...a small gift, but well timed.: Florida: Daytona Beach, Christmas, Speedway, Lighthouse, New Smyrna Beach (published by: roxx)

Ahh... we made it! Daytona Beach, Florida! And, more importantly, Elizabeth and her family made it! Whew! Click here to read about Elizabeth and her adventures in joining us in Florida. Click here to read the origin of the trip.

Christmas Eve at Port Orange

Presbyterian Church in Daytona

After our Christmas Eve service above, we swung into this “drive in” church across from our timeshare exchange condo. In Elizabeth's words we, "...drove in, stayed in our cars, tuned into 88.5 on our car radio and listened to an interesting sermon. Oh yes, everyone clapped for the musicians by honking their horns. It was absolutely crazy (we actually drove in to see the drive thru living nativity then got stuck at the service and couldn’t leave)." What a hoot!

Christmas Morning Name Draw Gift Exchange

Using Elizabeth's explaination from from her Florida in Review for Christmas Day: "Woke up to rain and cold (yes, in Florida). We had a special time opening gifts, a yummy breakfast which included pancakes from the IHOP across the street and headed out to get our picture taken by the Daytona 500 raceway - we had to do something to get out of our cramped space. We are, by the way, NOT NASCAR fans, so it was a riot to be in this community that is sooooo enthralled with racing." Fun!

December 26: Using Elizabeth's words, "...we drove up to a beautiful lighthouse (the tallest in Florida) and went to the museum. You can check out their website at: http://www.ponceinlet.org/ We enjoyed climbing the 203 steps to the top and wandering through the many buildings learning all about the history of the sight. Then, we loaded everyone back into the cars and headed to New Smyrna Beach, where our friend Rhonda’s parents live. They graciously took us out on a boat to tour around some of the inter-coastal waterways where we had dolphins swimming along beside us. We went to a little island where the kids played on the beach, swam, collected shells and pretended to be on treasure island." A Great Day!