Feb 16-23,2015 Check off that Bucket List: Daytona 500

The weather continues to go up & down like a roller coaster but I'm not complaining because we have experienced warm, sunny days along with the chilly ones.  This cruise was a switch for us because we actually traveled north.  New Smyrna Beach was the farthest south we will be heading this winter, we think.  As our boater friend, Suzanne says "our plans are written in the sand".  It was a short cruise from NSB to Daytona, where we docked @ Halifax Marina. Halifax Marina is a huge place. It appears that they have quite a few "long time cruisers" here.  We chose this spot because it is the closest to the Daytona International Speedway.  Doug had the 500 race on his bucket list so we took this opportunity to fulfill another goal.  Our niece Wendi, her husband Tadd & their daughter Sam joined us.  They used to live in Indy, so they had attended Indy 500 races but being new to Florida had not experienced this race yet.

Months ago, Doug researched the race & track and found that they are in the process of rebuilding the grandstands and adjoining customer service areas.  The new construction is called "Daytona Rising".  Part of the new grandstands, from the start finish line to the first turn, were finished in time for the race this year. We gave Tadd the assignment to purchase tickets for us in this new part.  A few days prior to the race, the track had an open house for ticket holders to see the new grandstand.  Doug & I rode our bikes (about 4 miles) to check out the track & our seats.  Tadd did a great job of choosing our seats.  From our seats, we could see the entire track & the pits. We were on the 4th level without anyone in front of us.

While in Daytona for a few days, we checked the area out.  We found the Farmers Market not far from the Marina along the Halifax River.  Also not far from the Marina is a small strip of stores & restaurants along Beach St.  There are some empty store fronts but not too many.  One of the days, we rode across the bridge that spans the ICW and hit the beach on our bikes.  As everyone remembers, the city allows cars to drive & park on Daytona Beach, which doesn't leave too much of the beach for anything else.  We did find a stretch that is Traffic Free.  We tried to find a fun beach bar/restaurant  but were unsuccessful.  The hotels & buildings along the beach are quite tired and some of the areas we biked through even caused a wee bit of anxiety.

some of the Nascar owners Yachts

Clydesdales, really are big!

Race Day came & brought the best weather we have seen since arriving in Florida.  We biked to the race, skirting all the traffic & parking hassles.  We met Tadd, Wendi & Sam at the track.  The whole place was packed with fans from all over.  We heard & kinda could see Kid Rock perform in front of the pits. We all picked a driver to win and none of our picks won! The lead changed on lap 197 out of 200 and no one expected Joey to win.  It was a clean race, really only one wreck & no one got hurt.  I surprised myself & watched the whole race & so did Sam!  We found a great pizza place close to the boat for dinner.

a full bucket of Ducks

Doug in his spare time, working on a freighter model

The Thunderbirds, always impressive!

Feb 2-15, 2015 New Smyrna Beach, FL

Heading further south on the ICW, we cruise to New Smyrna Beach, our southern most point for this season.  I know everyone is wondering, why not the Keys or the Bahama's?  We planned on staying in this region of Northern Florida for two reasons: we have a niece in Jacksonville who we've been able to spend time with her & her family, who is "a gem" as my father used to say and we wanted to head north as soon as weather permits for further exploring.  

New Smyrna Beach did not disappoint. We stayed at the newest Marina in the area: New Smyrna Marina, not to be confused with New Smyrna Beach Marina, which is the older city marina.  Our friends from New Zealand: Richard & Enid did get those marinas confused but it all worked out in the end.  We met Richard & Enid way back this last summer in Georgian Bay than again on the Trent Severn Waterway.  We have kept in touch by email and we had been just missing them along our way on the ICW.  Here at NSB, we were able to reconnect for 2 days.  It was great to see them again & we wish them a safe journey over to the Bahama's & onto Cuba.

New Smyrna Marina has beautiful floating docks, awesome bathrooms, a pool, hot tub and a fabulous restaurant all on site. They keep the place spotless.  The Outrigger Restaurant is always busy because they have a great happy hour & delicious food.

We found a bike shop just in time because we have used our folding bikes so much, we have worn out the sprockets & the chains.  Andy, the owner took good care of us & our bikes are all tuned up, ready for another thousand miles.

You can tell it's winter back home in Ohio, because we were blessed with visitors escaping the cold.  Barb & Jim, who were our dock neighbors @ Toledo Beach Marina stopped & treated us to lunch on their way to Jenson Beach.  They were able to catch us up on the improvements & news of TBM.

The next day, Kim who was a coworker with Doug dropped by & brought her delightful Mom, Sue with her. This time, we were brought up to date on all of Lathrop's happenings.  We really enjoy these visits, please everyone keep in touch & come visit anytime!  

While in NSB, we biked a lot, took the dinghy & explored the Ponce de Leon inlet, the lighthouse & the beaches. There are two tourist areas: Canal street, which is old town & Flagler Ave, which takes you down to the beach.  The sand is like white powdered sugar. The beach @ the end of Flagler allows cars to drive on it.  We found Dunes Park with a beach towards Ponce de Leon inlet that is traffic free.  I prefer traffic free beaches myself.

This town in very artsy.  We toured some galleries & then last weekend there was an Art Fiesta right downtown that consisted of over 200 artists and this wasn't their biggest Art Fair.  We commissioned one of the galleries to reproduce two of our favorite photo's to canvas and have hung them in our home.

Since we are now in Florida, we could not miss the Miami Boat Show.  We left the boat here @ NSB, rented a car, picked up Garry & Jacque (our traveling partners) and headed to Pompano Beach.  Our dear, generous friends: Jim & Elaine, offered us a place to stay even though they were unable to join us.  We stayed in Pompano & drove to Miami for the Boat show.  You gotta love the Miami traffic; it took us 2 ½ hours to travel 37 miles Thursday morning. The Miami Boat Show is truly amazing.  The amount of vendors & huge boats are overwhelming.  The weather was gorgeous both days: sun, warmth & deep blue skies.  No, we did not buy a boat!  We did get sucked into some window cleaner,  glass cleaner & some all purpose cleaner; do you see a pattern here? No wonder everyone asks us if our boat is new; no, Doug is just really good @ keeping Day Dreams clean & looking great!


Views from Day Dreams, while docked in NSB:

An Osprey who has a live fish in
his claws

Ponce De Leon Lighthouse

 Dinner on the beach in Pompano, with our toes in the sand:











 In Miami, on South Beach:

Jan 26-Feb 2, 2015 Marineland, FL

Traveling 20 miles farther south down the ICW, finds us at the unique town of Marineland.  The town has a population of 16 as of 2012, although the last official census report from 2008 said 6.  The Marina is small but very nice & is owned by the town & affiliated with the kayak eco tours company: Ripple Effect Adventure Outfitters. There is no more than 200 yards of land between the Atlantic Ocean & the ICW here. We are able to hear the surf from the ocean while on our boat. The town consists of the Dolphin habitat "Marineland", Research labs for University of Florida & NIH both studying Marine bioscience, a nature preserve, an estuary, a boardwalk on a beautiful beach & the Marineland Marina.

This area has so much to offer; we took full advantage of this untouched gem.  There are only 2  restaurants nearby, only 1 Art Gallery and only 1 souvenir shop. No cable TV & our Verizon signal was even weak. We biked to the Washington Oaks Historical District which has beautiful trees & gardens. We hiked the nearby Nature Preserve. We walked the beach among the coquina rocks.

Fort Matanzas National Monument was close enough for us to take our dinghy.  We beached our dinghy on the island across from the fort & rode the free ferry with the Park Ranger.  We toured the Fort & listened to the history of the area.  This area was the scene of crucial events in Spanish, French & English colonial history.  The construction of Fort Matanzas in 1740 was Spain's last effort to ward off British encroachments on St Augustine.

Osprey

University of Florida conducts a Naturalist program on site & we were invited to sit in on a session and we happily accepted.  The Program provides a holistic approach to understanding Florida's ecology, natural history & environmental issues.  Our session covered birds native to Florida.  The session was 3 hours long, does that give you an idea of how many birds are enjoying Florida.  Being retired & not used to sitting, we made a wise decision & only sat through the last hour.

Ripple Effects offers guided kayak tours through the National Estuarine Research Reserve.  We decided we would see & learn more with a guide, so we paddled around with the experts & learned
 about marshes, swamps & Mangrove trees. We saw Dolphins, Osprey, jelly fish, oyster & clam fields & interesting birds plus got some well needed upper body exercise.

We ran across this brilliantly talented artist: Paul Baliker. Our pictures don't do his sculptures justice. He sculpts from pieces of driftwood but each piece has many beautiful creatures throughout the work.

 Our last day, we visited the actual Marineland's Dolphin Conservation Center.  In 1938, Marineland

opened as the World's first Oceanarium.  Over 30,000 guests visited on opening day. It originally was used for filming TV shows & movies like Sea Hunt, Tarzan, Benji and Creature from the Black Lagoon. For those of you old enough to remember Benji, he was the first dog in history to scuba dive & he did that @ Marineland.  The place had evolved into a major tourist attraction with aerial Dolphin shows and a carnival type atmosphere.  Around 2004, after closing due to damage from a series of hurricanes, new construction began.  In 2006, the current Marineland Conservation Center opened as a place for research, education & a dedication to the understanding & conservation of marine mammals. There are different sessions available to the guest: a simple tour, a behind the scenes tour, touch & feed the dolphins, paint with a dolphin & the most expensive & coolest: immerse yourself with the dolphins.  We were very impressed with the behind the scenes tour & we did get very close to the beautiful creatures and saw turtles, octopus, stingrays & more.

lobster

Octopus

A gopher turtle in the wild