Beaches, birthdays, and belly laughs...

Last week, Hubby and I went on vacation to Daytona Beach Shores, Florida, just south of Daytona Beach. It was perfect! The weather, which was clear the whole time. Our room, which was beachfront. The bicycles we rented and the routes we rode. The restaurants where we ate. The state parks we visited. Just perfect.

The only thing I didn't like was I-95. It'd been five years since we'd driven it. It's gotten worse. Geez, what a race, and what a boring road. And I didn't even drive. Hubby drove the whole trip.

We left the balcony door of our room open the whole time, when we were in the room. Every night the ocean lullabied us to sleep.

The bike rental place had two mountain bikes, which were perfect for our riding. We rode the beach, two rail trails (Lehigh in Palm Coast and part of the East Central from Enterprise to Osteen and back), a local route from our hotel down to Ponce Inlet and back, and across mangrove marshes on wooden decks. I rode a few trails solo in a couple state parks.

I didn't take any beach walks because I would have had to use my trekking poles, and I didn't want them to get sandy and rusty. So it was wonderful to have the bike to ride the beach. Since our room balcony was ocean front, we felt the full beach experience without the sand sticking to sunscreen. Our room was on the third floor right beside the elevator, which made my life easy. The hotel was only three stories high.

We didn't see lots of wildlife. But, from our balcony, we saw dolphins almost daily. We saw a bald eagle up close along the right side of the road as we were driving back from one of the rail trails. The eagle was pulling some roadkill off the paved shoulder into the grass and sand. Smart bird. I saw three box turtles, two with hubby and one when I was on a solo ride. It was a delight to watch them diligently make their way to their destinations. One of them, which we saw in Tomoka State Park, made its way to a tunnel. He knew exactly where he was going. I wanted to see an alligator in the wild, but didn't.

My birthday was last week, so the trip was a wonderful way to celebrate life.  I turned 58 years young. I wasn't far from where I was born in Holly Hill, Florida. But I didn't visit there.

I received one of my best birthday gifts, if not the best, earlier in the month on April 1. The family took a day trip to Grayson Highlands. We all rode in the same vehicle. No one could remember the last time we took a road trip all together in the same vehicle. It was great fun and included some belly laughs.

~*~

View from our balcony

From the water...light. Sunrise, 4-25-17. From our balcony.

My rental bike in Florida. I named it Cypress.

Mangrove marsh deck. Ponce Inlet, Florida. 

Turtle along the rail trail

Family pic. Grayson Highlands. April 1, 2017. It was chilly. Of course Son wears shorts. He likes the chilly. 

Dogs had a comfy ride to Grayson and back. April 1, 2017.