Ben and I flew to New Smyrna Beach, FL last Sunday. Actually, we flew into the Sanford/Orlando airport where we were picked up by one of my most favoritest aunts, Aunt Mary. We went back to her house in Heathrow (she lives in Columbus, OH, this is just a vacation home) and ate dinner with her, my Uncle Jeff and their friends, Lynn and Bobby. After dinner, we headed back to the airport to pick up my mom. It was Mother's Day, so we made a pit stop on the way to the airport to get some flowers. Unfortunately, everyone else had already had that idea and left me with a choice of baby's breath (gag) and some practically dead eucalyptus. So I settled on a "Mom's Make the Best Friends" balloon and we were off. She was more than happy to receive it and even happier to see her baby girl - that's me!
We spent the night in Orlando so we could take yet ANOTHER trip to the airport to drop of my aunt and uncle and friends on Monday morning. It was good to spend some time with them before they headed out.
Then we were off to New Smyrna Beach! There we stayed at my mom's family's condo in The Golden Arms.
It is right on the beach with a private pool. Very convenient and quite nice. The pool was still a little cold for my taste, but it was nice for dipping my feet in to cool off.
Pretty nice view, eh?
On Tuesday night we made our our third trip to the airport to pick up my Daddy (he's the cutest!) and headed back to the beach.
Wednesday, we hung out the beach and ate dinner in. I think we were all a little worn out from traveling. I made us a delicious meal of brats, corn on the cob and potato salad.
Ben just so happened to grow up about 20 minutes from New Smyrna Beach in a small town called DeLand. So on Thursday he took me on a tour. I saw his High School, where he lived when he was a kid and ate at his favorite pizza joint, Tom's Pizza. His best friend from HS, Jeremy, joined us for lunch. It was nice to catch up with him! We missed seeing his wife, Jenny.
Ben's house from 5th grade through high school.
Thursday night we decided to make the trek 30 minutes North to Daytona Beach. Dad wanted us to eat at Bubba Gump's. The shrimp was delicious and I aced the trivia game!
The restaurant boasts an elaborate paging system at every table. If you need something, you simply flip the license plates (below) to Red. All set? Then leave it on blue. It actually worked pretty well!
In the gift shop we found a sign for each of us. Mine says, "The more I learn about people, the more I like cats." Ben's read, "Shhhhhh Important game in progress."
My dad found a sign reading, " A miserable day on the Golf Course still beats a good day at the office." And of course my mom's said, "If MOM ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!"
We walked up the strip and found a Florida Gator store. My dad couldn't help himself...in case you can't tell what you are looking at, that's MY Daddy... pretending to relieve himself on the Gator sign. 
We spent one more day at the beach on Friday before heading back to shop all weekend in Orlando. I had made it all that time without getting burned and I guess I got too cocky. I didn't do a good enough job of applying sunscreen and missed a few spots. Let's just say that by the night time it looked like some one had tortured me with an iron. I had random burn spots all over my legs and arms. NOT a pretty sight.
My favorite part of the whole trip was our last weekend in Orlando. We shopped, I got free stuff, we ate and slept. But Sunday morning it was back to reality. We dropped my parents off at the airport and a chauffeur service delivered us to the same spot a few hours later.
We had a great time, but it was nice to come home. And even nicer to see my baby, Marley and sleep in our own bed.
1 comment:
Muwahahaha! I too, am not much of a beach freak. Of course there is a requisite annual visit =)
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