Trip One-Daytona Beach

We started off the trip with our first "misadventure"--after wandering around a bit to find the shuttle to our off-airport car rental place, they won't rent a car to us, because we were not flying out the next day.  We only needed the car for 24 hours, so we had to cancel that reservation, take the shuttle back to the airport and rent a car on the spot.  It delayed us a bit, but I thought--if this is the only bad thing on our trip then no worries--let the adventures begin....

I had forgotten how flat Florida is from Orlando to the Atlantic Ocean.

It was about an hour drive to Daytona Beach and to our fifth floor hotel room overlooking the beach.

Off our balcony

The view off the west side of our room overlooking the city and the inlet.

And, of course, first order of business was a walk on the beach.  It was gorgeous and even at 7:30 the water was warm.

Although the plan was only to get our feet wet, you can see that I got a bit wetter than that.  It was so worth it.  I love the sound of the waves, the feel of the sand and water, and the whole thing.  As a side note--first time that we have walked in the waves off the coast of the United States on the Atlantic side and the Pacific side in the same year.  Gary pointed out that we have done something similar during our Panama Canal Cruise when we were in the Caribbean and then in Mexico during the same trip, but that was quite the same as on both coasts of the US.

our hotel

Sunday morning waves

Gary saw some of the sunrise, but I was still asleep until it was time to get ready for Church.  I don't know if I ever put "has to love the ocean" on my list of traits for my spouse when I was a young adult, but I am glad that Gary loves it, too---or at least he does a very good job in supporting my love of the ocean.

Our hotel was actually on a strip of land called the Daytona Beach Shores which has the ocean on the east side and the Halifax River on the west side, cutting it off from the mainland.  As a result there are several bridges going across the river to access the island area.  We figured out ways to cross on three of them while we were there.

You know you are not in Northern Utah when the park attached to your chapel has palm trees.

Daytona Beach Chapel

On the way to the Chapel we passed by "Holly Street" so we got a picture on our way back to the hotel.

We are crossing on one bridge and you can see two other bridges just up the river.  No walking across these bridges although a couple of them did have pathways for walkers and bikers.

I took this picture on our way back to the hotel.  This is the entrance to the boardwalk and other "famous stuff" associated with Daytona Beach.  I didn't realize it was the "World's Most Famous Beach"---I imagine there are many places which would dispute that claim, but it was very beautiful.

View from our hotel lobby....

then a close-up taken at the window.

At the door of our room toward the west--day light view

I would totally go stay at that hotel again for a longer time and soak in all of that beach "stuff"--our stay was too short for sure.

In checking around for a Sunday activity we could do before we headed back to Orlando, I found this light house (which is actually why we headed to Daytona Beach to begin with.)  This is the tallest lighthouse on the eastern coast of the United States.  It has an interesting history and it was fun to learn about its history and more about lighthouses in general.  It is called the Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse.  It was called Mosquito Inlet Lighthouse for the first part of its existence which doesn't sound quite as appealing.

The amazing set of mirrors and glass to send the light as far as possible out to sea to offer protection and directions.  Light could be seen up to 20 miles out to sea.

And yes, we decided to climb to the top.  There were 213 steps up (and 213 back down).  The challenge was the heat and humidity of southern Florida combined with the thick stone walls.  The walls at the base of the lighthouse were about 8' thick tapering off to about 1 1/2' thick near the top.

Views of the ocean from the upper viewing deck.  Hard to see but there was a plane flying by with an advertisement for a local restaurant--the sign is the black square in the middle of the clouds.

Heading back down---very cool view of the spiral staircases.

We were happy to sit down in an airconditioned building and watch a short movie about the history of the lighthouse.  It gave us a chance to cool down before leaving for Orlando and our second mini-vacation:  Walt Disney World and Universal Studios with Vonette and Gary.

BUT WAIT--HOLD THE PRESSES--BECAUSE THINGS WERE HAPPENING BACK AT THE HOME FRONT.....SEE NEXT POST!!!!!!!!