Daytona Shores

Today was our first full day at the beach again, and this time it was Daytona Shores Beach.  This is where Nana and Ba-Ba have moved to, and they're quite happy here.  We arrived last night after a long drive, and got to see the place briefly before falling asleep rather quickly.  It was a big day yesterday.

But today was a great day to relax and explore the beach.  You can see Madison was loving it!  There are a few things that are different.  Firstly, there are cars allowed on this beach.  Daddy remembers that in Jacksonville we drove a van up on the beach when we were younger.  Still, after seeing so many beaches afterwards, the idea of a car on the beach just doesn't make sense.  I mean, how can you mess with the wonderful look of a beach by planting a car on it?  It sort of spoils the scenery in a way. 

Not that there were too many cars here in front of the condo.  In fact, there were not many at all.  The majority of the cars are parked south and to the north - you can see the parking lot on the beach if you look way up one way, and way down the other.  It's a good ways down, so there's nothing terribly spoiled at all where Nana and Ba-Ba live.  

But there is this unusual feeling about seeing cars on a beach, as if they are characters from the "Cars" movies, sitting down themselves to enjoy the sand and sun.

Another thing about this beach:  there are no shells.  Well, at least hardly any at all.  Satellite Beach was covered with shells.  You could find all kinds of shells there.  Here, you had to wade through the tidal pools, and maybe do some digging in the sand to find anything at all, and it was usually pretty tiny.

But the advantages are pretty numerous.  First of all, their place is just a lot nicer than the condos we were staying at in Satellite Beach.  Not that those were terrible.  It's just their new home is really nice.  It's spacious, comfortable, and with a wonderful view of the beach. 

The tide goes way out there each day.  There's a lot of room to wander on the beach, and of course that's what we did today.  Another advantage were the tidal pools, which Satellite Beach did not have.  These were places for Madison to swim in without fear of her getting too deep into the waters.  It's like swimming in the ocean, complete with waves and fish - but without any of the worries. 

And there aren't too many people here either.  Just a few miles north of here is Daytona Beach, which is immensely crowded.  There's plenty of room here for families to enjoy quiet time walking along the shore, which of course we did plenty of tonight and this morning.

Madison and Daddy did some castle building today, in addition to digging a sand well deep to the water level beneath the sand.  Madison likes to cover her feet in sand, and she is also learning the drip method of building castles, which is always fun to do.

Daytona Shores is a really nice beach.  We really enjoyed the entire day here, listening to the waves and watching the birds, crabs and fish.  The crabs aren't as numerous, although they are very well camouflaged, a white color that makes them difficult to see until they scurry away.

We didn't have any pictures of the crabs here, nor do we have a picture of the pool yet.  There are two pools at Oceans 6, which is where the grandparents live now.  One is an indoor pool, and the other is an outdoor pool.  The building they live in is at least sixteen stories tall, and they live on the third floor, overlooking the pool and the ocean beyond.

It's a great set-up.  There are also numerous sea turtle nests at various points along the shore, higher up so that the waves don't bother the eggs.  Just like Satellite Beach, you close your shades at night during turtle season.  You also leave the turtles and the nests alone. 

Nearby, there is mini-golf and of course the most famous NASCAR race track ever where the Daytona 500 takes place.  Daddy hopes to tour there some time soon as "research."  Not interested in driving a car really fast around the track though.  We don't have to drive a NASCAR track when we do I-75 down to Florida right?  Just kidding.

So today we spent time at the beach.  We spent time swimming too - Madison was showing off her new skills to Mommy and the grandparents.  She can now go from one end of the pool to the other without touching the bottom.  What was once formidable is now much easier to do.  From the balcony, they all cheered and held up pieces of paper, the three of them.  On each piece of paper was written a big 10, as if they were swimming judges.  Madison beamed with pride.

We did some relaxing inside too, to get out of so much sun.  Daddy has been reading the latest Kingdom Keepers book, and Madison has been watching a new show called "Canimals" that she likes a lot.  It's animated series.  Of course, she still has been watching Clone Wars episodes and Jessie episodes as well.  On the way down here yesterday, she watched the entire season one of "Star Wars Rebels."  She's in a bit of a Star Wars mode lately.

So here we are.  And here we'll be a few more days as well.  It'll be a nice week at the beach, and a lovely beach to spend a quick vacation away.