Daytona Beach

We arrived in Florida in December 2018, and began our winter stay in the state with a month long visit to Daytona Beach, located along Florida’s Atlantic coast. Daytona Beach is 51 miles northeast of Orlando, 86 miles southeast of Jacksonville, and 242 miles northwest of Miami. It is a medium size city with a population of around 61,000, and is known for the Daytona International Speedway which hosts the Daytona 500 NASCAR race each February.

The mild temperatures allowed us to be outdoors a lot, and we were able to get a good feel for the area on our bikes, by taking walks, playing a round of golf, a visit to a State Park, a beach, a wildlife refuge, and a lighthouse. Everywhere in Florida, there are birds – spectacular birds! Pink birds, white birds, prehistoric looking birds, eagles, little birds, water birds, big birds, song birds.

Ponce Inlet is a town located on the southern tip of a beach peninsula, south of Daytona Beach. Here we enjoyed a lighthouse, marinas, beaches, a pier…and birds.

Tomoka Park is a 2,000-acre Florida State Park located along the Tomoka River, where Native Americans once lived. We enjoyed the nature trail, the history…and the birds.

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge spans 140,000 acres with over 1000 species of plants, 117 species of fish, 68 amphibians and reptiles, 31 mammal species, and…330 different birds.

Here are some pictures taken over our month in Daytona Beach. 

Cape Lookout National Seashore

While in Newport, we spent a day at the Cape Lookout National Seashore, a 56-mile long section of the Southern Outer Banks, or Crystal Coast, of North Carolina. Three undeveloped barrier islands make up the seashore – North and South Core Banks and Shackleford Banks. The seashore includes two historic villages on Core Banks, Shackleford’s wild horses, and the Cape Lookout Lighthouse.

Our journey started with a 35-mile drive from Newport to the Harkers Island Visitors Center, followed by a 15-minute ferry boat ride to Shackleford Banks, followed by another short ferry hop to Cape Lookout, before returning to the visitors Center. We didn’t have much time to explore the visitors center before our ferry ride, but we did take a few minutes to look at the displays and posted information about the area.

Our first ferry stop was Shackleford Banks, a barrier island that contains a herd of over 100 feral horse, scallops, crabs, and loggerhead turtles who nest there in the summer. The National Park Service closely monitors and studies the wild horses, who provide a glimpse into how horses lived in the wild before their domestication. It is still a mystery as to how the horses arrived; legend has it that these horses are descendants of Spanish Mustangs that survived a shipwreck. They have resided on this island for centuries, and have adapted to the harsh environment. They will swim between marsh islands to obtain access to the various grasses they graze on. We really enjoyed seeing the horses, who did not seem to be very concerned about us at all.

After about an hour on Shackleford, the ferry picked us up and took us to the Southern Outer Banks, home to the Cape Lookout lighthouse. The lighthouse is 163-foot high and flashes every 15 seconds and is visible at least 12-19 miles out to sea. Cape Lookout Light is one of the very few lighthouses that operate during the day. It became fully automated in 1950, and is the only such structure in the United States to bear the checkered daymark, intended to differentiate between similar light towers and to show direction. The center of the black diamonds points in a north-south direction, while the center of the white diamonds points east-west.

Notice my accidental complementary wardrobe selection for our trip to the lighthouse…I’m not sure if the direction of the stripes on my shirt signified anything or not.