On Sunday, February 1, we joined the crowd at Blue Grotto for the Super Bowl Party -- large screen TVs, specially priced appetizers and drinks.  It was great fun as we knew some people there and enjoyed wandering between groups.

On Monday, February 9, Su's sister, Jane, drove up from West Palm Beach to spend several days.  We toured the Southeast Museum of Photograph at Daytona State College, had lunch at Blue Grotto with Jim, toured Angell & Phelps Chocolate Factory which makes incredible and unique items and was really crowded, and then toured The Halifax Historical Museum.  It is located in a 1910 bank building and provided the interesting background of the area dating back to 1605!  We learned that Daytona is the "Home of Racing" as the Beach/Road Course was created in 1936 for automobile stock car and motorcycle races.

On Wednesday, February 11, Jane and Su drove up A1A and were amazed at all the car entrances to the beach; however, it was high tide and very windy so cars were not allowed on the beach then. There is a $10 fee to drive on the beach.   At Ormond Beach, we stopped to tour the Ormond Memorial Art Museum and Gardens.  The exhibit was not quite ready although they didn't object to our looking at watercolors by Fred Messersmith and sculptors by his son, Harry.  As we walked through the garden, we could hear some gurgling and came upon this....

Our next stop was down the street at the Ormond Beach Historical Society where we learned that this city is called the "Home of Speed".  The race cars were brought from the north and Europe, then driven on the beach as fast as they could go to set speed records.  Flagler took over the Ormond Hotel so many of his wealthy buddies came to winter including his partner in Standard Oil, Rockefeller, who later built his own home across the street.  The story is that Rockefeller found out he was paying a higher rate than anyone else in the hotel, so he moved out!  We had lunch at La's Bistro on the land side of Ormond and drove back to Daytona Beach along the Intracoastal Waterway. 

After a slight break, we drove across the Silver Beach Bridge to the beachside to tour Lilian Place.  Interestingly, boaters call this bridge Memorial on VHF 16 to have it opened for passage.  This lovely Victorian home was built in 1884 by one of the city's first settlers -- Laurence and Mary Eliza Thompson who came from Cincinnati.  He owned a dry goods store on the land side; however, they built on the beach side and there wasn't a bridge back then.

On Thursday, February 12, Jane drove home, and JoJo stopped on her drive from New Smyrna back to Brunswick.  Su and JoJo had lunch at Caribbean Jack's which is located in a marina about 1 mile north of Halifax Harbor.  We did continue to experience cold weather -- Wednesday, February 18, it was 34 at 9 am, felt like 25 with WNW wind at 19 with gusts to 35!!! On Thursday, February 19, our friends, Brenda and Geoff, arrived from Ohio, and they thought the weather was wonderful and warm.  On Wednesday, February 25, we left for the condo to beat a snowstorm forecast for Thursday; however, we got less than 2 inches.  When we return to the boat in mid March, we hope the temps will be so warm.....