Travel Diary // Daytona Beach, FL
Hey, Happy Friday!!😃 Per my usual after a trip, today's post will be a Travel Diary / Photo Dump!! I'm going to apologize now for how long this is. But we were there for 2 weeks!!
Since our room wasn't ready when we arrived, we went for some Stavros Pizza!! This last time I got the Stromboli and it was really good; and massive, I couldn't finish it... 🤦🏼♀️ story of my life... Both Stephen and Gavin ordered the calzone, and those too, were really good.
We knew that we were going to be there for 2 weeks; we also knew that we didn't want to eat out every night, so we brought a few gadgets from home! Yes, we brought the crackpot & the air-fryer!!😅 Stephen & Gavin broke the glass insert to my crockpot while unloading the truck... so that was annoying... We also packed up some canned and dry foods so that we wouldn't have to spend as much at the grocery store.
Our refrigerator was like half the size of a normal fridge, so when we would need something from the store, we tried to get only what we needed for any specific meal. Like here, we made taco salad for dinner, so we only grabbed the hamburger meat. We brought everything else from home. (Chips, Velveeta, Rotel, 90 sec Mexican rice, and taco seasoning, salt, & pepper)
Monday morning i made sure to get up in time for the sunrise!🌅 I wasn't the absolute best, but I still saw it!
We ordered some breakfast from the Beachside Cafe. Stephen and I both got the meat lovers omelet, it was delicious!! We also made a batch of mimosas and sat on the balcony waiting for the temp to rise a little; before we went down to the water! (EllyKay wanted a pic with her orange juice in her "fancy cup"!😅)
For dinner we went to Riptide's. This was our first time trying Riptide's. I'm not sure if it's new or we've just never paid attention to it, but I really liked it. They have live music and just a load fun atmosphere. They didn't offer calamari, so we went with their Gator Bites! 🤤 I could have eaten just that and been a happy girl!! Stephen and I shared a seafood platter. It came with Mahi Mahi, shrimp, stuffed grouper (Kinda like crab cakes, but grouper), hush-puppies, and other little bits & bobs. Overall, everything was good. However, I didn't care for the Grouper cake things.. I don't know what it was, I just didn't like them. They offer crab on their menu, which is what I wanted, but decided to share a plate with Stephen instead.
Tuesdays sunrise, again, not the best..
On the more wet / cool days we would make us of our time as best we could. So we made a trip to Publix to grab a few things for that nights dinner... and a few other things to carry us throughout the week! I put together afternoon snack when we got back. We went down to the water, but it wasn't a nice day at all, so we didn't stay long.
The girls getting their free cookie!!🍪
We grabbed some porkchops and bacon from the store for dinner. This was supposed to be a crockpot meal.. (We brought canned green beans and the little potatoes from home.) I also made us a thing of ranch dressing for a salad. (brought ranch pouches & mayo from home.)
Wednesday morning was super cloudy. We didn't see the sun come up at all. Thankfully, by afternoon time it was warm enough and not so windy, that we could go down to the beach.
For dinner we ended up at Don Peppers... not my favorite... Last week I talked about our favorite places to eat around here... this ain't one!! 😂 You can read that post here!!
The sky that night was so beautiful!😍
Thursday morning we weren't able to see the sunrise, but close to 9 a.m. the sky / water was so stunning!! (I'm the girl who's always saying how beautiful the water is!!😅)
For breakfast we ordered more of those omelets! YES, they're that good!!🤤
It was pretty cool in the earlier part of the day so we hangout around the condo / balcony area. Stephen Door Dashed us some sub sandwiches from Lenny's. Then it was nice enough to go hang out at the pool.
I snapped this pic of Gav.. I thought it was so funny how he was laying. I was like, "dude, you can lay that all the way down!" 🙃😂
After we got cleaned up for dinner, Stephen took a few more photos for a blog post where I shared my favorite modest swimwear!🩱 (you can read that here!)
For dinner we went to Bruno's Pizza. We normally go to Stavros for pizza while we're here, but this time we tried Bruno's Pizza. I never knew it was here til I happened to see it while we were at the Publix next door. I have to say, I think it's better than Stavros... and the prices weren't outrageous. Stephen got a calzone that was enormous and busting with cheese. Gavin ordered the Philly and again, it was a massive sandwich, and so good too! I'm definitely getting that next time we're here. Me and the girls kept it basic and shared a medium sized pizza, which of course we couldn't finish!😅
Fridays sunrise...👎🏻 such a bummer... I still had my coffee out there though..
Thankfully it turned out to be a beautiful day spent at the beach!! We bought a volleyball while we were at Publix the other day, so the kids had a good play around with the ball.
That night we grilled some steaks and cheddar sausage links. I threw some chicken nuggies in the air-fryer for the girls and made them some mac-n-cheese. (That we brought from home!😉) While we were grilling a storm was coming it strong. I was able to catch a few good photos though!!👇🏻
Saturday We FINALLY got a fantastic sunrise! Had been there a whole week at that point, but man it was glorious!! This was also the day that we had to swap rooms. So we spent the majority of the morning prepping to move. And with 3 kiddos, that wasn't the easiest thing in the world. After we moved rooms we spent the rest of the day at the beach. Til dinner time basically.
I was really feeling some good crab, so we went to the River Grille on the Tomoka! I got the snow crab like last time, and I'm pretty sure Stephen ordered the jambalaya with a side of red beans and rice, that was so tasty! The girls both got marinara pasta; to me it tasted like the marinara pasta that you get from CiCi's Pizza. Gavin played it safe with a cheeseburger. I was busy chowing down on crab legs, and I didn't get a chance to try it, but he said it was really good!
Sunday was not the best weather, so we went shopping at Tanger Outlets. I vlogged that; you can watch it here.) We had to make a stop at Publix to grab an easy dinner. We cooked some frozen pizzas!! Made it super easy!
Monday we had another glorious sunrise! I fried up some leftover steak and cooked eggs & toast for breakfast. We spent the day at the beach. We had a visitor join us! EllyKay picked up a jellyfish, and of course it stung her...
We normally don't like eating at chain restaurants while we're on vacation, but tonight we ended up going to Friday's because it was the only place, that wasn't fast food... that was open late. I try to eat as healthy as I possibly can while on vacation, so I went for salmon, rice, and broccoli. Stephen & Gavin got burgers, and the girls got mac-n-cheese with cheese sticks on the side!!
Tuesday morning as we were making our way down to watch the sunrise, we saw a dead dolphin on the beach, which of course drew a crowd so we completely missed it. Gavin kept touching it..😑
For breakfast I heated up the leftover eggs and bacon from the previous day and made toaster sandwiches.
We spent the entire day at the beach! 🏖 EllyKay must've been tired because she took a nap!!😅 For lunch we put the air-fryer to good use. I cooked us some cheese sticks, chicken nuggies, and fries! For dinner I cooked a broccoli, chicken, & rice casserole...🤤 It was delicious! (We brought microwave instant rice pouches and canned corn from home.)
Wednesdays sunrise wasn't the best, but we could still see a little. It was so windy this day, I was cold and just not feeling it.. so we stayed inside for the majority of the day. We ate dinner at Charlie Horse, it was so good!! We ordered bacon cheese fries for starters; it was delicious! For an appetizer there was quite a bit; plenty for the 5 of us to munch on. They were kinda messy so I had to keep a napkin close by. Not only did it have melted shredded cheese, there was also some type of nacho cheese sauce on them. They're were served with ranch dressing. They offer an "all you can eat crab" situation, but I wasn't sure I'd be able to eat enough to cover that $95 price tag! 🤑So Stephen and I both ordered the Surf & Turf, which come with a 10oz sirloin, a cluster of crab legs, a few shrimp, and your choice of side (I got fries!) The crab could have had more seasoning but at least it wasn't overcooked... I hate when my crab is cooked for too long.. We both ordered our steak med-rare. They were both cooked to perfection and super juicy. The cooks were very stingy with seasoning so we took them home, added more seasoning, and put it in quesadillas the next night! I should also mention that I am what you would call a "flavor whore" or snob, snob is probably a nicer word! 😂 I cannot eat bland blah food... I chose shrimp scampi 🤤.... Now the scampi butter mix was clumped on top of my shrimp, that was kinda weird, so I scraped the majority off. But the shrimp were a great size and cooked to perfection!! Gavin ordered some kind of club, I can't remember the name, but it was massive! And in true boy teenager fashion, he ate the whole thing!!😅 So it must've been good!
Thursday was an all day rainy kinda day...🌧 The kids were bouncing off the walls, so I made them get outside and run some sprints on the beach. They also did this to get time on their devices. I made quesadillas for dinner, while Stephen watched the Razorbacks lose...
Friday we couldn't see the sunrise, but it still looked beautiful out. Gavin joined us, and brought a whole new meaning to the word "sandman" 😅 Stephen ordered us our last breakfast for this trip. We both shared an omelet so that we wouldn't have leftovers. The girls shared pancakes, and then Gavin wanted donuts.
We spent the ENTIRE day at the beach. It was probably the prettiest day that we were there.🌞 We went to Sonny's BBQ for dinner. It was ok, definitely no Lulu's! The flavors kinda reminded me of a Big Jake's. And the baked beans were pretty basic. I can't remember the name of the appetizer that we got, but it was probably the best thing we ordered. It was like tator tots with cheese and BBQ sauce on them! So good!!
Saturday morning we were up packing and loading the truck to head to our next destination! We went down to watch the sunrise, but it was too cloudy to see anything.. As we were cleaning up I noticed that Stephen put our dying flowers on the balcony! Lol still a cool shot I think!
Again I am so sorry that this was such a long post. I do hope you enjoyed it though! I will say this, I don't think March is a good time to vacation at the beach... We only got 2 sunrises in 2 weeks and it was super windy... Can't wait for our next trip when it's much warmer!!🌞
-Krystal 😘
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