The Long Walk In Daytona Beach (Part I)

    A few people have commented to me that I must really like Daytona Beach, and they are absolutely correct. Thing is, I am not big into stock car racing or Bikeweek, which seem to be what everyone imagines Daytona is all about.

   I'm into beaches though, and Daytona Beach is a nice one.

   Interesting aside (said in my best Cliff Clavin voice) Daytona Beach is not named after Dayton, Ohio (as I had wrongly assumed) though it is indeed named after a person from Ohio - Mathias Day, who in 1870 bought a large tract of land that was formerly a large orange grove - like, 5 square miles large - and built a hotel there, around which the town started to develop. Mathias Day had a reversal of fortune in 1872 and lost title to his land, but the townspeople decided to name the place after him anyway.   

                                                   My view of Daytona Beach from the hotel 

   Early March is not a busy time for the tourist industry in Daytona Beach, which is a big plus if you are a cheap bastiche such as myself. Room rates are lower, and getting a good seat at a restaurant is easy breezy.

   Relax, enjoy the warmth of the late morning sun and the gentle lapping of the waves upon the shore...or some such postcard nonsense. You have to get your own drinks though, as the hotel bar does not re-open for a couple more weeks.

   That big round tower next to the hotel I stayed at is full of condo dwelling residents. man, what a great view to wake up to every morning. Unless, of course, a hurricane is on the horizon.

   It's about three and a half miles from where I was staying to the Daytona Beach pier, which is what I decided would be my walk for the day. Nothing beats the good ol' heel-toe express for getting to know and enjoy a beach.

   Not quite 10:00am when I started out - the sun was beginning to show, but the morning haze was still keeping the temperature down.

                                         Snowy Egret wading through the surf on the lookout for a fresh meal

Shore birds were my primary company for the first hour of the walk. Seagulls, terns, willets & sanderlings and even an egret or two. All of them scurrying about looking for food.

                                     Willet strutting along the beach looking for something delightful to eat

                                            Storm battered seawall being removed/awaiting replacement

                               Looking south about an hour and a half into the walk - can no longer see my hotel

   Lone fisherman enjoying the solitude of the late morning, early afternoon of the Daytona Beach shore in the off-season

                              Another early riser greets the day...a little more enthusiastically than most, which is nice.

   

   About two hours in and I began to see vehicles driving onto the beach to park and tan, and parents with kids in tow staking claim to small areas of the beach from which they can all bask in the sun or frolic in the sea.