Christmas 2013

My parents and brother Michael drove from Kissimmee, FL. to visit us in St Augustine for Christmas and my mom's birthday this year. They arrived on Christmas Eve despite a fatal truck accident that completely shut down I-95 for a few miles. We went to lunch together on the Intercoastal at Barbara Jeans. Everything there was SO delicious - especially their crab soup and crab cakes. We sat outside and it was a little cool but the sun was shining down.

On the way back we went to TPC Sawgrass for the Festival of Trees. It was not much of a festival. There was one tree in a few rooms and they all looked pretty similar and weird. Won't be doing that again.

After relaxing a little at the house we went to St Augustine to do a trolley ride for the Night of Lights. National Geoographic in 2011 and 2012 chose it as one of the top 10 light displays. We were able to get on within 30 minutes of waiting in line. It was pretty chilly outside. It was fun listening to Christmas music and yelling out to people passing by, "Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas". However the light display was a little lacking in my opinion. Maybe I am just accustomed to seeing spectacular displays, but for this to be top 10 in the world I was very disappointed, but we still had a nice time.

We walked around a bit trying to find a place to eat and finally ended up at Mojo's since there was only about a 10 minute wait.

Christmas morning Omar and I made birthday breakfast for my mom...thick bacon, scrambled eggs, cinnamon-raisin toast, grits, and orange juice. We opened presents and then worked on Christmas dinner/lunch. We had a delicious lunch of home made ham, scalloped potatoes, almond orange salad, and rolls.

We played the new game Omar got for Christmas, "Ticket to Ride: Europe" and went and saw the movie the Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug. Thursday they went home. It was a short holiday but it was nice to have them come up. It was Michael's first (hopefully, not last) time ever coming to our house even.

Daytona Beach

While Omar and I waited for my parents to arrive to check in we walked around on the beach. The water was perfect - it felt like how it did at South Beach. The water isn't nearly as pretty though. It after 4pm when my parents were all settled and we didn't want to get into swim suits with it being so late. I almost wish we had looking back on it, because a cold front came in and it was cold going into the water the next day.

We drove around for about an hour looking at the different houses and sites while trying to find a restaurant that my mom went to with one of her teacher conventions that she thought was really good. We finally were able to find it, "Aunt Catfish's" and it is right on the inter-coastal. We sat outside which was nice and cool and there was live music. The view was pretty too. The food was so yummy. They have this incredible salad and fixin' bar to go with it with good old southern favorites like cheesy grits, baked beans, cornbread, etc. We had a nice time here. 

We were stuffed by all the food and then we decided to go to a movie. My parents have seen pretty much everything out except the new Taylor Lautner movie that just came out called "Abduction" so we went and saw that. No one but my dad even knew what it was about. I don't think I have ever watched a movie in a theater without knowing what it was about first. It was pretty good. After that we walked around the pier area of Daytona Beach. They have carnival rides there, but it is like $5/ride. Too expensive for my blood. The pier is closed for renovations, but it was neat going to that area. 

Saturday we woke up and took a walk all the way down to the pier. 

We then went to breakfast in the morning. We went to Mike's Galley. It was SO good!!! They bake their own bread and baked goods. I think we had a little of everything. Eggs Benedict, french toast, cinnamon roll, pancakes, eggs, grits, home style potatoes, potato casserole, fish sandwich, etc. It was a place I would definitely return to. The prices were pretty good too I thought. 

After eating there we went and relaxed at the pool reading and talking.

After a few hours of that we went to the Ponce de Leon Inlet Light Station Museum. It is home of the 2nd largest lighthouse in the country. It was really nice. They have done an incredible job restoring the place. They even have the original buildings that the lighthouse keepers used to stay in restored into a really great museum. It was very interesting learning about their lives there are Mosquito Coast (that is what Daytona Beach used to be called). 

We walked up the 203 stairs to the top of the lighthouse. Can you imagine climbing that with 40 pounds of kerosene? I can't. The view was incredible and the breeze was so nice and refreshing. It would have been really scary to be up there at night with a storm or hurricane though. The lighthouse keepers would take shifts every night of 3 watches to make sure that light would not go out and stuff. What a boring job. This was well worth the $5 we paid to enter. 

We then went and had a late lunch at BJ's on the water. It was recommended to me by a friend. It is more like a bar, and boats can dock there and you walk up to order. The food was good though. 

We went back to the hotel and hung out at the beach some more. We then had the debate to leave or stay and decided to go that evening to Buffalo Wild Wings for a late dinner and to watch the UF vs Alabama game. We stayed for the first half. That was my dad's first experience ever going to a sports bar. 

The next day dad and I went for another long walk together and then we packed up and left. Omar and I drove on the beach when we left just so I could say that I had done it. I don't think I will be coming back to Daytona in the near future. If I do, I think it would be just a day trip and I would drive my car on the beach. 

Daytona Beach - a bust?

I have been to Daytona Beach once in my life, but I honestly don't remember it all. Now looking back on our little excursion, I might know why. Daytona Beach is probably the one place in Florida that I think I would be okay with not returning to later on.

I saw a Groupon (it was not from Groupon itself, but a similar site) for a 2 night hotel stay in Daytona Beach for $60 and it was right on the beach. Normally we always stay at a Hampton Inn or Hilton due to the cheap deals we can get through Omar's family. The funny thing is that I totally didn't think of getting a hotel through them, it later occurred to me. Well I thought, that is a good deal and it is right on the beach...why not?

I asked my parents if they wanted to join us and besides my mom mentioning that the place looked sort of dumpy. I thought, it looks pretty nice from the pictures and hey we are right on the beach it can't be that bad. I told her it would be an adventure. I later realized that the weekend we chose was the weekend of Omar's birthday so I figured we would celebrate that as well. I didn't even think well Omar is not a big beach fan nor would he want to go to Daytona since he goes there 2-3 times a week at least for work. Get the idea, that not much thinking was happening with this trip, right? This is me being spontaneous...not a good idea, I guess.

So off we went. Omar and I left the house about 11 AM and he had a 2 jobs to do in Daytona Beach before we went to the hotel. Daytona is really only about a 50 minute drive from our house, which was nice, but made me later realize that a day trip would have been sufficient. After his jobs, we puttered around over to the hotel stopping at a pawn shop that was having a tent sale just to browse.

We pulled up to the hotel and I was like, "oh my, my parents are going to flip!" We just laughed and laughed that we would be staying here. I read reviews the day before of the hotel and got mixed reviews, of course I didn't think to do this before purchasing the Groupon. I was in the moment when I bought, imagining what a great trip we would have. We checked in and payed our $7.50 in room taxes (that should give you an idea of what this place is like). It was definitely worth no more than $30/night. I asked the lady upon checking in if they had a lot of success with the Groupon and she said they had over 300 people buy it in the first day. I asked how much rooms normally go for and she said $79/$89 per night.

We walk into our room and just laughed. This place was supposed to/advertised that it has a kitchen with an oven, stove, fridge, etc. Yeah there was just a little closet space (not an actual closet) with a mini fridge and a microwave sitting on top of it. The bathroom did have bar soap but the shampoo was one of those free plastic samples you get in the mail sometimes. There was a tiny little table and it had a tablecloth over it that had stains on it. We pulled the table cloth up and the table was much nicer so we took the table cloth off.

I realized that the reason people stay at a place like this is because they have rooms that are for smokers and you can bring pets. I didn't even know that hotels would let smoking be allowed anymore. The day before we left this guy came down to the pool with his dog and asked how he would get back into the pool area with the locked gate. My mom and I told him that there is a pass code you need in order to get back in and they gave it to you at check in. We told him what it was. After about 20 minutes he came back up and couldn't open the gate and my mom had to open it for him. We heard him muttering as he walked by, "for $85 a night and I don't even get a pass code." We just laughed. We later found out that he actually got a deal online that was for $69/night. He said when he and his wife pulled up to the place that they both said "What a dump." they demanded to see the rooms before they stayed and that he walked into the room and told my mom, "Now these are NICE rooms, I mean real nice." It took my mom everything not to be like, "are you kidding?"

The whole weekend we made fun of the place. It kept us in good spirits. Some of the jokes were:
"only the best for Omar."
"What is that noise, a cow, a long fart, or....oh, wait that is the toilet flushing."

We did anything to avoid staying in the room. We talked about leaving the last night and going home to sleep in our own beds. My dad convinced us to stay so we could get another walk on the beach in the morning. He had been a walking maniac, he probably walked 4 hours the first day on the beach and I know that I did hour long walks both Saturday and Sunday mornings with him. My mom asked if we were going to end up leaving in the middle of the night and not tell them. If she hadn't said that we probably would have because of what happened next.

Saturday night we went to bed and were awakened at 4:15 AM to loud pounding on our door. Omar opened the curtains right next to the bed and there were people yelling, are you guys okay, and this creepy guy staring into our window. They kept saying they heard strange noises and crying. They then went to the next door and did the same thing and the people next door started cussing and telling them to get outta there. Well I thought that was weird and wondered why they would do that. Omar just calmly responded, "Oh they probably thought someone was dead in one of these rooms and wanted to make sure that wasn't the case." Lets just say I could go back to sleep because then our neighbors who were so upset by the whole thing started smoking. The smoke was so strong it was coming through the walls and the adjoining door. It was a horrible night. I later thought, I wonder if they heard me? I had just finished a dream where I had been crying and Omar tells me that I cry really loud in my sleep and he usually wakes me up. He didn't notice it, but maybe the people heard it and came to check? So weird.

Yes, this hotel was not fun, but that isn't the main reason why Daytona was such a bust.