Friday, June 14
Jeff and I took off right after work (4:45) for Alpine Climbing Campground outside of New River Gorge National Park in West Virginia. We got there around 9:30 and set up our tent on the platform among the trees. We hadn’t camp-tented in a couple years, so it was kind of fun to go back to the basics. We went to the communal fire ring to see what was going on. Near the fire ring was a large pavilion with silks hanging from the ceiling for aerial yoga. There were also some people that had set up their camp under the pavilion as well. There was a shower house, that interestingly didn’t have any distinction in genders between the bathrooms- it was all one big bathroom for any and all.
Around the fire, we felt a bit…out of place. It was very clear that these people all knew each other and rock climbed with each other often. They shared stories and seemed to have a lot of common ground. There did seem to be a few “new” people, but they still were known by the other climbers and had fluid conversation. Jeff and I just sat there and listened for the most part, taking it all in. We met a woman who caught red-tailed falcons and trained them and would take them hunting. We heard another woman talk about her love of adrenaline and taking her dirt bike out in the middle of the night to ride as fast as she could. It was quite an interesting experience, and it made me feel like quite the imposter. We love travel and camping, but hearing all of their crazy stories and niche interests made me feel quite…boring, with my hobbies of reading rom com books, writing this blog, and finding random tasks around my house. Nevertheless, it was fun to be around others of a similar age while camping. Many times, we’re surrounded by retirees in their huge RVs, so it was cool to see this side of the outdoors-y community.
After listening to conversations and watching some aerial yoga, we turned in, knowing we had a long drive ahead of us the next day. We went to bed anticipating a 60 degree night, so we anticipated being quite comfortable. What we didn’t anticipate was being cold! We both work up numerous times due to feeling cold!
Saturday, June 15
After a short, cold night, we both took showers and hit the road for Florida!
After about an hour of driving, we stopped at a random exit in West Virginia for some gas at a Sheetz and coffee and breakfast sandwiches from a McDonalds. Not too much to ask for, right? At any other rest stop, this would go very quickly, which we anticipated. For whatever reason, everyone and their mother stopped at this exact rest stop, and McDonalds was having an issue fulfilling orders. We ended up spending 45 minutes waiting for 2 breakfast sandwiches and a latte. So much for the early start we had worked so hard for. It was extremely frustrating to be so far behind this close to the beginning of our trip, but we tried to be positive about the day moving forward.
Jeff and I took turns driving throughout the day, listening to music and podcasts (Jeff enjoys No Dumb Questions by Destin Sandlin and Matt Whitman and I like The Unplanned Podcast by Matt and Abby Howard). We stopped for dinner at a Subway and decided that we wanted to stop at a beach as a little reward to ourselves for the long travel day. We drove through St. Augustine (which was poppin! We’d love to go back and explore there sometime!), and we had to drive further to Crescent Beach to find a free public parking lot.
We ran over the boardwalk to see the ocean in its full glory, and it was so beautiful. The waves were so calm, and the sunset that resulted over the next hour was beyond gorgeous. Jeff metal detected for a bit and found a dime! We had to pry ourselves from the beach to drive the rest of the way to Orlando! We did enjoy having a bed to sleep in at a hotel after the long day! We were so tired we even split up and each had our own queen to ourselves in our hotel room. It felt so good to spread out in the air conditioned room! (Jeff had tried to convince me to camp this night too by the way haha)
Sunday, June 16
Happy Father’s Day! Jeff and I woke up around 8:30 and got ourselves ready to visit Universal Studios! We had a big breakfast at our hotel before making our way to the park!
We enjoyed exploring the park, riding a few rides, exploring Harry Potter World, and trying Butterbeer! See our blog post Universal Studios ‘24 to see what else we did during our day at Universal Studios!
We left Universal at 4:30 hot, sticky, and tired. We arrived at our hotel, Perry’s Ocean Edge Resort, around 5:30 and checked in. Our room was Garden Room 1, and for the first time, we had an ocean view! We quickly unloaded our car and then made our way down to the beach to metal detect and enjoy the water. I ordered us a pizza (which was hilarious because I learned the pizza delivery guy was from my hometown in PA!), and together we ate dinner on the beach. Later in the evening, we enjoyed the hot tub and indoor pool, visited with our good family friend from Mississippi who also stays at the resort during the same time, and read a bit before going to bed.
Monday, June 17
Our first day at Daytona Beach! Jeff and I slept in before I went up to the donut lounge to get the resort’s homemade donuts and coffee. I read my kindle for a bit, slathered up in sunscreen, and made my way down to the beach with Jeff to watch him metal detect as I read. I was super excited to be able to use my beach chair I had gotten for Christmas as well. It was the perfect way to enjoy sitting on the beach while still being comfortable. I’m not sure why I hadn’t gotten a real beach chair until now!?
That afternoon, my family arrived to join us on our trip. We let them unpack before visiting with them for a bit.
For dinner, Jeff and I went to Racing’s North Turn. It is a racing inspired restaurant that shares the history of beach racing before tourism and resorts took over the coast. It was so cool to see all the pictures of the beach before resorts were built. Jeff and I had been to this restaurant a couple years ago, and we loved it, so we were excited to return. I got a fajita platter and Jeff got assorted fish and shrimp. Both were delicious! We then visited a new surf shop, metal detected a bit more on the beach, and I finished reading my book, The Idea of You. (I liked the move MUCH more, which is odd! Typically it’s the other way around!)
Tuesday, June 18
Tuesday was a very relaxed day at the beach with nothing too exciting. We started with donuts and coffee, more beach reading on my beach chair, and metal detecting. We visited with my family around the covered tables and watched the beautiful ocean. There were some big storms out in the ocean, so the waves that came ashore during our week at Daytona were way stronger than we have experienced at this beach in the past. I also noticed a lot more jellyfish that had washed up compared to previous years! I remember seeing parts of their clear body washed up pretty infrequently as a child. This year, I saw numerous, full-bodied jellyfish that had come to shore.
For dinner that night, it was a joint effort since we couldn’t grill due to the wind. We ended up pan frying our “Daytona Beach chicken” meal (chicken marinated in Italian dressing), boiling corn on the cob, and prepping some Minute Rice. We topped the Minute Rice and corn with some cajun seasoning, and it was a game changer! We had never done that before, and a family friend accompanying us on the trip introduced us- we will never go back!
Wednesday, June 19
We woke up and got our donuts and coffee before making our way to Ponce de Leon. We saw the lighthouse from a distance and blew up our paddleboard to go over to the sand dunes to explore, metal detect, and read on my beach chair (shocker). It was a bit windy, so we had a few issues keeping our paddleboard grounded, but for the most part, we had a lovely afternoon! We didn’t find anything other than trash metal detecting, but it was still fun! We met a couple mini labradoodles (the one peed on our life jackets!), but we loved walking around the little island.
It was a tiring day in the sun, and we enjoyed tacos for dinner with our family in our hotel room while we watched it rain. We took a short walk on the beach before spending time in the pools and hot tub the rest of the evening.
Thursday, June 20
After our morning coffee and donuts, we went to the public beach access and bought a day pass to drive on the beach! Jeff and I drove up and down the entire beach, stopping a few times to metal detect and read. It was on this trip that Jeff found his best find of the trip! A Pandora ring that values at about $100 (it is on sale for $50 on their website currently). While not the massive gold ring he was hoping to find, it was still exciting. He also found a couple clip-on toy earrings too! After driving ourselves, we picked up my parents and rode up and down the beach with them (we got to see a windsurfer!) until the tide was coming a bit too high for us to continue driving.
We went back to our rooms to get ready for dinner and then ran outside at 5:30 to watch a rocket launch from our resort lawn! It was a satellite launched from Cape Canaveral that was going to help with European cable. Who knew! We then left for dinner at Hidden Treasure Rum Bar and Grill. We had a beautiful seat right along the water where we got to watch boats and a dog paddleboard! Unfortunately, shortly after we got our food, we were rained out and had to move indoors. It was pretty while it lasted! We visited the Ponce de Leon Lighthouse gift shop before heading back to the beach and enjoying drumstick icecreams around the table while listening to the waves.
Friday, June 21
After breakfast, we visited a little dog named Toto that we had befriended throughout the week. She was such a sweetheart and would stare at us across the resort to come and pet her. I read my book and visited with my mom around an umbrella while Jeff metal detected. After a while, Jeff and I “pool hopped,” jumping between the ocean and pools on the resort property. It was a pretty relaxed day revolving of reading and pool hopping.
For dinner, we had grilled burgers, corn, and ice cream. That evening, we enjoyed the hot tub (which had been crashed by some outsiders, including one girl who was drinking a mysterious green liquid (it looked like coolant!) out of a baby bottle. It was very peculiar.
We also took a walk on the beach metal detecting and enjoyed looking at the Strawberry Moon! It was very bright! It was on this day I also saw my precious pelicans, one of which wiggled its little butt and stuck its legs out while in the air! It just looks so funny and always makes me laugh. I also saw it scratch its wing with its beak while still flying! I hadn’t seen that before! I finished 2 books this day as well, The Newcomer by Mary Kay Andrews (3/5 stars) and The Exception to the Rule by Christina Lauren (5/5 stars, she may be my favorite author).
Saturday, June 22
We did the normal morning routine of donuts and coffee and petting our little friend Toto. The waves were finally calm enough this day to watch the pelicans do their little “swoop thing” where they fly really low in a straight line over the waves. Up to this point, the waves were way to strong for them to get that close to the crashing waves. The trade off to the calm waves and slight breeze was that it was extremely humid. While Jeff slept in, I went for a solo walk on the beach and the rest of my family went to play mini golf. Once they returned, I took a walk with my parents and Jeff, and then we all got ready to go to the boardwalk!
Our first stop was an arcade where we played skee ball (my absolute favorite), a basketball game, a knock-em-over game, and a few others that looked fun. In the end, we had enough tickets for a couple little airplane kits for Jeff, a little pop it, and a turtle bracelet. We then went to Zeno’s where we got taffy and ice cream. On the way home, we stopped at The Big Shark, where I got a new tshirt and we explored souvenirs. The rest of my family made a couple more stops, but Jeff and I were ready to head back and start making dinner and packing. We stopped at the Winn Dixie for spaghetti ingredients and ate spaghetti looking at the waves before starting to pack up our things and take our final dips in the pools. Jeff and I also took one final walk, and at the last minute, we decided to build a sandcastle. This turned into one of my favorite memories together. This day, the hot tub unfortunately stopped working as well, which is one of my favorite things about vacation, so I was a bit bummed about that, but I was also grateful that it didn’t break until the last day.
Sunday, June 23
I woke up early for our last day and was able to catch the tail end of the sunrise with my family. We had our last donuts and coffee and I took a short walk on the beach. It was so humid this day. Jeff and I loaded the car, and we were absolutely DRIPPING sweat by the time we were finished. We took one last walk and tearfully said goodbye to the ocean. This was also one of the calmer days, so it was sad that we were leaving on a day that the waves were so calm and beautiful.
On our way out of Florida, we made a pit stop at Buc-ees for lunch! Jeff had a pulled pork sandwich, I had a brisket sandwich, we shared fresh potato chips, and I also got some watermelon! It was a delicious lunch, and while this may be controversial, I think Buc-ees has the best BBQ!
While this trip wasn’t the most adventurous, trying new things and exploring, it was very relaxing, and we loved being able to take it slow and spend time with family.
Leave a Reply