A Quick Side Trip to Daytona Beach, Florida

In this post I will talk about a quick two day trip to Daytona Beach. We stopped there before making our way to the west coast of Florida. The photo below is the sunrise from our hotel room balcony.

But I am getting ahead of myself. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Resort Daytona Beach Oceanfront. We were upgraded to a suite which included a kitchen with full refrigerator, stovetop and microwave. It also had a sofa bed and dining table and chairs. There was a balcony overlooking the pool area with an ocean view. The room was quite nice. 

The negatives , in my opinion - 

1) No complimentary breakfast (there was a restaurant attached to the hotel where you could buy breakfast).

2) No dishes, utensils, pot & pans, dish towels, etc. (anything you wanted for use in the kitchen had to be requested). I did ask for a sharp knife to cut a pineapple and was told that they did not have any for safety reasons. They suggested I go to the restaurant and ask. I did and was told they would ask the chef to cut it for us. We decided it would be less hassle to take it with us to our next destination.

There are tons of motels and hotels in the area so lots of choices.

We had dinner at Hull's Seafood Restaurant in Ormond Beach. It was excellent. Good food, good service. I had grilled wahoo, Cuban black beans and hush puppies (very good).

The beach is nice and clean, but the sand is very hard. You can drive your vehicle onto the beach. Since we were there in early March it was a little chilly. The water was a bit too cold for me. There were some kids going in but not many adults.

We took a trip to Deland to the Volusia County Flea Market/Farmers Market. They are open on Wednesdays. They had GREAT deals on produce. That is where we got the above mentioned pineapple as well as many other fruits and vegetables. The prices were unbelievable.

Something to keep in mind if you visit during the spring -

Bike week was beginning on the day we left

Spring break

These events can make a big difference depending on what you want to do.

Dream Trip - Galapagos Islands Part 6

This post will be the conclusion of the Galapagos Islands travel log. As I said before, it was a once in a lifetime trip to a very unique location. The whole experience was great. We experienced a culture a bit different from what we were used to, got to try a variety of foods including lots of fresh fish and seafood and had a truly relaxing vacation. Even though we visited many wonderful places around the island, it was at a nice leisurely pace with plenty of time to truly enjoy everything.

Dream Trip - Galapagos Islands Part 5

In this segment of the Galapagos Islands story, I will cover a few additional places we visited.

Dream Trip - Galapagos Islands Part 4

 In this post we will visit some more interesting and beautiful places on the island. 

This was a special day, my husband's birthday. We took a taxi to Tortuga Bay. The trail to the beach is about 1 1/2 miles long and starts out with stone stairs. The trail is paved and runs through a desert-like area. It was a hot day and by the time we made it to the beach we were ready to cool off. But - the first beach we reached is mostly for the wildlife, there are big waves and strong currents here and no swimming is allowed. We got some good closeup shots of the marine iguanas. If you keep walking you reach a cove or lagoon where there is another smaller beach where swimming is allowed. This water was calm, more like a lake. There were lots of marine iguanas swimming around. It's a nice beach with a few trees and lots of little birds.

Dream Trip - Galapagos Islands Part 3

On the third day we made arrangements with W (who had picked us up when we arrived in Galapagos) for a day trip. We would be visiting El Chato Ranch Giant Tortoise Reserve where the tortoises are in their natural habitat. But first we had breakfast at our favorite spot in town, - Kale. Then we got a taxi (one of the white pickup trucks ) back to the apartment where W picked us up. 

At El Chato Ranch they have a supply of rubber boots you can wear that are good for walking around through the tall grass. They were especially good on this day because it was raining. We roamed around for quite a while, walking very close to the tortoises. They were big and it was fun just to be able to walk so close and actually be among them (had to watch out for the big poop). We got lots of photos. They have a snack bar there and we had some refreshments before walking to a lava tunnel. This is where the lava flowed through and made a cave. There were a lot of steps going down into the cave. We had fun exploring. 

Dream Trip - Galapagos Islands Part 2

On the second day of our trip to the Galapagos Islands we walked into Puerto Ayora for breakfast. We found a small restaurant (Restaurante Kale) where there were quite a few policemen having breakfast there. We figured they were locals so it must be good. We got our first taste of Ecuadorian food here when we ordered bolones - fried mashed plantain shaped into balls with add-ins such as cheese and pork. We also had eggs, beef and jugo de tomate de arbol (tree tomato or tamarillo juice). Everything was very tasty. Needless to say, we returned there several times during our stay. After breakfast, we went to the market for fresh produce. After returning to the apartment, we were ready to set out on our excursion.