Eddie Arana, Rick Thibodeau, & Chris Bakunas San Diego, Ca. March 2012

Eddie Arana, Rick Thibodeau, & Chris Bakunas San Diego, Ca. March 2012
Eddie Arana, Rick Thibodeau, & Chris Bakunas at Luche Libre Taco Shop in San Diego, March 2012

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

The Long Walk In Daytona Beach (Part III)

   As I wanted to see what Daytona Beach looked like along A1A (and because I needed to purchase a beverage somewhere - all that walking made me quite thirsty), I left the beach itself and walked a couple blocks west to the road that runs north-south along the Florida coast, from the small town of Callahan in north Florida near the border with Georgia clear down to Miami

   The A1A is a Florida state road and from where it turns south at Atlantic Ave & So Fletcher Ave in Fernandina Beach it is rarely more than 5 blocks from a beach - that's more than 330 miles of incredible scenic views and a lot of small beach towns.

  Not to be confused with US 1, which is a United States east coast highway that runs 545 miles from the Georgia - Florida border to Key West.

   Anywhatzit, A1A in Daytona Beach is pretty much the walking/cruising strip for tourists and spring breakers, few of which were present this afternoon.


            




   A1A cuts right through the Daytona Beach tourist district, which makes it pretty easy to find your hotel.

   As you might well imagine there are a ton of surf shops, souvenir shops and liquor stores along the route, as well as other pleasant diversions such as small (and I mean, two rides, tops) amusement parks










   


Daytona Beach Screamers Park, for those who really did not like what they had for lunch


    

 



                                                  The Streamline Hotel - birthplace of NASCAR

   While the vast majority of the architecture in Daytona Beach is boring modern condo/hotel/motel/strip mall built on a lowest-cost-per-square-foot basis, there are a few gems like the Streamline Hotel seen above. 

                            Homemade Ice Cream & Karaoke Wednesdays...Yes Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus

   There are also a number of homemade ice cream shops along A1A in Daytona Beach, and not only shops that just serve ice cream, but ice cream shops that are virtually alcohol free bars with entertainment such as featured above. I call these places "Palaces of Pleasure".

                                                         Famous Yes, But World's Most Famous? No.

   After awhile of walking along the shops, convenience stores and small cafes, I decided to get off the concrete and back on the softer (yet still hardpacked) beach. 

   I crossed the street to do that and once again I was struck by the Daytona Chamber of Commerce's boast that it was the world's most famous beach. 

   Sure, it's a fairly well known beach, but if you ask around a bit, and I mean around areas outside of Florida, I'm pretty sure you're going to get answers such as Copacabana, Waikiki, Cabo San Lucas, the French Rivera, Malibu, Bondi, Ipanema, Venice (L.A., not Italy), the Bahamas (literally, any beach on the Bahamas), Tahiti, Bali, Cozumel...

   ...heck, I'm pretty sure most people will say Florida's own Miami Beach or South Beach before they will say Daytona Beach.   

   Not trying to be a hater, as I love Daytona Beach, just sayin'...nice try, Chamber of Commerce (or Tourism Board, whatever).

                                             Daytona Beach does have a lot of pretty flowers going for it

                          Nice home on Daytona Beach. Homeowners insurance rates gotta be a bit high

   Living in a beach house is a dream, right? Though it's not a dream that should be set in Florida, IMHO. I mean, that area of the Atlantic coast is fairly well known for big storms and hurricanes, eh?

                          Daytona Beach beachfront home sans stairway to the beach, removal courtesy of a storm surge.

    Who am I kidding? If I had the money I'd probably buy a place here. It's freakin' beautiful, even with the humidity.

Walked a little past my hotel - probably hiked at least 8 miles today

Next time I think I'll rent a bike though - Dogs are barking!










 


The Long Walk In Daytona Beach (Part II)

 

                                          There it is, the Daytona Beach pier, two hours into the walk.

   After a couple of hours I started to encounter more people than shorebirds, and far more vehicles and tents as base camps were established along the long stretch of hard sand parallel to the seawall. The beach gradually became filled with the clamor of voices and the low rumble of slowly moving cars and trucks (speed limit is 10 mph on the beach).

                                                               Let the party get started

                                  Some people are more dedicated to driving the perfect beach cruiser than others

   Beach culture is a little different on the Florida coast than what I knew in SoCal. For starters, cars and trucks. Oh sure, there are millions of cars and trucks in SoCal, just not on the beach (except for Fiesta Island in SD). 

   Beaches in SoCal tend to be primarily deep, loose sand, and that doesn't work well for most cars or trucks. But beaches along the Florida coast all appear to be hardpacked sand, which is great for parking cars and trucks on.

   It's $20.00 per day to park on the beach, btw, though annual passes are available - those are $25.00 a year for residents, $100.00 a year for non-residents. A bargain at twice the price.

   Second, their do not seem to be any firepits on the beach - maybe that's due to all the cars and trucks.

                 The Daytona Beach Pier - goal reached! Please ignore the swimmers ignoring the No Swimming sign.

   Three and a half miles into the walk and it's still overcast, though the temperature is near 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The beach is far more crowded at this end, though still not a lot of people in the water. For the most part it's people hanging out in cars, on tailgates, or under beach umbrellas and pop ups.


   The Daytona Beach Pier is close to 140 years old and has weathered a helluva lot of storms. The structure has been re-enforced and shored up on a number occasions, but the original structure is intact - fairly remarkable, that.

   As I had earlier posted pictures of a short jaunt on the pier back in February, I'll forgo posting any today. Instead, I'll post this picture of a flower I found on the beach near the pier. I have no idea how it got there.









Mysterious flower found on the beach. Looks to be a chrysanthemum - maybe it was used for a burial at sea and washed ashore after a journey of hundreds of miles (Probably not, but way more romantic than "possibly flew off a table at the Eat at Joes restaurant on the pier").








Mysterious poles forming a line of demarcation a short distance from the Daytona Beach Pier - maybe a "no cars allowed past this point" dealio?
















Mysterious young woman who said yes to her picture being taken as long as I obscured her "sh*itty tattoo"











                                                Not a lot of splish-splashers north of the pier, either

   From the pier a wide ribbon of concrete skirts the beach north of the pier and extends for a little more than a mile. It was built in the late 1920's and expanded and improved upon many times since. Yeah, it's called a boardwalk even though it's concrete, just like the boardwalk between PB and MB in SD.


   The boardwalk features a bandshell that was built in the 1930's. It's a fairly unique structure as it features coquina facing. Coquina is a sedimentary rock made almost entirely out of pieces of shells that have been fused together, so it lends itself well to decoration of structures built near the sea.

   From May to September the bandshell features free concerts, which has to be a lot of fun. Might have to come back in a few months just to check that out.

   The boardwalk is lined with souvenir shops, small cafes, restaurants, arcades, and amusement parks - none of which I ventured toward as I figured it was time for me to start heading back.

                               Tide was coming in and I had to start walking the 3.5 miles back to the hotel

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. Things 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-tow 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.