Back to Where we Started from

Shortest trip ever...or what!?

Yep, we're home from our excursion to Florida to see 'the kids'....ahhhh what a trip, always good to see our lil Hoot and JP!

Wouldn't ya know that as soon as we exited the boat yesterday, the sky opened up one hella storm. It rained most of the night into the next morning, stopped for a little bit then as soon as we left their house, boom...starts raining again. Not the time for rain....we're on our way to drive up the coast, see the ocean, feel the sunshine...

You can see in the picture above, the humungoid line to get out of New Smyrna Beach due to the storm. It started coming down so hard that we pulled into a Burger King to take a break and it just wouldn't let up, so we sat for a little while longer and decided to just get in and drive anyway....rain, drizzle or storm.

We mushed on to good ole Flagler Avenue, even though the lightning and thunder were very close together and just about right over head, people were still coming from and going out to surf. Ahhh, Florida storms...best time to surf!

We had on and off rains from New Smyrna to Daytona...expected. All I wanted was to be able to get out, walk the boardwalk along beach side and maybe buy a cool shirt or something....even if that meant no sunshine, at all. We arrived in Daytona, looked for parking (it's all meter or prepaid parking now), found one of the last spots in this lot, pretty close to the beginning of the boardwalk and were set for 4 hours for $1.25 per hour or $10 for the day.

We walked the World's Most Famous Beach Boardwalk, for me this boardwalk is a very very good part of all my growing up years, adolescent through early 20's... this was my "backyard" pretty much, so it's always fun to walk down memory lane. I like to see what's new, what they've taken down, what they've fixed up, etc.

I noticed the Sky Way is gone; pretty much a "ski lift ride" that went out to the end of the boardwalk, around the restaurant and back to where you started. This was always such a cool experience as a kid, due to "flying" over the ocean like a bird! I know that the hurricanes have been taking down the boardwalk little by little for years and I think the Sky Way had just about had it, so they finally took it all down. (sad face)

They have also added a couple of rides to the amusement park, fun for the kids...when it's not raining, lightning or thundering, they close that all down at the tiniest inkling of rain!

We were happy that it stopped raining enough for us to be able to walk around for a quick minute. We both love love love the Ocean so it was important, to us, to at least walk, hand in hand, alongside it while we were here...we don't get the Ocean where we're staying right now (just a creek)!

We did our loop back to the van and on the way to Flagler we go. For those of you who haven't been on the East Coast of Florida, it's pretty much a beach side drive up the entire coast. We started at New Smyrna, went up to Daytona, then onto Ormond and Flagler Beaches and then St. Augustine.

Our next stop was The Waffle Cone (used to be The Sweet Shoppe) in Flagler!

We arrived at The Waffle Cone and were so excited to get our chocolate shakes, we even told the girl scooping for us...I think she thought we had a couple nuts/screws loose! haha Anyway ya slice it, they ARE the best place in Flagler for shakes, cones, what-have-ya- in the ice cream department. As soon as we got our shakes it had started raining again, so we ducked under an umbrella outside to get our "suck" on before darting back to the van.

 We puddle jump the entire time back to the van and....vamonos, we're on our way North once again!

Next destination?

Our all-time favorite...St. Augustine!!!

We got a great parking spot at 'the fort' or Castillo de San Marcos and walked "our walk": down to St. George's street, down to the Lightner Museum or Flagler College, back down on Main street, to the Fort then......food!

[caption id="attachment_5589" align="aligncenter" width="446"] Flagler College[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_5590" align="aligncenter" width="417"] Lightner Museum[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_5591" align="aligncenter" width="424"] Oldest Wood School House in USA[/caption]

We found a sweet little spot to eat dinner and have a beer, even looking right out onto Joon Van, called No Name Bar & Grill. It was perfect. Cheap beer & food prices, good food, a view of The Fort (& Joon), live music and a beautiful night to spend with my babaa'! What more can you ask for?

[caption id="attachment_5593" align="aligncenter" width="421"] Our view[/caption]

After filling up our bellies and being fully entertained, we made our way back to Joon van where we grabbed the pups for a sunset walk and some reenactment photos.

[caption id="attachment_5597" align="aligncenter" width="358"] Nanaaaaaaa![/caption]

Our trip home was just one big long drive, but we're very blessed that we were able to spend good quality time with Brittney & JP, see the Ocean, drive up the coast and even have the pups set foot in St. Auggie grass!

It was a very short but sweet trip. Just one more thing to get our mouths salivating for the next road trip....

pant...pant...pant

'til next time

[caption id="attachment_5592" align="aligncenter" width="401"] Happy Anniversary to Us![/caption]

PEACE