It's Monday afternoon and Melissa and I just returned to Gainesville from a two-night stay at Daytona Beach. It was a good time for us, but I was more than a little dismayed by the deterioration of the beach. There was almost no sand, and the level of the beach was around two feet lower, causing the ocean to come crashing against the walls for most of the tidal cycle. The stairway access from our hotel to the beach was blocked since the stairs themselves were damaged from the tidal onslaught...we had to walk a distance down the street to find the next nearest beach access. Apparently, this all came to pass a couple of years ago when a hurricane washed away the beach sand...now the ground there is hard and rarely dry. We still enjoyed our stay, but I also noted that it seemed that virtually every hotel or condo on the ocean side of A1A had some extent of construction work going on the property, often with piles of building and electrical material just sitting out in the open...very ugly looking. It was a little depressing seeing how this once thriving tourist community, once known for its beach that cars could drive down, had come so far down in such a short time. One of the hotels we would often stay at in Ormond Beach seemed to be permanently shut down. Looks as if we're going to be exploring a new place to stay on our next visit. Hopefully the politicians will see the value of sand restoration and fund building the beach back up again. As of now, you have to wait until low tide to walk down the beach and even then it's ugly, with rocks and debris strewn over its surface...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Every year when I"m in the States Laurie, David and I go and spend 2 nights at Cocoa Beach. We used to stay at the La Quinta right there by the pier, but it's become very unreliable and have the audacity to now charge $10 per day to park your car. Last year we went to The Inn at Cocoa Beach and it's a really wonderfully different place to stay (and it's right on the beach). The part where we stay is only 2 stories high (and you can only see the ocean from the 2nd floor because of the shrubbery). They have a nice, heated pool, a free wind and cheese Happy Hour every afternoon at 5:00, an honor bar where you just help yourself to whatever it is you're after (wine, beer, spirits, soft drinks, bottled water) and then just write your name and room number on a piece of paper and either drop it in a box or hand it to the person at the front desk. It's a great place to watch a launch from and if you're upstairs you will even feel the building shake when the rocket launches. The place is set up to look like some very rich person's own home (the honor bar looks like a private library) and it has lots of little nooks and crannies where you can sit and read a book or have a quiet conversation. We went there again this year and we will be going back there next year. And, at any time of the tide you can walk the beach for a very long ways. Give it a look online. (plus I think Cocoa Beach is much more appealing these days than Daytona).
ReplyDelete