This afternoon, we made a quick trip over to the downtown Daytona Beach area, in fact right across from Jackie Robinson Stadium. It's there you can find a museum, the Halifax Historical Museum. This was a bank when first built over a hundred years ago, and then a restaurant for a time, and now a museum, which it has been for some time. It's a specific museum, one dedicated to this area in particular. The description on the video starts out with images from a hundred years ago or so, including many vintage photos and so forth. And then says abruptly - and somewhat humorously to us - "the story starts 130,000 years ago."
This image is not from 130,000 years ago. It's a picture of Mr. Day, who founded the community of Daytona Beach. He wasn't successful with the start of this community, but as we know, later on it did in fact succeed. Sadly, he returned home to Ohio thinking it didn't quite work out, but it was a pretty good try. So many people never get to see the fruit of their labor. If only he could see how big of a deal Daytona Beach is now. I'm sure he'd be disappointed in a lot of it. But some of the other things have in fact been successful.
Actually, this is a Spaniard. He looks pious, but historically, the Spanish weren't very noble. Take for instance this guy named Menéndez. He was a real piece of work, responsible for a couple of massacres in this area. Honor was apparently a foreign concept.
Changing the subject dramatically, take a look at this old operator's switchboard. One of Nana's first jobs was operating one of these, so this is familiar territory for her. She was telling a story about her first day, and the moment she was talking with the boss of the company without realizing who it was.
They had a few models, including this very large miniature version of Daytona Beach. And also, along the walls there were murals of scenery from the area.
These were painted a long time ago by a father and son duo. The father painted from the top down and the son painted from the bottom up. The two met at the middle, and you can't really tell a difference in their styles. The dad wanted to do the top and called dibs on that, mainly because he didn't want to have paint dripping down on him all the time.
Ah, a nice hug. Nana gives the nicest hugs. It was good for all of us to get out of the house and do a bit of exploring. What made this trip nice was how close it was, easy to get to, and easy to walk around in.
And they had a large collection of artifacts here too. There were military items, racing items - like another model of the Hudson Hornet - and all kinds of items, from fossils to a dress worn by the Abraham Lincoln's sister-in-law.
Here's Mommy and the grandparents in the attic portion, all smiles and enjoying the tour. Suddenly, Mommy spotted this little toy below. Uh-oh!
Get rid of that monkey! This is that same monkey from "Toy Story 3," the one that creeps everyone out.
It creeps Daddy out too! It may be just a coincidence, but shortly after spotting this monkey, we were done with the tour of the museum. But it did spawn a trip across the street. Apparently, during the 40's and early 50's, there was a stray dog in two that was owned by nobody, but loved by everyone. His name was Brownie, and he was the "town dog."
This is a monument built for him at his tomb, a little place built for him right in the downtown area, right across the street from the stadium.
Ba-Ba was happy to pay a visit. It looks like Brownie is enjoying being pet. We walked for a little bit through this park area, and the temperature was nice outside. The town area is very pleasant, and our tour was not done quite yet. We walked along the storefronts, and soon enough we were there at our next destination, Angell and Phelps.
This is a chocolate store there in town, and one of the attractions of this destination was a "chocolate factory tour." Sadly, there were no Oompa Loompas around, but a lot of tourists joined us, and together, we were listening in as our guide explained some of the processes involved in making some of this tasty chocolate.
Madison was watching by the window as the tour guide showed us a few things, and told some bad jokes like, "How do you make dark chocolate?"
Answer: turn off the lights.
It was a nice little tour. We didn't actually go into the kitchen area, but there were these large windows where you could see the chocolate waterfalls and cutting instruments, and the workers adding the intricate details.
Ba-Ba and Nana had a good afternoon together with the family visiting a local place none of us had gotten to yet. The chocolate conveyer belt immediately brought the topic up of that one famous episode of "I Love Lucy."
And yes, there was a poster of that on the wall. There were other fall decorations hanging up too, and many other Christian scriptures and even Bible tracts. They make a lot of items, and do very well. By all appearances, they're very successful. All these folks were here on a Tuesday in October, which is pretty good.
As you can see here, it was a big crowd. Madison was separate from the rest of us, up there at the front and by the window, absorbing every word. They are making all kinds of molds and shapes, and their version of "turtles," which are called "honey bees." Those were the best, but we did try some of the other items, which you can see below.
Yes, this is the best part of the tour: the end, where they give out free samples. Some of us tried chocolate covered potato chips and chocolate covered bacon. The more standard chocolate fare was probably a bit better, although those first items were unique. They get a lot of call for the chips and the bacon, and in fact they sell more bacon than many breakfast restaurants in the area. It's an odd mix, chocolate and bacon. I think it's okay, but once you've tried it you're pretty much done with it. The honeybees were much better, as were some of the other samples.
It was a pleasant afternoon out on the town. The rest of the day was nice too, a relaxing day at home. We did some dominoes and a walk along the beach as well. It was Taco Tuesday, and of course there was the usual "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy" viewings. Daddy has been pretty successful with Jeopardy lately, getting many of the answers right - although that's not to say he'd be any better with that buzzer. Madison is actually really good with Wheel of Fortune, getting the answers right before us, and before the contestants too.
It was a great day at the beach today spending time with each other. We got to bed earlier tonight, because tomorrow, we've got some slightly bigger plans...
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