This past week Melissa and I enjoyed one of our traditional destinations: Ormond Beach, Florida, which is a relatively close and inexpensive way to enjoy the beach for people like us who are Florida "inlanders". The weather was sometimes rainy and stormy (but without lightning), the skies sometimes clear and cloudy...a good mix with temperatures on the warm (but not sizzling) side. We enjoyed our hotel's balcony and pool and went on frequent long walks on the beach. The Orionid meteor shower was peaking earlier in the week and I was able to spot a couple of meteors a few minutes past midnight early Wednesday from the hotel balcony. As we were leaving Walgreens Thursday afternoon I noticed that the local newspaper's front page warned that those pesky truckers were planning to swamp Daytona Beach (right next to Ormond) this weekend...but apparently it fizzled out: good, I had enough of them on Labor Day! Our Saturday visit to Tomoka State Park (the last two photos) was our first ever. It is north of Ormond Beach, on the mainland side of the Intracoastal Waterway. They have boating, fishing, hiking, picnicking...it's also the site of an old Indian village. On the beach during our stay I observed several species of sea birds...other than the pelicans they tended to flock together on the shore. I'd like to learn each of their names...there were also a lot of grackles and pigeons there. Wednesday morning Melissa and I went on a long beach walk just at the peak of the King Tide, which has caused elevated high tides up and down the Florida coast...Hurricane Epsilon in the deep Atlantic may have been a contributing factor as we slogged through the sandy mud and waves along the nearly nonexistent beach: that was a unique experience! Mostly though, we took it easy and enjoyed the ambiance...still, I am very happy to be back home now...
