Daytona Beach

Don R. showing me how to become
a professional meteorologist in
3 easy lessons!

We enjoyed our week in Daytona Beach, mostly due to the friendship of Don R. and his wife Becky (who got her "grandma fix" and returned to their boat this past week).  Don helped us with planning our trip northbound from here, since he and Becky had made the trip almost 10 times.  He also helped me with meteorological prognostications, drawing on his 30+ years professional experience.  Additionally, they helped us find the better restaurants along the water front.  And finally, they have offered to bring our car to us after we head north to Marineland FL tomorrow.  Being such "giving" people that they are, it's no wonder that they have made friends around the world.

The "bearded one" in front of the
Ponce Inlet Lighthouse

We were able to act like tourists one day, and drove over to the beach along all the hotels & condos, to visit the Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse.  It is the highest lighthouse in Florida, and one that we passed by on our way into Daytona Beach.  The grounds around the lighthouse still have the keepers' homes, as well as several museums.  The museum with all the Fresnel lenses was impressive, especially finding out how exactly these darn thing operate!  Many of these lenses from the late 1800's were made in Paris & shipped to America.

Circular (of course) stairway inside the Lighthouse.
Yes, we were huffing and puffing after climbing to the top!



View from the top of the Lighthouse, looking south
along the ICW.  We had traveled from there
to pass through the inlet.



We then drove back along the beach to find a place to go squish some sand.  The beaches at Daytona have very fine, hard-packed sand, and will support cars driving along the water's edge.  Remember, that NASCAR car racing originally started just north of here, along the hard sand beaches.  We chose a section of beach that did not allow vehicles onto the beach.  The wide shallow beach reminded us of the beaches at Clearwater FL.

 

 

 



Finally getting our feet wet in the Atlantic Ocean





At low tide, the beach is wide & flat



The afternoon setting sun creates some
interesting shadows on the beach

Unfortunately, most of the rest of our time at Daytona was taken up dealing with contractors, especially the marine plumber, who made 3 trips to the boat to repair the head that was damaged by our teenage relative & his "friends".  Remember that the difference between a "marine plumber" and an ordinary "plumber" is about $50/hour.  We also spent a day driving north to the Jacksonville area to begin looking for a marina to keep our boat this coming winter.  Guess we're gonna be a Florida resident for a while.