Now that we’ve all recovered from a long trip and the effects of the tremendous feast on Thanksgiving, it’s time to head out and brave the shopping crowds on the day after Thanksgiving. The busiest shopping day of the year. There is only one phrase that adequately describes this situation…oy gevalt (Yiddish for may a great power intervene on my behalf).
Anywho, before the day was out, we’d see headlines about a shopper getting trampled in an Orange City Wal-Mart in a frenzied rush to buy a $29 DVD player. Let’s face it…the DVD player just isn’t worth that much but when you’ve got the herd mentality thing going, it’s rather hard to stop it! (Editor’s note: this shopper has had numerous injury claims against Wal-Mart which she used to work at in the late 1990’s so whilst we don’t condone trampling shoppers in search of magnificent bargains, this particular shopper seems a bit too unlucky for it to be mere coincidence!)
Fortunately, the local Wally World had tons of shoppers but nothing approaching the running of the bulls in Orange City. Our first stop would see us getting some family pictures at their photo centre. I use that word advisedly because in point of fact, our storage bin at our offsite storage is larger than the area these poor ladies have to work with. They certainly deserve combat pay for the larger parties that come in for pictures as it can get to be like the black hole of Calcutta back there in the studio area. (We found out there was a party of fourteen due later that evening…we were falling all over ourselves with four and a baby! Oy!)
After pictures, it was time to head out to a local institution for lunch… Aunt Catfish’s on the River. The next time you stop by Port Orange, you owe yourself a trip to this joint right on the Halifax River near the Port Orange Causeway. The views are spectacular and the food even more so. They don’t serve you those wimpy portions…oh, no! Grandma Carol was kind enough to join us and a good time was had by all. And so were a few takeaway containers as well as Gramps had done his usual I’m feeding the multitudes thing for breakfast just a couple of hours prior. Nicholas took a particular liking to the mashed potatoes they served which were far and away better than the Gerber version (the only food we’ve tried him on that he genuinely hated!).
After lunch, we wandered about in Moby Dodge to see some of the sights on the peninsula. First stop was Causeway Park right under the huge bridge that replaced the original Port Orange Causeway (the kind with a drawbridge that would back up traffic mightily when a ship was going through!). The new Causeway is a high-rise bridge that could probably handle a big cruise ship (if it wasn’t for the fact that the Halifax River is pretty much for shallow-draft vessels only except near Ponce Inlet). What’s really nifty about Causeway Park is the salt marsh rabbits that live there. These little guys drink the brackish water from the river and sneeze out salt crystals and you can generally see them at dusk. Unfortunately, no such luck in the early afternoon.
Another cool hangout is Haulover Canal which is on the northern end of the Canaveral National Seashore. This is normally where we take people to see manatees but late fall and winter are not good viewing times as the manatees have moved on for warmer water. There’s good eating not too far from here at the famous Dixie Crossroads in Titusville. Next time we head down there, it may well be time for a Dixie Crossroads fix but for now, we were still pretty stuffed!
After our time at Causeway Park, we headed over the bridge and drove a bit on the beach. Unlike beaches in North Carolina, the Volusia County beaches are hard-packed sand and driving on them is possible. There’s usually fights every few years about allowing driving on the beach but so far, it’s still allowed (you might want a local to take you down there, though…there are fees to drive the beach though you can avoid those if you don’t mind a bit of a walk from the public parking). Then it was back to Aunt Catfish’s to retrieve Grandma Carol’s car and head (eventually) to the house for some Mexican Train dominoes. Before we got there, there was time for a quick trip into the local Target where Gramps also gets magnificent deals (Editor’s note: why doesn’t *OUR* Target and Wally World ever discount as much as his does?!? Grrrrrrr….)
