Even growing up next to the water, and working on the water, I’ve never been to a beach quite like Daytona. The hurricanes in the area, combined with the fact that the beach is open for recreational driving, have made the sand exceptionally hard packed (it would be fantastic for sandcastles!) so you barely even leave footprints, but you can still definitely feel that it is sand under your feet.
Because the sand is so smooth and flattened out, there is nothing to impede the waves, and the breakers roll in from the Atlantic like something out of a movie. In all my time around the water, I’ve never seen waves quite like that, just falling in on top of one another. The day before yesterday we drove out along the coast for lunch and saw a lot of people trying to master those waves on a surfboard, some succeeding better than others. Surfing is something I’d be interested to learn someday, but not here, not where the Atlantic has decided to be cold enough that you require a wetsuit to take to the waves.
The water is warm enough for wading though (I’m still Canadian enough to think that if it doesn’t make your ankles hurt when you step in the water, then it isn’t considered cold), so I was at least able to get my feet wet. Salt water, as always, seems to fix everything.
You can tell though, that the shoreline has been battered by the most recent hurricane. Amras and I were thankfully on the ship when Irma hit Florida, but the scars she left are visible. The shoreline is basically putting itself back together in hopes that things will be all fully repaired in time for the summer season, right now there are a lot of flaking paint jobs and scaffoldings amongst the scurrying seabirds (“I am a wind-up toy! Look at me go!!”) …
But it is peaceful and relaxed, and has a kind vibe to it that I honestly didn’t expect.
I surprise myself by finding that I like it here…