I’m so tired my grammar has left me! We spent a solid 12 hours in the car. From about 10 pm to 10 am. Well, technically, I’m typing this at 10:50 am still in the car because we can’t check in until noon. I have such devotion. Or just need a way to kill time before lunch.

I handled the drive much better than anticipated. Rocky patches still came up, but we survived. Peter drove the first four hours while I attempted to sleep. Key word being attempted. Who knew there were so many distractions in the car.Peter has a cough that would wake me up. My body froze because we had to keep the A/C turned up cold so the person driving would stay awake. I contracted an even more serious case of ADD than normal and kept popping awake from the songs that played on the radio. “Hey Peter. Did did you know Heather (my sister) had no clue Adam Lambert sang this until last week?” “Eminem still sings!? When did he come back?!” And so on. I reached that crazy, silly, happy tired stage relatively quickly.

Wow! Camera flashes are not friendly. Since I was awake, I drove for 2 hours while Peter napped, allowing tunes from the 80s and 90s to energize me. If you like Pina Coladas…and getting caught in the rain. If you’re not into health food and like the taste of champagne. Perhaps I shouldn’t blog on so few hours of sleep? My apologies for torturing you with the most random mumble jumble known to man. And for using words like mumble jumble.

The remainder of the drive went smoothly. I managed a decent amount of dozing. We stopped for some breakfast. I had a very lackluster bowl of fruit and a biscuit. I learned that Northern toll roads are insanely expensive. And that pumping your own gas is not allowed in some areas. Who knew? I wish I could actually SEE Philly for all this traveling. That’s right. We’re starting a new trend to drive 12 hours to the suburbs of an amazing city and not get the chance to go in. 🙁 I made the executive decision to scrap our 5 year wedding anniversary cruise plan to travel instead to somewhere nifty in the US. It bothers me I’ve seen more foreign countries than states.

Back to the day. Since we weren’t able to check in until noon we hit up an early lunch. I grinned when we came across a Panera. Yay for the half and half combo – strawberry poppyseed salad and chicken salad sandwich. Deliciousness.

Upon checking in, we quickly headed up to our room, dumped our bags, and climbed in for a 2 hour nap.

A chorus of angels opened up and sang at that moment. Now, I am about to leave for tonight’s wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.

I have a feeling I’m going to miss wine. At least there will be dessert. And then bed. Ohhhh….bed!!!!

• What is the least amount of sleep you have had to endure? I think last night left me more tired than the first few weeks after having Makenzie!! I know I had a lot less sleep back in my party years, but that was different.
• What is your favorite part about weddings? I love the actual ceremony, but as for the rehearsal and reception I admit to being all about the food! LOL Unless I know a lot of the people and then it’s about letting loose and having a good time laughing.

Please click HERE for my next Examiner article. It’s an important one.

And no, it’s not the Backstreet Boys. I’m back! For good!! I missed you all and blogging soooooo much while I was away. I have to say that as much as I enjoyed vacation and all it entails, I am glad to be back to regular living. We knocked out a bunch of errands (like restocking our fridge and such) yesterday so that way I could just go about life today. I went to a spinning class this morning (first workout in over two weeks!) and then did some other odds and ends running around – like to the post office to ship something, to pick up the loads of photos I got printed from our trip, to get a new hair dryer to replace my busted one, etc. I don’t know for sure what it is, but something about having a wonderful vacation and then coming back and still loving everything in my life just makes me smile from the inside out. I sincerely hope you all have been doing just as fabulous.

Now I guess I should move onto what most of you are looking for in this post…vacation details! Basically every day is the same when we are on our Daytona Beach vacation. My extended family has been going there for over 25 years and I look forward to it every year. Days of relaxing at the beach, spending time with family I only see twice a year, and topping off the night with a fabulous seafood dinner out together makes for a great vacation. Even better? It’s all on my G-Pa. He spoils us. 😉

Day to Day In Daytona

In the morning, we would wake up at around 6:00 am thanks to a specific little person sleeping in our room. Then, we would do our best to make it out to the beach for a morning sunrise walk. We would do a 3 mile walk with M in the stroller which was a lovely start to many mornings.

After hopefully making it out for our walk, we would come back in for some breakfast. Then we lathered up the sunscreen, got in our swimsuits, lugged the endless vacation paraphernalia down to the beach and just enjoyed ourselves. Makenzie played in the sand; we all went to jump waves in the ocean; I read some books.

We would hang out for about 3 hours and then head up for naps and lunch. I loved naps! I took an almost two hour nap pretty much every day. It was glorious. I loved lunch as well. Healthy food finally sounded good to me again and I ate it up. I think I ate my weight in fresh fruit, cheese, hummus, carrots, and whole wheat pita chips this trip. If I was extra hungry a sandwich or something would accompany this snack plate.

At around 3:00 pm we would head back out to the beach to soak up a few more hours of sand and fun. After all, we had to be sure to work up appetites for our dinners out every night. I absolutely adore the food from the places we go eat at in Daytona Beach. I start drooling over it a month in advance. This year did not disappoint. Here are some of my favorites….

Lots of Salad – Caesar or House

The Most Delicious Filet with Spinach & Mashed Potatoes

Coconut Shrimp

Broiled Crab Cakes + Baked Potato

Clam Chowder Bread Bowl for the Sis & I

And in case food pictures aren’t all you were looking for, here are some others of us going out.

All the “Kids” with our G-Pa

When dinner was done it was time to return to the condos, perhaps play a game or two, and then crash in bed simply to repeat it all another day. I did have a few other highlights on the trip, including a luncheon meetup with the awesome Julie and a trip to the Ponce Inlet lighthouse, but I will save those for a post later this week.

Now you tell me…

• What is something that made you smile this past week? I want to know a highlight from your world while I was away frolicking in the sand.
• Do you have a vacation spot that is special in your heart? Daytona Beach will always be my favorite beach and place to vacay simply because I have ALWAYS gone there.I have so many wonderful memories from there.