Daytona Beach, Florida

As we've just had a lovely piece about some of the fastest cars on the planet, I felt this was a good time to discuss our Florida mode of transportation. Given the fact that it was just going to be the two of us and funds were tight, I got the absolute cheapest car I could find that would fit us and 2 bags of luggage. Meet our car, the Kia Rio:

While this car did everything we asked it to do, and had a VERY nice air conditioner, the thing that cracked us up the most about it is the color. I am a respectable (well, I like to think so at least!), conservative, low profile, housewife. This would *not* be my car of choice! We definitely were noticed on the road, and it was quite easy to find in parking lots! Honestly, it was a fine car, but Kia really needs to rethink 'burnt orange' as a color.

After we were done at the speedway, we had the rest of the day to kill tooling around Daytona (in our awesome car). When I did my research on Florida I had several people warn us about thunderstorms. Not hurricanes, thunderstorms. I kinda thought they were pulling my chain, or over exaggerating at the least. But it turns out they weren't! Every day we woke up to beautiful skies filled with sun and some puffy clouds. By afternoon the skies would turn grey in certain areas, and if that happened to be over you, you knew what was coming. I've never seen anything like it! Amazingly, we only encountered one thunderstorm afternoon our entire trip, and that was our Daytona Beach day.

Some of you know that we live in what used to be a retirement community. Many of the older residents still live here. One such couple we have come to know over the last few years, Ken and Judy, are snowbirds and have a home just north of Daytona Beach! Me being the planner that I am, made sure to talk to them about our trip. Well, the week before we left, Judy came to me with a list of things to do. One of the things was a "flea market." I thought it was so sweet of her to offer advice, but a flea market? Really??



Really. This is what we found. Apparently, Florida loves its flea markets, because on our way back to Orlando we saw a sign for the world's largest flea market. This place was HUGE! So huge, in fact, that we got LOST walking through it! We had a great time looking at all the crazy stuff people had to sell there. If I had to guess, there is probably 1 main building and several smaller buildings all dedicated to the market. We got shirts for the kids, my parents, and sunglasses for us (and if you ask me if they really are Coach sunglasses, I will swear they are). It was a fun afternoon just lazily walking through all the shops while it poured outside. By the time we FINALLY found our car (yes, it is possible to lose it), it had pretty much stopped raining.

It was starting to get late, and I wanted to make sure we saw the ocean before we left. I have seen the Atlantic Ocean from an airplane, but never actually touched it. Off we went to our next destination!

As a native West Coaster, and someone who has seen the Pacific Ocean often throughout her life, I would like to offer some differences between the two biggest bodies of water in the world:

• Temperature. Ok, this shouldn't be a surprise. But seriously, no wonder people are constantly IN the Atlantic Ocean and getting eaten by sharks! We walked right into the waves and didn't even feel a shudder. It was as warm as a chilly pool! As I walked by people I thought, "You would freeze in my ocean. Wimps!"
• Pollution. Now, the Oregon Coast has some of the most pristine waters in the continental U.S. But we have lived in L.A., remember. We know what ...eh, not-so-lovely water looks like. The Atlantic? EW! It's just icky! It's so brown and grimy looking. Makes me proud to live in the Pacific Northwest.
• The visitors. I have NEVER in all my life seen people actually put their chairs IN the water and sit there. Seriously. It was the craziest thing I've ever seen! Why do they do this? Are they handicapped and unable to actually stand in the water? Is there something IN the water I should be fearful of if I stand? I just don't understand the concept. Also, while the West coast has all the same ideas as they did there (hotels, cars on the beach, bikes, sunbathers, etc.) it just looked...different. Everything was much closer to the actual water than it is in the west. People seemed less laid back. I don't know, it just didn't look right to me.
• The sand. The sand is HARD. It actually hurt to walk on it, it was so hard. And when it rains, the rain drop shape stays in the sand. So there's all these tiny divots that poke you. Very weird. It's also white. Like the sand you see in all those "Sandals Resorts" commercials. However, the top coat coming off the ocean is red and coarse. I tried to capture it in the picture below. See how where the water is coming off my feet is white sand? I'm sure it's just a natural occurrence like minerals or something, but it just struck me.

After we left the beach we drove around for an hour looking for a place to eat. I didn't post a picture because this IS a family site, but we did see the "Girls Gone Wild" bus. If you don't know what that is, I will not explain it to you. But for those of you who might get a kick out of it, for the record, we did NOT stop at it, nor did we see anyone in, on, or near the bus. Sorry!

We had a great meal at Ruby's restaurant. The restaurant was quite full so we ate at the bar. The bartender was a hoot! We had a bunch of laughs with him, as he told us what it's like to live there (Nascar fans and beach bums. Those are your options. Eek!), hurricanes, and football. I think we both really enjoyed ourselves, which we weren't expecting. We headed back to the motel for some much needed sleep. The last day of our trip would be spent at Epcot!