I saw from the beach, when the morning was shining, A bark o’er the waters move gloriously on; I came when the sun o’er that beach was declining, 
The bark was still there, but the waters were gone.
~ Thomas Moore

Luke and I have traded our snow boots for bare feet on a sandy beach. My Luke will graduate from high school in just a few months, and instead of having a big celebration at home, he decided he’d rather island hop with his mom on a cruise. We spent some time in Cocoa Beach, Florida the day before heading out by ship to the Virgin Islands.

Feeling the sun on my skin and the warm seawater washing over my feet felt like a balm for my stressed, winter-weary soul.

Cocoa Beach is part of what’s known as the Space Coast. Kennedy Space Center is just north of here, and this area became very popular during the “space race” era of the 1960s.

For a bit of nostalgia, Cocoa Beach was also the setting for I Dream of Jeannie — a favorite sitcom I remember watching as a kid in reruns on weekday mornings during snow days, school closings, and holidays. The show was set in the 1960s at the height of the space era, with a group of NASA astronauts and, of course, a beautiful and mischievous (though well-intentioned) genie who was always causing a bit of trouble.

These days Cocoa Beach is a quiet little beach town geared toward families, cruise travelers, and surfers. It has a laid-back vibe compared to the glitz and glamour of the bougie Miami Beach.

Luke and I wandered the shoreline watching Royal Terns and listening to the rush of water as the waves rolled in. We searched for seashells and stumbled upon — almost literally — several Portuguese man-o’-war washed up by the tide.

These strange, fascinating little creatures are not quite jellyfish, though they’re closely related. Each one is actually a colony of four genetically identical organisms — clones — working together, each with its own specialized function. They look kind of weird and otherworldly, like tiny extraterrestrial beings that might have tagged along on a rocket returning to Earth.

The most peaceful moments I spent on Cocoa Beach came at sunrise.

I woke before the sun and walked down to the beach just in time to watch dawn break over the water. As I walked along the damp sand in bare feet at the edge of the tide, I felt some of the tension drain away — soft morning air on my shoulders and arms, the sea breeze brushing my skin, the first rays of sunlight warm on my face, and the briny scent of the ocean filling my lungs.

Dawn Breaks

Sunrise has a special kind of stillness. Morning arrives in stages as the sun slowly climbs and the light shifts, bringing the world into focus and quietly setting the day in motion.

For a little while that morning, standing barefoot at the edge of the Atlantic, winter and worry both felt very far away.

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