Daytona Beach - We almost blew away!

Vacation days 6 and 7 (9/17 and 9/18) - The days we almost got blown away!

When I was little we used to go to Florida every summer for 2 weeks. For quite a few years we went to Daytona Beach. Since our trip this time was a long one we decided to take a couple of days and stay at the beach. So, we went Daytona Beach for 2 days, and Grammy and PopPop came with us.

First, Daytona Beach is TOTALLY different now. Not as nice as I remember. Huge huge hotels have taken over. Usually when you get older things seem smaller to you. To me, it was like Daytona had expanded. It seemed enormous. Everything was bigger, except the beach... the beach seemed smaller.

It was extremely windy while we were there. I was sure we were going to get blown away. While we were at the pool some of our stuff did get blown away, but we were lucky enough to catch it. It was like we were in for a hurricane.

The weather didn't bother Zoe. She was ready to swim. We went for the pool first, but even Zoe seemed to enjoy the hot tub more. She just kept assuring us "it's nice and warm!". She must have warn herself out with swimming and spa dips though. She took a fabulous nap... we didn't think she'd ever wake up. I ended up waking her so we could get to dinner.

We decided to walk down to the boardwalk area. When I was little I remember such a nice boardwalk. Some game areas, some rides. Now there really wasn't much of anything. So sad. Again, things change.

Except for the wind, we enjoyed our walk. We stopped for dinner and ended up stuffed. Zoe enjoyed dinner (although I don't think she ate anything). She mainly had fun mushing her potatoes.

The next day was just as windy as the first. We decided to take a drive after breakfast to see what else had changed... and what may have stayed the same. We ended up enjoying the drive and stopped at a pier in Flagler Beach. I joked that yes, the walk to the end of the pier would be lovely, except for the horrible anxiety. I was far from joking though. Boy were my nerves raw by the time we stepped back off that pier. (I found myself thinking of Jenny's post at Absolutely Bananas) I was a nervous wreck. Zoe was running, it was windy, the ocean was rough. I kept trying to calculate the size of her head versus the space between the boards, and I imagined myself being the one to jump over the top rail when Zoe jumped in. I have a couple new grays hairs... but looking at the pictures I was able to take, I must say it was a beautiful walk out. Zoe was excited about everything, especially the fishermen. One nice man even let Zoe get a close up look at a fish (I have no idea what kind) and she even took a finger and touched it. 

We finished our walk just as it started to rain, and drove back to the hotel. It stopped raining long enough for us to get ready for some pool time. As soon as Zoe was waist high in the pool the rain started again. Oh, was she upset. But, after a little bit of a dvd that rain stopped and we enjoyed some time in the pool, the hot tub, and at the beach.

Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate with us for our beach days. We did enjoy ourselves... but missed the sunshine. We decided it would do us all well just to check out and head back to Grammy and PopPop's house rather than stay over another night (in very uncomfortable beds... oh, and did I mention that the night before the rain and wind were so bad we started to get a small flood under our hotel door? Yeah, we checked out quick before experiencing that again!)