Yep, you know what’s coming here! A bit of time on the beach for all of us in the afternoon. The following tips are how to tell tourists from locals in the greater Daytona Beach area:
- Locals living in Port Orange don’t frequent the beaches too far north of the Pirate’s Cove which is where FL-421 and A1A intersect just over the causeway. The closer to the boardwalk and The Bandshell you are, the more likely you are to be a tourist! 🙂
- Locals don’t look like lobsters. The reason locals don’t look like lobsters is that they understand three things: high-SPF sunscreen, going to the beach in the afternoon before the daily thundestorm and out of it’s path, and parking in the shade of the hotels/condos when they’re on the beach!
- Locals know what the big whistle and flag-waving routine means when given by the lifeguards. (It’s Miller Time!)
- Locals know what the big air horn, arm waving, and flag-waving routine means when given by the lifeguards. (It’s either a dorsal fin that has been sighted that doesn’t obviously belong to a porpoise/dolphin (GET YO BUNS OUT OF THE WATER, DOOFUS!) or someone’s in a bit of distress).
So we found a nice tide pool in the shade of one of the hotels not too far from the Pirate’s Cove this afternoon and watched a pretty impressive thunderstorm get ripped to shreds and directed north of the Port Orange Causeway. We were even there in time to see the lifeguards go off duty.
This was a good tune-up for little one for when we go to the beach at Ocean Isle next month (hey, we might well be homeless but we’ve certainly got our priorities straight!). He did awfully well and only tried to taste the sand twice. He even managed to fight off a wave that about knocked him over and didn’t freak out…he went right back to grasping the mucky sand to test it’s texture. He definitely was a ball of energy out there as Mommy and Daddy both spent lots of time chasing him. That seems to have become a persistent theme lately as he’s gotten more mobile.
