Wednesday December 5: Happy Birthday in New Smyrna Beach

The highlight of the day (well, so far at least) was in New Smyrna. It is Steve's birthday and his choice for lunch out was Thai - a great lunch in downtown New Smyrna.

As we were ordering, Joy asked if the restaurant did anything (like singing) for birthdays. Our waitress indicated her voice was not such that we wanted her to sing - sorry.

To our surprise, at the end of our meal, out came a plate of fried bananas with honey along with strawberry and vanilla ice cream - enough for all of us. How nice was that?!

Yesterday we traveled from Marineland Marina to Daytona Beach (about 40 miles fighting the current the whole way :-(  ) but the waterway was one of the nicest parts of Florida we go through. Large parts of the shoreline are either nature preserves or state parks. I really had no idea the northern part of Florida could be so undeveloped!

Sunny with a warm breeze. I even put on sunscreen for the first time in a long time.

The mega mansions began to appear as we closed in on Daytona and Daytona Beach. Still is amazing how many of these huge homes dot the waterways along this stretch of the ICW.

High Spirits was already at the marina having traveled there the day before to meet up with a friend.

Cards again last night: the women stomped the men - it's about time .....

The setting sun continues to come earlier and earlier each day. It makes for shorter travel days but we are not in any kind of a hurry now that we are south enough to be enjoying warm enough weather.

The heater hasn't run in several days now :-)

It was only 2 hours to New Smyrna today, so after breakfast this morning we rode over to the beach - just a few blocks east of the marina.

I found the sign directing car traffic on the beach to be interesting! Seems driving on the beach is a northern Florida thing as I don't think I ever saw this in southern Florida. Wonder how many cars a week are towed from the beach after the tide comes in more quickly than expected!

Of course it wouldn't be a ride around if there wasn't a Publix involved. Steve needed a few things for his birthday cake. He settled on carrot cake. We'll see how it turns out given that he is using whole wheat flour in the cake and no eggs.

Sadly, he is making his own birthday cake .... but at least he doesn't have to clean up!

Joe and Joy will join us - perhaps I should warn them ......

A very merry Christmassy mailbox decoration along our ride this morning.

Many boats in the marina here are all decked out with lights and Christmas decorations. This past Saturday was the lighted boat parade here - based on the number of boats in just this marina with lights it must have been a nice parade.

Tomorrow we head for Titusville - around 5 hours travel time. It's supposed to rain off and on throughout the day - we'll probably just anchor out.