Our typical guest is a retired couple who is trying to escape from the Northeast or Canada. We typically get monthly reservations for January.
One of the most frequently asked questions this time of year is from guests who are trying to escape the snow, ice and cold asking “What is the weather like in Daytona Beach in Jauary? ”

My source for the pictures is www.weather.com, entering Daytona Beach’s zip code of “32118″ will get you weather for today – this weekend – this week – a 5 day forecast or a 10 day forecast.
I typically begin looking at the weather reports about 2 weeks prior to a trip – and I pray for the sunshine…

Daytona Beach January Weather

January is typically a drier time of year – as you can see by the annual average rainfall chart.

Daytona Beach – This is the average Daily Temperature by month… January is the month with the coolest daily temperature – but a look out my window here in Chicago at a 28 degree day – 67-70 appears balmy from here.

I LOVE January in Daytona Beach – you have a slower, quieter town, with beach traffic at a minimum. The sky is as blue as you will ever see it – and you can tell who the Floridians are – they are typically walking around bundled into a sweater…

2012 Audiobook List

1-1-13 Casual Vacancy — JK Rowling
1-7-13 The Kingmakers Daughter – Phillipa Gregory
1-14-13 The Bone Bed – Patricia Cornwell
1-20-13 Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn

On my 2013 to read list
The Twilight Series
All John Grisham Novels
Stephen King 1964
Ernest Hemingway
James Joyce
Margaret Mitchell – Gone with the Wind

Ocean Walk Resort – 2nd Pool

Ocean Walk Resort Pools

We will invert the picture and this would be the view of the pools looking out from your balcony at the resort – with kiddie pool to far left (north) and pool with slide to far right (south).

Starting with Photo Below ::
I have included a set of 7 pictures that were taken from the north side of the north tower – on the 25th floor, this will give you a keen view from above….the 1st picture …on the left is of the farthest north pool, which is the kiddie pool area….a hint of the north hot tub on top and to the right, the pool, this is the only plain ole’ pool outside, all others have a “feature”.
I apologize in advance because the terra cotta colored pavers used make it appear as a crime scene photo when they are wet.. so the loungers appear to be like Chicklets…. so please be patient with this , I am not a professional photographer !!

Below ::
This is the 2nd pool (from the north) it is just a large heated pool, in the top left, you can see the north hot tub in this picture. If you look to the top right you can see the building that has the turtles on the roof… that is the “Turtle’s Nest” or the poolside bar…. which sells food at times too. Also – to the top right you can see the “Sun”… this is actually a pattern of the pavers in this area – they have extended the “Board Walk” and now you can walk from the Main Street Pier on the Board Walk to Ocean Walk which is the final Board Walk Location.
This

Ocean Walk Resort – Oceanfront Pools

Below::
Picture of the Turtle’s Nest – the boardwalk and just the edge of the Lazy River. You can also see the main entrance to the resort pool area – you do need a card key to access….and you walk out to the “Happy Board Walk Sun” then the step to the beach….as you can see there are a few benches and a fence so someone older -with a walker can easily access this area from Ocean Walk Shoppes.

 

 

Ocean Walk Turtle Nest – On the Boardwalk at Ocean Walk Resort

Below::
Bottom Left – has edge of Turtle’s Nest, The Lazy River, with a view of what is called “Mini Golf” it is actually just a small area with a putting green and 3 holes so you can practice putting… but I guess for a smaller child, a putting green in this area is exciting….
We also have the lazy river, and top – the 4th pool, which has the slide….

Ocean Walk Resort Lazy River

Below::
Another Lazy River shot – this also shows the small walk-over bridge between the 2 pools, this is also the access point to the small putting green, the pool side of the wall has a decorative tile pattern with a fountain type spray happening…

Lazy River- Ocean Walk Resort

Below::
You can see part of the Lazy River, the pool with the slide – slide is on right side and is red – blue and yellow… also at very top of picture is the Daytona Beach Band Shell. There are events and bands here – Ocean Walk Shoppes is right here… and to the top left – you can see the beach and ocean… so this is how close we are….
These pictures were taken at about 11AM… in October so keep in mind that the shade effectrs of a 19 & 25 story build begin to affect pool area at about 1PM.

Ocean Walk Resort – Oceanfront Pool

Below::
The 4th pool (farthest right on picture) with slide – also hot tub left side about midway…. the building that you climb to access slide is also the restroom facilities.

The last thing to consider is that the kiddie area and the lazy river are not heated… NOT HEATED… the pools are heated….so you may want to consider this during cooler months of the year….

Ocean Walk Resort Pool with Slide

My friend Lisa is renting her condo – it is on the 3rd floor facing the pool and ocean.

I am posting some pictures of her condo -  if you have any interest please give me a call and I will pass her phone number on to you.

3rd floor oceanfront studio at Hawaiian Inn Resort

She has a king bed, sofa sleeper,  table and chairs.

Galley kitchen – oceanfront balcony.

Oceanfront with view of pool.

Great sunrise view from the room.

This is a fairly large studio with a galley kitchen and king bed, table with chairs and sofa sleeper.  This condo sleeps 4.

Hawaiian Inn Resort has 208 condos in the resort, most being oceanfront. There are about 40% 1 bedrooms, 60% are studios.

The Hawaiian Inn is a horseshoe shaped resort – 5 stories high, with the “horseshoe” surrounding the oceanfront swimming pool and poolside patio. There are about 20 units x 5 stories surrounding the pool. These folks tend to keep a watch on the kids from the balcony or just enjoy the busy-ness of the pool deck while they enjoy the view from the balcony. Then there are the folks who want to be oceanfront and nowhere near the pool…

There are also the north and south ends, which directly face the ocean and the guests enjoy a bit more privacy on these balconies. The north end is 4 condos across X 5 stories high. These 20 condos face the ocean and are looking down on a grassy knoll area – perfect location for a blanket and picnic basket, the palm trees over the hammocks are just south of this area and are visible from these balconies. The south end has 10 condos per floor x 5 stories high. These balconies face the mini golf course.

There are also condos facing the parking lot that tend to be extramely reasonablly priced. You have all of the amenities to enjoy and just need to head out to the beach to enjoy the ocean.

2013 Weekly Rates for this condo ::

Hawaiian Inn Resort

Jan 03 – Feb 14th $ 400
Feb 14 – Feb 25th $ 900
Feb 25 – March 7th $ 400
Mar 7th – March 17th $ 900
March 16th – April 13th $ 620
April 13th – June 8th $ 500
June 8th – Aug 10th $ 620
** July 4th Week $ 800
Aug 10th – Oct 12th** $ 500
Oct 12-19th $ 600
Oct 20 – Dec 21st $ 400
Dec 21 – Dec 31st $ 600

We made a few updates this past year. 1309 got a few updates…….

Here is a look at 1309 before   and here is a look at 1309 after…

Same great Oceanfront view from the 13th floor in the south tower.

For some strange reason my pictures displayed the opposite of how I loaded them… so we will start from here… we did get a new shower curtain, it is bright and colorful and I am not entirely certain why I neglected to get a shot of it…

Same bedroom – no changes were made here. All still the same… king bed, dresser and TV, pretty much what you would expect.

We stocked the kitchen a bit better, updating pots, pans, small kitchen applicanes and making sure that aqll essentials are found in kitchen…. and a few little extras that will certainly come ion handy… like seasonings, coffee filters, plastic wrap and foil, sandwich bags, that sort of thing…. requesting that you replenish as needed …

The dining area is the same – not changes here….but wanted to add a few pictures so you get an idea of how the entire layout works.

Still the same….

We made the greatest amount of changes to the living room area… new sofa sleeper, chair and a few decorative pieces for the entertainment center.

New sofa -
Same great view from the balcony….

Same great spot to sit outsude and have coffee.

Same great spot to watch the sunrise….

Here is the original article on condo 909

The past few visits to Daytona have been full blown working vacations.

No time for fun, just cleaning and checking and stocking and shopping to bring some updates
to the newest 1 bedrooms that we are renting at Ocean Walk. We now have 1309 and 909. 909 is going to be updated with 2 full
beds in the bedroom, with a sleeper int he living room, it will be able to sleep 6 easily.

909 is in the south tower and is oceanfront with a great view of the pools and bandshell area.

Most recent upgrade includes a new leather sleeper sofa, color is navy blue.

Sleeper from this vantage – and we have the same open floorplan – living room – dining room kitchen occupies 1 large space.

Kitchen area is still the same, although we made several purchases to stock and update dishes, glassware, and cooking equipment.

New bath towels, sheets, kitchen towels too.

New comforters for the bedroom and new beds will be delivered after the Thanksgiving Holiday.

We had a guest who was counting on a king bed for Thanksgiving week… so new beds will be delivered after the holiday.

Same bedroom furniture for now – we will be splitting the headboards.

New shower curtains too… so you will find the bathroom a bit more “colorful”

New carpet coming after spring break 2013…..

I know, I know. I promised you several ghost stories. This one requires a longer treatment than I expected. I shan’t forget the others.

* * *

I have this story from none other than the great Basil Rathbone. (Sorry, youngsters. Google him or forget it.) I hope it doesn’t sound too strange to confess that, even as a kid, I had a sort of crush on Rathbone. I can’t detect any erotic element in it; I just wanted to look, talk and act like he did. I was in high school, and back then I knew him only as Sherlock Holmes, but that was plenty. I was sorry to learn that he disdained those 15 or so Holmes pictures as “my bread and butter films,” preferring to be remembered as Romeo, Karenin, et al. Where else would a kid my age meet Basil Rathbone but in Lincoln, Neb.?

He was there to narrate a huge concert-drama event at the University of Nebraska, and he’d agreed to meet informally with the drama students there. I played hooky and went, of course, thinking that surely Lincoln High School would understand. (It failed to.) The event took place in the small “experimental” theater. I bulldozed my way backstage, and there he stood — not on the screen but feet from me. I sidled up to where he was chatting before going on. There was the inimitable voice (no impressionist has ever done him), and the first words I heard him speak were, “Of course I only made the one picture with Greta.”

I can almost feel the chill now. I thought to myself, “Toto, we’re not in Nebraska anymore.” (But we were.) A moment later I caught, “So Norma Shearer walked by and I said, ‘Norma’….” I don’t think I knew the phrase name-dropping, a thing I did plenty of after meeting Basil. I would hardly have called this that anyway; these were the people he knew and worked with. It was his world. And Oh, God, how I wanted to be part of it.

I checked out how he used his hands, both when talking and hanging them at his sides, index fingers almost pointed, the rest curled. (The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art?) You don’t want to hear about my sessions at a full-length mirror, practicing these cherished physical niceties. I treasured every overheard utterance — as in, “I seem unable to conquer my fear of flying. I’m nervous as a kitten on an aeroplane.” Holmes, scared?, I mused.

(Is this getting to be too much for anybody? Just in case, let’s get to our promised subject, the story Rathbone told me some years later, when we were both in New York.)

Rathbone was entertaining a friend one night at his home in the Hollywood Hills. Both men were keenly interested in dogs and their breeding. His friend had brought with him two handsome specimens. As it got late, the two friends had a parting drink and called it a night. The friend and the canines got into the car and drove away. But, sadly, not very far.

As Rathbone turned to go back inside, he heard the screech of brakes and the sickening sounds of a ghastly car crash. His friend and the dogs were killed instantly. In deep shock, and with the thought, “He was just standing here,” pounding in his aching head, Rathbone heard the damned phone begin ringing. Mechanically he picked it up and heard the voice of the MGM studio’s night switchboard operator. “Sorry, Mr. Rathbone but I have a woman on the line who simply must talk to you. She says it’s desperately, desperately important.” Probably some smitten fan, he thought as the operator said, “Sir, I’ve never heard anyone be so urgent. She hopes you’ll know what a certain message means.”

Rathbone, impatient and in a daze, snapped, “For Christ’s sake, put her on and be done with it!”

The woman was calling from her home, located way to hell and gone on the far side of Los Angeles. She had a low and cultivated speaking voice and identified herself as a trance medium and clairvoyant. At that time the movie colony was going through one of its periodic infatuations with psychics, astrologers, table-tipping séances, Ouija boards and such. Rathbone scorned all such claptrap, but, he said, “the woman’s voice was so compelling.”

“I have for you, sir, what we term ‘a calling of urgency,’” she said. “It came to me with such impact that, although not knowing its meaning, I simply had to find you. The message is brief. Here it is in its entirety: ‘Traveling very fast. No time to say good-bye.’ And then, ‘There are no dogs here.’ ”

* * * *

The next time I saw Rathbone (F.Y.I., he lived at 135 Central Park West), more years had gone by, and he was in the act of receiving a summons for letting his dog Ginger off the leash in Central Park. I thought he might have decided, looking back, that it had all been some sort of bizarre coincidence, or maybe a highly original prank. He said, “At the time, of course, I was quite shaken by it.” And now? “I am still shaken by it.”

We will be in Daytona October 17-24th..2012

We love the bike events… !!

We get together and laugh with old friends.. like our buddy fireman Steve… we rented him a condo 1 year for Octoberfest and hung out and became fast friends… I can not imagine a Biketoberfest without him…he lives in Maryland – but we keep in touch

Biketoberfest means ” We Ride” !!

There are rides, poker runs, flea markets, swap meets, bands, bars, parties… There’s food, drinks, riding, more drinks…

Here’s Rick & Lisa !!

Meeting up with our Bro’s…..

Here is Gino, Rick and Commander Coty…

We get to hang with the guys from Florida… this is Jimmy from Ft Lauderdale Harley Davidson…

See ya There !!

Change is Good !!   I am really excited about some updates we did  on our 14th floor Oceanfront 2 Bedroom Lockout Condo at Wyndham’s Ocean Walk Resort. The 3 changes we made were based on guest comments thru the years and is geared towards making everyone feel a bit more comfortable.

Our condo was previously featured here

It was a favorite because the lockout is a larger unit and we had 2 full beds in each bedroom… and 2 living rooms – both had a sleeper sofa, so the typical guest would be the family that wanted to sleep more people…  or families traveling together, so doors could be shut and privacy could be had…

I heard these complaints over and over ::

#1. We would prefer a  King Bed. 

#2 We do not want to sleep on a sofa bed.

So in the interest of continuing to provide the best option for larger parties, and discontinuing use of the sofa beds…. we have made the following updates…

No updates on the breathtaking view – that is still the same.

 This is the old master bedroom – we had 2 full beds…

This is the updated master bedroom – we have added a king sized bed.

Same living room

 We added a few chairs to the dining room table – easily seats 6

 This is our old kitchen…I loved it, it looked crisp and clean….but on closer observation, the formica had a few stains and the dishwasher was the type that in built under the sink, so you only had about 40% of the top rack…

The new kitchen – we updated the counter tops to corian that matches the blue color that I loved so much…

Originally, I had chosen the same black //gold flecked granite that I have at home and had planned on stainless steel appliances, just like I have at home and had installed in 2002… yes, it is 10 years old…  as much as I like the look, it just did not seem right for Ocean Walk.  I had considered white granite or quartz – but no one has a white granite… or quartz…  this condo and Ocean Walk is more of a warm, bright, fun location….

I think the  granite – stainless steel look is a colder, quite formal and a bit industrial and does not really “fit” with the rest of the room or condo … so I was literally walking thru Home Depot after I gave my contractor a down payment for this work to be done…with granite ordered…

I was purchasing a mircowave for my other unit – and was going to get the stainless steel to start the transition…. when I saw this blue corian counter top with the white cabinets and yellow wall ( I still have the bright blue wallpaper..)

And the colors were so fresh and  the blue is in keeping with the rest of the condo … that I immediately changed my mind, and ordered the indigo blue corian …. when you install corian, the sink just sets inside and looks just like it is perfectly made with the counter…

We also updated the dishwaher to the full sized version…. I found the smaller rack to be a pain when my whole family was in the condo… I bet a few other families felt that way too.

 Here is the new counter  and dishwasher….

This is the 2nd bedroom….. still has 2 full beds…

This was the old living room in the Lock Out – with the sleeper sofa that could have been used as a sleeper sofa…. 

This is the new room, no couch, just 2 full beds, it’s a tight fit, we have about 14 inches between the beds – I did not have enough time to find a smaller nightstand before we blew town…. but this has a larger TV, and we left the other side of the lockout…. the efficiency kitchen is still in this unit…

 So… we hope that you will find our changes and upgrades useful.  The goal is to continue to make our condos better and better equipped and a place that is your ” Home Away from Home ”

So, I have always learned that you muct be considerate when you are on the beach…

Like if you want to take a picture – walking and then stopping in front of someone who is also taking a picture is rude

Why is your picture so much more important than my picture?

Why do you feel that you can just jump in front of someone and it is OK ??

You are rude, and now you are a photobomber… I hope you are proud of your pictures….