Usually once a year we are lucky enough to travel to Florida and have a family beach vacation. While our times change of when we go, it doesn’t often change location. We go to New Smyrna Beach Florida because my husband’s mother has a condo there and we all pile in for a week of sand and sun (hopefully).

I’ve posted lots of times in the past of New Smyrna Beach Florida so I won’t go into a lot of detail, I’d just like to share some favorite photos I took and to share my experience.

We got there on a Saturday afternoon and the weather was nice and warm and the sun was shining brightly on the beach. We were all tired from traveling so I don’t think we went in the ocean that evening, but walked on it and swam in the pool. Always gotta hit up the Walmart or Publix for food and snacks and forgotten sunscreen.

The next day was a full on beach day. The weather was still great.

Getting a smile isn’t always so easy from this guy. He’s downright giddy to be on the beach and dig in the sand.

He plays and I relax on the beach and watch him run and dig and jump. We played in the ocean until we were worn out. His dad was mia, not feeling well and slept the whole day! I got a sunburn :/

We ate at our favorite burger joint the first night and it was great. The Breakers on Flaggler Ave. is also known as the ten dollar burger at our house, but it is very good. Nothing is cheap when you’re on vacation.

Sleep must’ve been what he needed because Daryl was up and running with Asher on the beach the next day. Not much sun and storms were moving in.

Our day was cut short (as many turned out to be) by rain and quite severe thunderstorms. We decided to go to another favorite eatery, Albertos’ Pizzeria and Italian Restaurant in Edgewater.

I’m not sure what happened day 3, I don’t have any swim photos from that day. I know it rained I think we probably had a small amount of pool time. I did take a photo of some food… ha ha priorities.

Here it is. Beachtown Grill. It was new to us. I have been using an app called Yelp to find restaurants as well as anything you can think of. It has reviews from users and hasn’t let me down yet. The reviews as a whole have been pretty much spot on. I recommend it. We found Zsa Zsa’s Beachtown Grill this way. It was okay. I don’t know that we’d go back. We were looking for something to please all 5 of us and something that wouldn’t bust the budget. The stars they’ve got on there aren’t reflective of the place now, it’s changed hands of ownership. I chose it because they had cajun food – which I love. I was disappointed to discover they no longer served much anymore. I always give honest reviews on Yelp because it helps me out so much.

Day 4 was a bit more sunshine but it was short lived. We enjoyed it while we could and it would rain some so we’d go to the pool and try to ride it out. Sometimes we did and others it’s just annoying sitting in the rain. One day, I don’t remember which, the storms were very bad. Lightning everywhere and thunder crashing hard right over us. It lasted a good while.

That afternoon, we drove across the causeway to try yet another new place to eat. (there’s a pattern starting to occur here, huh?). Finger Lickin’ BBQ & Wings had us salivating all week. They are only open Thursday through Sunday – I learned that from Yelp. It was worth the wait. It’s a casual place where you eat outside but that was fine by us. I got the brisket sandwich and it was fantastic. I ate it before I remembered to take a pretty photo of it! Asher was loving the wings with the Finger Lickin’ sauce. We are Barbecue people so this was really a favorite and we’d have eaten there twice if time would’ve allowed. We WILL be back for them though.

Snapped this of the menu for Yelp.

After we left the BBQ joint, I talked my husband into dropping me off at an art gallery and studio place called The Hub on canal. I’ll post another day on the beautiful art I saw while I was there. What a great place.

We went back out on the beach after the BBQ and The Hub on canal. The wind had really picked up and the waves were giant. I guess there had been a storm out at sea because high tide had already happened hours ago.

The waves were coming from every direction. It was like a washing machine out there. We didn’t dare go out past our ankles.

The sea foam was everywhere!

the sun was in a good position for a photo op.

It was windy and you can see moisture hanging in the air. I thought this was a cool photo of the sun going down.

Then we went back to the pool and watched our son and his water acrobats.

Day 5, our last day. But it was a good one. Going to be a beach day

We were pleasantly surprised with warmer ocean temperatures than we’d had all week. So we took advantage.

We finally needed our beach umbrella. I got to do my favorite thing which is watch these two have fun and read a book with my feet in the sand under a beach umbrella and taking zillions of photos.

Enjoying our last day.

I even got to see my beloved beach crows. I’ve posted about them before here. I was enticing them to get closer with Cherrios. It worked.

Lastly, I got to see a fantastic kite… a Dia de los muertos kite! How cool is that?!

Come back to read about the Hub on canal art gallery trip. I took quite a few photos of some great art I want to share, you’ll love it.

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Learn more about me on the ‘About’ page in the menu at the top. I’m an artist – a painter mostly and an avid gardener. I paint a variety of subjects including birds, koi fish, my gardens, ponds and flowers as well as anything having to do with nature especially trees and tropical scenes. I also enjoy painting abstracts and have started created more and more of them. My most favorite thing to try to achieve in my painting is is mystery.

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