Islander Beach Resort, New Smyrna Beach

     We checked into the Islander Beach Resort Christmas week with an exchange from RCI.  We had a 1 BD/2BA unit since, of course, it is a motel remodel – and they have done a GREAT job and have continued to maintain the property well.  We thought we would have the small 1-bedroom unit, but then, the confirmation said 1 bd deluxe.  That does mean, however, that you are not ocean front (as we saw a regular 1 bd and it had an ocean front balcony.)  But instead, we had 2 bedrooms!  One was an extension off the living room with just a louvered door to close between the living room and bed area. We did have an ocean view room off that room but no balcony to enjoy it. 

View from the side of the building

 So very enjoyable was the beautiful furniture with even a decorated bedroom chest and there were beautifully framed large leaves under glass.  There were several chests of drawers, unusual in a timeshare. The living room had a couch, easy chair, coffee table and several handy tables, one set nested.  The glass dining table had beautiful wicker-backed chairs.  There were also easy chairs with ottomans in the bedrooms. The wifi was fast (and as previously noted, the elevators were slow.)

 Like most legacy resorts, there was no push to attend a [high-pressure] sales presentation and the staff were wonderful and got along together wonderfully.  There was a informational meeting Sunday morning with treats which described all the activities on-site.  There are pool games every morning, aqua aerobics 5 morning, daily sundaes or floats ($3, Sunday-Tuesday-Thursday grilled hot dogs ($2)or hamburgers ($4), and other activities including crafts,  bingo, ping pong, shuffleboard, Wii Bowling and  billiards.  The BEST act is the Comedy Magic Show ($8) Tuesday night with Todd Bogue.  We laughed the entire time.

     

A real bonus for Christmas week was Santa Claus in the lobby!!

     

Rocket Launch!

Spacex Launch tonight at Cape Canaveral, and we can see it from the fifth floor here at the timeshare in Cocoa Beach.

    We got there just in time and it rose right away.  So great to see.  (We were watching local FOX TV and they said, “just a few minutes” – we didn’t even wait for the elevator – we walked up the steps – good thing, it went off right away!  So exciting.

First there 's a glow

  Our camera makes just a bright light but it was a cylinder going up in to the clouds and then appearing as the clouds broke.   So beautiful.

    Returned to the unit then and saw the rest then on LIVE youtube!  Very exciting!

Then it slowly rises

you don't see it behind the clouds and then again as they break

Way up high now

On youtube - live!

The boosters drop off and land perfectly on ships in the Atlantic

Las Olas in Cocoa Beach

A sister resort to where we were last December at Las Olas in Satellite Beach, this Gold Crown resort is only a 1 in 4 exchange with RCI.  Different than the Satellite Beach property, one building here is pool view only while the owners get the oceanfront units.  As we exchanged for the week into a 2 bedroom with RCI, we were on the pool view side, which was still nice since then Joan could see when to swim her laps.

The large kitchen (lots of counter space) has everything to cook with and there is an additional table with two chairs along the area between the second bedroom and bath toward the dining – a large marble-topped table with six chairs, area – and large living room with a very good sized corner couch. The mater bedroom is again LARGE, with a king-sized bed, and huge walk-in closet.  The attached bath has two sinks and a shower.

There is a small den upon entry where two comfortable chairs are set up and a TV, perfect for watching and relaxing.  

The good-sized balcony had a lounge and nice table with 4 chairs.  

The pool temperature was perfect and the hot tub was HOT!

    There are grab bars in the bathroom which are so handy and the very comfortable pool lounge chair pads, so seldom seen elsewhere.There are many interesting activities planned, one of the best being the potluck Thursday night, but there are painting classes, surfing lessons, a sand castle contest and others.  Altogether, it is a wonderful vacation week on the beach!

Lunch in Cocoa, FL

We selected the Lone Cabbage Fish Camp based on Tripadvisor reviews, since we like being on the water, and we like eclectic places, all of which this was!   In addition, the food was great – simple yes, but the fish, a large piece and Joan had the whitefish blackened and Ron had it grilled.. was GREAT and with such quick and great service!  It was a relaxing time and we enjoyed seeing the airboats take off right in front of us (although we have no interest in going!)

View from our table

River Breeze Park, Oak Hill, FL…Who Knew?

 A great park.. so relaxing...From Daytona to Cocoa Beach on US 1    

Sooooo relaxing!  We wanted a stop while on US 1 and found this listed in Tripadvisor. As soon as we drove in, we relaxed, seeing the park of beautiful oak trees. We walked around for about an hour enjoying the paved paths and forest paths, and through the campground area which is huge (and for special camping groups only.)  Look at the “archways” and tall tree photo!

  

As we drove in, we saw these trees...and relaxed!

The dock was big - the water was shallow

This flock of egrets walked all around us...or did we walk all around them?

 

We found wide forest paths in the campground area

a necklace of Spanish moss

A beautiful natural arch

So much Spanish moss!

Look how tall the trees are!

Happy Birthday, Frank!

    Driving from St Augustine to Daytona Beach today, Frank was singing all the songs on Siriusly Sinatra, like on the first Friday of every month, when they play him for 24 hours (we once were driving 6 hours and never heard the same song twice.)  Then they said, Happy Birthday, Frank! 

We got a special for 6 months from Sirius and put it on the east coast vehicle in August since we would be returning to Seattle in November and then coming back to FL in December.  We decided not to switch it to the West Coast car to save the transfer fee and when it ends in February, we’ll be returning to Seattle and then get another new 6-month subscription then.

Wyndham Ocean Walk Has New Keys

Of course, it’s a gorgeous ocean front timeshare property.  But… now they have the strangest small keys, which they think are so clever since they fit onto the pool wrist bands.  As you know, once that wrist band is on, you’ll never get it off.  But otherwise, you may well lose that tiny key.  Another key is needed to get in and out of the property and pool/beach gates, WHY?  Of course, it’s like the old keys were and the gates are probably still technologically keyed to that type of key. 

     So be sure to keep BOTH keys handy!

The hardest thing for us though, was the desk to get the pool wrist bands, which is no longer the “parking pass” desk: that we got from the front desk.  Yay! We thought.  But NO.  “Just a few minutes over there,” she said, when we asked if we could do it tomorrow morning, since we’d been up since 4 a.m. and it was now 9 p.m., “to get your pool wrist bands.” 

     There we got such a PITCH!!!  To go to the “short-short-short”meeting to upgrade our account ... ….OR ELSE .. we would never ever get to do it again for free and we would lose all these new benefits.  It would cost many $1,000’s later to get them.  We said, No.  They said there will be lots of changes in the new year and these would NOT change, as they had in the last few years... so many changes then but NO MORE!  [uhhhhh, you think so?!] These will be non-changing changes and benefits coming up .. We said, No.  .. Sign up now for ALL these NEW benefits ... OR ELSE!  We said, No. 

     So hard to get away -- we only said NO and asked no questions – just a barrage ….. finally got to the room at 10:30 p.m.  Guess some think “a few minutes” is shorter than others do.

     And that was just to get us to sign up for an update!   Imagine if we went.

Oh well.

   Just a note:  the deck has not been cleaned ... what?   In a Wyndham?  We understand about salt water, but….

   Oh, have you noticed – no towels bars at all in the bathrooms.

From SEA to DAB

(I don't always describe how we fly from here to there, so this is what we did now.)

In November, we decided to drive all the way to St Augustine since Mary Jackson at the St Augustine timeshare said we could park the van there for 6 weeks. This will save us from parking it in Douglasville, GA, where we usually do, and then flying to ATL, staying a few days there to get it (and to “Recover”), etc and then driving to St Augustine.  Thus, we got an airline ticket from DAB-SEA, “nested within the August SEA-ATL ticket, when the return will be in February.

        Ron’s cousin Lee (lives in Palm Coast) picked us up at St Augustine November 2^nd when we parked the van, and took us to DAB.  His cousin Earl (lives in Tacoma) picked us up in SEA and then also took us to the SEA airport this morning at 6 am for the return trip to DAB. 

    We arrived in DAB at 8:40 pm and rented a car (for one day...$23!!! From Autoslash.com)  to get to our timeshare condo in Daytona of 3 days.   Otherwise, we’d have to get somehow from the airport to the timeshare (no hotel shuttles there!) and further, drive the next day to St Augustine and back.

    Tomorrow we’ll drive to St Augustine where our van is and be back to Daytona to return the rental.

    Then to a Cocoa Beach timeshare on Saturday.

December Music 2019

It’s always fun to go to Andy’s concerts and the Christmas one at Pacific Cascade Middle School was no exception.  The kids were quite excited wearing their Santa hats and the drummer had a full Santa beard too!  Lots of parents were there since the orchestra and choirs also performed.

And Andy's happy too!

Ron smiling at Joan while she takes pictures!

Then, since we will be missing the February 2020 concert of the Eastside Youth Concert Band, we went to the rehearsal the Tuesday before we left for Florida.  We really like rehearsals!  (Maybe better?) 

Here's us in the back of the band room (during the rehearsal).

         

Faith plays here too.

And we like watching the directors' faces rather than their backs, so all rehearsals are fun.  And in this case, of course, we like watching Andy.