Moontide Condo - New Smyrna Beach

Day 24-25 –  October 24-25 – Deland to New Smyrna Beach

Weather – Sunny – very warm, 28c

Picking up the car, new condo by the beach, lots of swimming, Hanging out with Rusty, Chi and Wiley.

Finally settled in to the Condo, which will be our base of operations for the next 3 weeks. We’re staying by, actually I should say, on, the beach. 

We’re on the 5^th floor of the Moontide condo which, when the tide is high, looks like you are in a cruise ship. The view is straight out into the ocean, and that’s all you can see. I feel like the place should be moving like a ship sometimes. The condo is located across the road from Rusty and Chi, so we can walk across to each other’s place within 2 mins.

It’s great to spend time with them again, and I know Lucy is loving spending time with Wiley who is 3 and a half – once again taking on role of older cousin very seriously. We have the beach right in front of us, however, with the recent hurricane, a lot of the sand was eroded and so at high tide there is no beach, the ocean is crashing against the sea wall most of the time, so you would need to jump in right from the bottom of the stairs that used to go to quite an expansive beach.

However, at low tide there is still quite a lot of beach, apparently it will take at least a year for the beach to renew itself. They used to allow you to drive up and down the beach not far from where we are located. In fact, you can see the signs that used to indicated the end of the area you could drive on. As you can see no one will be driving on any part of the beach anytime soon. Regardless of that, it’s an amazing spot, we have a pool on the top of the building, which is quite big and has an amazing view. We’ve swum up there a few times, although from about 3pm, the pool is in shade from the building behind, and Rusty and Chi thought it was too cold with the wind. I on the other hand really appreciate the shade and plan to go for swims up there almost exclusively from 3pm onwards – more than happy to be out of the direct sun! We still pinch ourselves each time we walk in and see the view – so lucky to be here. It’s funny, we’ve just toured around Europe and done all the touristy things, and then we come back to Florida which seems so familiar and not really like a “holiday” and then we end up here, and it’s like we’re on a cruise. I was talking to Rusty about living in areas that other people come to for holidays – I mean growing up in Mornington for example. And you tend to take it all for granted, and then you have these moments where you think – damn, people holiday here! Obviously, it’s very different when you are just living and working/studying and not on vacation. Of course, I don’t have that problem as I am on vacation.

Katie on the other hand is working from home – her hours are 2pm to 10pm, so it’s a weird routine at the moment. It’s like the day is flipped for her, so she relaxes before work, not after! We have been having quite a few swims in both pools – Rusty and Chi’s across the road, and our pool which is a few steps from our front door. Then there’s the beach, which Lucy wants to go to all the time – Yesterday went as follows, wake up, walk and play in the water at the beach, breakfast, then swim in our pool, Lunch, then swim at the beach, afternoon snack, then swim at our pool, snack, then swim at the beach, then swim at Rusty and Chi’s, then dinner. I think she likes being in the water, but I’m not totally sure… So far today we’ve only had one swim in our pool, but we got up late, I think we might have over done it yesterday. We’re about to go to the beach, followed by a rinse in our pool – so there’s time yet for more swims. I have a feeling there will be a 4 swim per day minimum!

I should also mention that we’ve hired a car for 9 days through an app could Turo – Kathy had found it, and it’s like Airbnb for cars. I got the worlds smallest, most gutless car going around – it’s a 1.2lt 56kW, tiny car – Mitsubishi mirage G4 2022. It looked bigger on the photos – but regardless, it was about $350 cheaper for 9 days with Turo, than a similar sized hire car through one of the cheaper hire-car companies. So far so good. Does the job, just using it to get around town and probably into Deland which is a 52mile (82km) Round trip. I don’t think I’ll be troubling the 1600 mile limit for driving, but it’s been nice to be able to nick down the street. We struggled up a hill when we had all our suitcases and the three of us in the car – but we still made it. I’ve grown to like the car – when it’s selling points are it’s “competitive turning radius” and “class leading MPG” – you know you are on a winner.