Drifting in Vero

The older section is to the right.  The three-story building on the left is also part of the inn.  This picture was taken in 2010.
Sadly, they are replacing the wooden railing on the left-hand building with something that is more weatherproof.

In my last post, I wrote about the sea turtles who nest in Vero Beach, Florida.  Today, I thought I'd talk about where we usually nest when we are there.  The Driftwood Inn is our favorite spot to stay on Vero's Orchid Island.  Right on the beach, the original section of the Driftwood was built by an eccentric businessman named Waldo Sexton in the 1930s and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  It's a wonderful, quirky spot with bells, ironwork, salvage, and other odds and ends everywhere you look.  We first stayed at the Driftwood in 1995, so it feels a little like home to us.

Our favorite "room" is the Gatehouse, a free-standing structure with a private deck perched above the roof.

The Gatehouse

We have also stayed in some of the Cottages, which Driftwood lore says were fishing shacks that Sexton moved to the property initially for use as retail shops, later converted to guest rooms.

The Cottages, which run along the north edge of the property, seen from the deck of the Gatehouse.

Looking into Waldo's early in the morning.

The inn also boasts a very popular restaurant, Waldo's, named for founder Waldo Sexton.  On Friday and Saturday nights, it is almost impossible to find a parking place in front of the original building because both tourists and locals pack Waldo's -- inside, on the porch, and on the deck overlooking the ocean.  I have so many great memories of delicious meals at Waldo's.  My husband has long been a fan of their Cajun fish sandwiches while I alternate between chicken quesadillas and a fabulous hamburger with potato wedge fries.  I'm getting hungry just thinking about it!

Like any place on the beach, the Driftwood is not inexpensive, but the location and the charm keep us coming back.

Do you have a favorite hotel that calls you back time after time?

Waldo's back entrance with guest rooms above.

Linking to The Polohouse: Favorites on the First Vacation Spots

Where Sea Turtles Come to Cry

Vero Beach -- a charming town on Florida's Atlantic coast.  We have visited Vero pretty often over the past twenty years, ever since my in-laws bought a condo there.  We often used to go down on spring break, until the first child went to college and the kids' spring breaks no longer coincided.  When we started visiting in late May and early June, we learned that this time of year is turtle nesting season.

Early one morning several years ago, my daughter and I were walking along the beach looking for shells or whatever we could find.  Suddenly a woman who lived in one of the houses on the beach popped out from behind a row of sea grape and asked if we were looking for turtle tracks. We didn't have any idea what turtle tracks looked like.  She kindly showed us some tracks and a nest.  The tracks look a lot like tire tracks from an ATV, so we had possibly seen the tracks before and thought they were just tracks from the shore patrol.

She also told us that the female turtle cries as she lays her eggs.  (The turtles don't really "cry" of course, but their eyes do water in order to remove excess salt.)  After talking to the turtle lady, I was hooked.  I love to look for turtle tracks, especially early in the morning before the turtle patrol has come along to drive on the tracks and flag the nests.

Last week was a particularly good one for turtle nesting. Some mornings we spotted as many as six sets of fresh tracks. Florida's east coast is a popular spot for loggerhead turtles to nest although leatherbacks and green turtles also nest there. The female loggerhead turtle nests on average every two to three years, beginning around age 30.  She will nest an average of four, but as many as seven, times during a single season, laying 60-120 ping-pong-ball-sized eggs in each nest. Amazingly, the turtles return to the same beach where they hatched.  

They usually nest at night, so I have never seen the turtles themselves, but we may have seen one surfacing this year a little way off shore.  A brownish shape appeared a few times one day when we were in the waves.  (Need I say, it freaked me out?  I am nervous about living creatures in the ocean. Especially since someone was bitten by a shark in the exact same stretch of beach earlier in May this year!) 

The eggs hatch after about sixty days, and the tiny two-inch hatchlings make a nighttime run to the ocean.  Only one in a thousand of the endangered hatchlings live to maturity, so the females who crawl up on Vero Beach's sandy shore are real survivors.

A fresh nest and a flagged nest several days old.