This year's Florida vacation was again similar to past years except we:
As in past years, we played golf on most weekdays, weather permitting. And again, here are photos of a few activities during the stay. You can select an activity as listed below, or use your browser's scroll bars to view them all. The page is best viewed with a broadband connection and Internet Explorer 6 at 1024 x 768 x 32 bit color in full screen mode.
Even though the former owner sold our condo last year after massive repairs from the three 2004 hurricanes (we had to find another place for last January), this year the new owner allowed us to have the same 10 week rental as in the past.
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| An Atlantic Sunrise From Our Condo Balcony! | ||||
Our daughters Penny and Sue flew in to Jacksonville and stayed with us four days. They rented a car for 24 hours for the trips from and to the airport, almost as cheap as a shuttle, and it saved us some time.
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| Sue On Our Balcony | The Atlantic From Our Balcony | Sue & Penny Testing The Atlantic Waters Cold This Time Of Year! | ||
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| But The Sand Is Just As Annoying As In The Summer | Penny With The Norman Rockwell Picture Puzzle & Pat | Penny & Sue With The Rental Car From The Daytona Beach Airport | ||
We had taken the river tour in Daytona Beach two years ago, and considered a lunch cruise on the St. John's river this time. The lunch cruise would have meant an early rising, so we decided on this 2 hour trip from New Smyrna Beach on the Indian River, part of the intracoastal waterway.
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| The Two-Hour Tour Left From The Mainland Side Of The Indian River And Circled Around The Many Marshy Islands In The Intracoastal Waterway | ||
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| Nice Place On The Island Side! | We've Climbed The Ponce Inlet Lighthouse! | And We've Been To This Restaurant |
St. Augustine is America's Oldest City (1565 - Over 40 Years Before Jamestown) and is about an hour away. Although very touristy (we are Florida residents for two months, hence definitely not tourists), it is a wonderful place to spend a day.
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| Lunch At The "World Famous" (They Say!) Oasis | Ponce de Leon, Big Guy In St. Augustine | The "Oldest House" - in Florida - Early 1700s National Landmark In 1973 | Memorial Presbyterian Church, Built In 1890 By Henry Flagler | |||
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| Small Flagler College - Liberal Arts, Education, & Business, Formerly The Flagler-Built Hotel Ponce de Leon - A Tourist Destination In Itself! | ||
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| Spanish (Moorish) Building On The Fountain Of Youth Grounds | Log House On The Fountain Of Youth Grounds I Suspect A Gift Shop! | Old Tree On The Fountain Of Youth Grounds | ||
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| Indian Hut In The St. Augustine Museum, Visit Included In Our Tourist Trolley Ride | There Were Three Colonial Exhibits, Here Sue & Penny Write With A Quill Pen | ||
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| Kid's Toy - Flip The Ball Through The Hole! | Balcony For 2001 Speech By Spanish King Juan Carlos & Queen Sofia | Saltwater Cowboys For Dinner - Very Nice And Very Unusual - Out In The Swamp |
There was a celebration of the 100-Year old achievement of the world land speed record (127.659 mph) in 1906 by the Stanley Rocket Racer culminating in a re-enactment on Ormond Beach with a replica driven by Stanley's descendants. There were many other antique cars and shows in the area, and we saw quite a few in St. Augustine.
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| On The Road, South Of St. Augustine | By The River In St. Augustine | A Restored Stanley Steamer |
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| Snoopy (1!) Just Off Shore (And Our Balcony) | Drawbridge on Highbridge Road Nearby | Looking For A Whale, But Only Got Fishermen! |
Rose Boyle and Bea Carson, golfing friends from Northampton back home visited with us for a few days. Tony and Mildred Anella, other friends from Bucks County who are staying nearby during February joined us for a day of golf. It is the week of the Daytona 500, so we stayed away from Daytona Beach, and the six of us headed west to Deltona Hills.
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| L. to R. Pat, Bea, Mildred, Rose On The First Tee | Two Long-Legged Birds Taking Over The Second Tee After The Girls | Pat On The 7th Tee. Is That A Swimming Pool Up Near The Green? |
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| Rose On The 11th Tee | Mildred And Bea On The Long Downhill Par 3 14th | |
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| Tony Waiting For The Girls To Clear The 9th Green. What Water? | The 18th - Entire Course Is To Be Massively Renovated In 2 Months |
Our Granddaughter Patti Griffith and her fiancee Wayne Rogers visited us for a day. We took them to St. Augustine and Daytona Beach.
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| St. Augustine's Castillo San Marcos (Or Simply "The Castillo") Was Built By
The Spanish In The 15th Century To Deter The English The Coquina ("Little Shells") Walls, Quarried From Across The Bay, Absorbed Cannon Balls Instead Of Crumbling. It Was Never Conquered! | ||
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| Lunch At This English Restaurant In St. Augustine | A Touristy (and Wet) St. George Shopping Street | Wayne After A Beer At The St. George Tavern During The Rain | Patti & Pat Ready To Head Out Of St. Augustine |
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| The Most Well-Known (Biker's) Bar In Daytona Beach.
Notice The Hanging Undergarments! They Do Have Yuengling Bottles, But Not Today, So These Buds Were For Us! And Don't Ask For A Glass In Here!! | ||
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| An Archeological Exhibit In Froggy's Bar Window On Main Street! | Pat, Wayne & Patti On The Beach (Almost!) |
We spent a few hours at the Daytona Beach Wine and Food Festival on Beach Street. It has been held twice a year in the past, but this was the first time in February. We strongly recommended that they keep the February time frame next year! 14 merchants each with a wine and hors d'oeuvres participated. The pours were supposed to be an ounce each, but probably averaged a little more! With Florida's strict liquor control laws (no BYOBs even!), we wondered how it would work, but they told us that they were issued a "special permit" to allow us to sip from the provided (plastic) wine glasses between stops! There were jewelry, antique, candle, and knicknack stores, while 6 were restaurants. Other restaurants were closed, but participated by providing the food for the non-restaurant hosts.
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| We Had Been To Some Of The Restaurants Before, But Not The Song Mongolian Grill Nor My Cousin Vinny's - Maybe Sometime Next Year! | ||
Our son Clay and daughter-in-law Chris stayed with us for a few days. They rented a car (convertible!) at the Jacksonville airport.
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| Cold & Windy, So No Golf But The Surf's Up For This Guy! | Aileen Wuornos' Port Orange Bar Featured In The Movie "Monster" | Timing Is Everything. Clay & Chris Had 80° Temperatures Each Day | ||
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| The Four Of Us Went To Epcot For A Day | And These Guys Are Getting Paid For Doing This! | |||
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| We Took The Monorail(s) To The Grand Floridian Hotel Passing Within View Of Cinderella's Castle & Space Mountain Over In The Magic Kingdom | ||
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| Lady(s) & The Tramp At The Monorail Transfer Station | A Nice Lunch At The Grand Floridian Cafe | |
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| By The Lake At Twilight. Where We Happen To Be At 7PM, That Country Will Be Dinner! | ||
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| It Was The German Biergarten For A Buffet Dinner. There Was Some Nice (But Extremely Brief) Music | ||
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| Fireworks Over The Lagoon, Part Of The "Illuminations: Reflection Of Earth" - Done Each Night At 9:00 PM | |||
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| The Brightly-Lit Earth Revolves In The Middle Of The Fireworks | A Great Day, Not Too Crowded, But Disney Stock Probably Still Went Up! |
Bike Week, actually 10 days - Friday through Sunday, is in early March. It is one of the big tourists events in Daytona Beach with, a newspaper-estimated, 500,000 motorcycles and countless other people (pretenders!) There are quite a few focal points in Daytona beach and the surrounding area. When we are here during that time, we usually make a visit to the biggest and showiest on Main Street, this time on the first Saturday evening.
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| For Most Of Each Weekend, Main Street Is Closed To All Traffic Except Bikes. It Is Horribly Clogged, But An Event In Itself - A Continuous Parade | ||
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| We've Always Wanted To Have Dinner Here And This Seemed Like The Perfect Time. Surprise - They Weren't That Busy! | ||
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| Main Street Is Like A "Bike Museum." Only Motorcycle Parking At All Times During Bike Week | ||
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| Lots Of Customization & Nice Paint Jobs (& Illumination) | |||
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| A Couple Of Bike Licence Plates From Far Far Away - Must Have Been Trailered! | |
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| The Most Famous Bar On Main Street | The Pinewood Cemetery Is Across The Street! | Women's Undergarments Adorn The Ceiling |
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| Here There Was Music - On An Outdoor Stage | Bar is In Back, Clay & Chris Went There Later | Security Was Very Tight - All Over Main Street |
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| We've Frequently Passed By The NASCAR Themed Crusin' Cafe On The Corner Of A1A & Main Street. It Is Plenty Busy During Bike Week! | |
We had a four-day gap between the end of our Ormond Beach condo rental and Caribbean cruise ship boarding, and stayed at a motel in Melbourne Beach. The weather was still nice and we found a few new golf courses and restaurants.
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| Few Lunch Opportunities, But A Familiar Name In Cocoa Beach & Pelicans In The Indian River | Against The Ocean Tide - A "Skim"boarder! | ||
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| Melbourne Beach, Long In The Tooth, But Clean | Just North, Singer Charlie Zahm's Hometown | Dinner, Expensive Even For Florida, But Nice | ||
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| Now That's A Cat LOVER! | Also In Indialantic, Great, Typical Tex-Mex, But With Some Political Silk-Screen Ceiling Panels! | ||
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| A Little Bit Of Germany In This Melbourne Beach Restaurant. Unusual, But Also Great! | |||
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| After Two So-So Melbourne Municipal Courses, Turtle Creek Was Very Nice But Wet! The Golfers Cleared These Ponds, But Some Others, Ummm! | |
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| This Is Their Turf - Why Do You Think They Call It Turtle Creek? | Colorful Duck(!?), I Guess | ||
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| The Wall At A Breakfast Stop. Does This Mean That We Have To Take Up (Gasp) Cycling? | "Fish With An (Indialantic) Add·tee·tude" | ||
From here, we boarded our cruise ship at Port Canaveral for a Seven day Western Caribbean cruise.
After the cruise, we had tickets to the Flagler Auditorium for an Irish show, so we stayed in the Topaz in Flagler Beach that we have passed so many times on our stays here. There was a hassle at the desk as they didn't have a reservation for Stahl! The attendent took only Pat's first name from her driver's licence when she reserved it two weeks ago, so they were expecting a Mr. Patricia! We explored nearby Bulow State Park, that we never seemed to have found time for during our previous stays.
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| Bulow State Park Is Small With The Attraction Being Hiking. The Oak Is At The Main Parking Area, Off Old King's Highway At The Trail Head. | ||
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| We Just Walked A Little Bit of The Trail While Waiting For Our Hotel Room | From Our (Messy) Porch At The Topaz. We Had A Little Trouble With The Reservation Name, But It Finally Worked Out | ||
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| ClaytStahl @aol.com | Created: 02/03/06 Changed: 11/20/08 | © 2006 - 2008 Levittown, PA. Clayton Stahl All rights reserved. |
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