car and everybody kept pulling over and putting water on their cars. When we got back to Washington we STILL had bug leftovers on our car!

When there were more people and houses, there was this BIG bridge and then a sign that said "Welcome to Cocoa Beach". I was so excited and I couldn't wait to get there!! We crossed over an inlet, it was HUGE it was like the Columbia River only three times bigger! We couldn't see the ocean yet but I could tell we were really close. You could smell the salt from the road. We found Ron Jon's and then parked in a lot about 3 blocks away, right by the ocean. There was a big dune blocking my view so I STILL did not see the ocean yet! We walked up to Ron Jon's and went inside. It was like surfig heaven man! There were surfboards everywhere! So we walked around for a little bit and then me and Marissa each got to choose a board. Mine has a parrot hugging a tiki man in the sunset so it's red and orange and it's awesome!

So I couldn't wait any longer. We walked back to the car and got our towels and then it was time. The next thing on my life list...to see the Atlantic Ocean!!! When we were walking up the dune the sand felt different than our sand out here. It was a lot softer like it was untouched. When we finally got to the top of the dune, I just stood there and stared. It took my breath away. I was standing at the Atlantic Ocean. I came all the way across the country from the Pacific Ocean and now I was standing on the other side of our country. It was such a cool cool feeling. When we finally got to the water, I didn't really want to go in. But Marissa made me. She kept saying it was sooooo warm but our ocean is NOT warm and I knew she was just saying that to get me to go in. So then a wave came up and wiped me out and guess what? It IS warm! It feels like taking a bath it's so warm. I wonder if it's like that in California by Disneyland? I want to go and find out.

We didn't have to get used to it at all so we took our boards and headed in. We tried to keep our heads up but it was hard getting over the waves to get to the other side where we had to start. When we got on top of a big huge wave it would pull us back to the shore and we'd have to start all over again. But it was so fun!! We finally made it all the way out and starting surfing and it was the coolest thing ever!!!
There was a hurricane in the ocean off the Florida shore and a tropical something in the gulf so the waves were incredibly huge and gigantic. It was great for surfing but then these little fast storms kept coming in and when the rain came down it HURT! But there is nowhere to go because by the time you get to your car it's done and you have to walk all the way back down so we just kept trying to stay underwater haha. I used my board to put over my head but I don't like that sound so I stopped. We spent about 6 hours in the water. When we finally got out I was so tired. I didn't feel good but I didn't want to leave because I knew I was never coming back and it was really hard.

We had dinner in Cocoa Beach and I got a sweatshirt and then we headed back to our hotel. But on our way we were at Cape Canavral. We saw a rocket hooked up to the arm thing like it was going to space but nobody said anything about it. So we thought it was just a test thing maybe. But then the next day on the radio we heard that they did a sucessful launch of a rocket from there. The rocket will be up in space for 24 years trying to research an asteroid that they think will become a planet. So we really did see a real rocket getting ready to launch! It was awesome! Then it got really dark and I fell asleep on the way back.

So that's all for my time in Florida. I'm done telling all about my Disney trip. It was so much fun and still can't believe I got to do that. There was so much to do and I learned so much and I met so many people. I saw so much of the United States and found out that it's not all like Washington. I hope I can travel some more because I found out I really really like to do that. I like seeing all the history places and I really liked meeting people and talking to them from all over. I liked their accents and finding out about how they live different than me. It was very hard for me to leave and make my way back home. I was really sad at the hotel and didn't want to talk too much because I didn't want it to end. But I have my pictures and my memories and it's fun talking about it now.

I got sick the day we left to come home and it wasn't a good trip back so I'm not going to talk about that. I want to remember the fun and good stuff, not the bad.

Now I'm back to my regular life. I hope it gets more exciting now that I'm feeling better. I'm going to keep writing in my blog because it's fun sharing my life with everybody else. Even people all across the country! Thank you for all of your prayers and thoughts while we were on our trip and if you want to keep reading my blog now that my trip is done I would like that a lot.