Backtracking A Bit

Jamie and I flew to Daytona Beach in June for a few days. We had a purpose for the trip, which I'll tell you about tomorrow, and we combined that with a couple days of "us" time. It had been a while since our last trip, so the break was nice. Jamie had a great trip planned for Mother's Day to the mountains for a scenic train ride. That was when the big gas shortage hit because of the cyber attack, and I was too nervous to get far from home without knowing we could find fuel to get us home. So that trip was postponed.

Anyway, off to Daytona Beach we went....Jamie got us a nice hotel room on the beach in Daytona Beach Shores, which is about a mile from Daytona Beach proper. Okay, here's the story on that: the hotel in Daytona Beach where we were supposed to stay only had a room available with a single full-sized bed. I want a queen-sized bed at the least. I prefer a room with either a king-sized bed or two queen-sized beds. Yes, I like to stretch out when I'm on vacation. A full-sized bed for five nights was just unacceptable to me. So, Jamie found a room in Daytona Beach Shores, and it turned out to be a great move. Much quieter beach with far fewer people. (and two queen-sized beds, in case you're wondering.)

Did you know you can drive on the beach in Daytona? It's true. Since we had a rental car, we didn't try it. We did see someone get stuck in the sand and have to have their vehicle towed out.

Our first trip to the Atlantic Ocean together...that only took 27 years.

We did breakfasts by the pool....

...and daquiris and piña coladas at Crabby's Oceanside in the evenings.

We met up with this couple for supper our second night--our oldest son, Joey, and his lovely wife, Kim. And no kidding, we were sitting at our table enjoying good conversation while waiting on our food, and all of sudden we hear, "Hey Jamie." It was a couple from back home who happened to be at the same restaurant at the same time as us. What are the odds?

We hit the Daytona Beach flea market, where I found this gorgeous piece I told you about in a previous post.

And we also visited the Daytona Beach Kennel Club. There isn't any live dog racing there anymore, but I wanted to see the track where my boy, Chevy, had raced. A little bittersweet.

We saw this guy again the next day...

And the day after that! He was everywhere!

It was also on this day that we went back to the flea market to pick up my sun & moon piece. Joey & Kim offered to carry it for me since they had driven. While we were there, I also spied this lovely pig named Harley that I would have loved to have brought home too. Alas, too big, too heavy, too expensive. Maybe next time.

We rented a couple of the motorized scooters and rode them to our favorite restaurant. I know it's not a great photo, but it's the best I could do with my cell phone while riding down the road.

Here we are on the boardwalk in front of the hotel. This isn't the hotel where we stayed, but it is the one where we were supposed to stay. We did some shopping and got caught in big thunderstorm. Went back to our hotel and watched the storm over the ocean from our balcony.

It was a great trip, a wonderfully relaxing trip, a just-what-the-doctor-ordered kind of trip.