Annual Honeymoon - Daytona/Orlando

This was the hardest trip to plan - ever!!!! 

We changed plans so many times, it wasn't even funny.  All along, since last year, we had planned on going to London.  Well, then someone decided to have some wedding in the same week that we planned - so I didn't even want to try.  But, weren't they pretty???  Then we thought about going to Paris and go to the beaches of Normandy.  It's one of the things on Ted's bucket list and I think it sounds amazing.  But, the rail workers and the airline workers were having planned strikes all during the month of May.  So that wasn't going to work.

We had a few more ideas - then decided to do the trip we planned on doing last fall, but Ted was busy at work, so he couldn't really get away.  We were going to do a New England road trip - it was all about food and hotels.  Had it all planned.  Then we started worrying about the weather, so we started waffling.

A few days before, Ted was working with one of his customers and I looked at the hotel and we decided, hey - let's go there.  On the beach, Florida - sounds, perfect, right???

We decided to leave on our anniversary, which was Saturday.  Ted was gone all day doing a training exercise with Civil Air Patrol.   We listed on the red-eye to Orlando and headed to the airport around 9:00 p.m.  We got to fly first class and that was really nice.  We landed around 5:30 in the morning and picked up our rental car for our ninety minute drive to Daytona.  That got extended due to an emergency stop at the Walmart for a new GPS and then breakfast at the Awful Waffle House. 

We got to our hotel around 10:00.   I didn't sleep at all - because I have a real hard time sleeping on planes - and so I was exhausted.  No surprise, we couldn't check in.  I was so tired, I was getting whiney, so Ted went in and talked to the front desk dude and found out that we should be able to get a room around noon or 1:00.  We were going to try and nap in the car - but that wasn't going well - so Ted told me to get in the passenger seat and he was going to drive and we would go for a ride.  Ted said something about he wished we knew where a dollar theatre was, so we could just go get some rest - but, I knew I needed a fancy schmancy theatre with recliners, so I could put my feet up and just zone out and nap.  So -  we found one.  Watched Rampage.  Guess what, I couldn't sleep - got too involved in the movie. But, I was able to put my feet up and relax - I was happy again.  But, the good news was, we could finally check in once it was over!!

After resting and relaxing, we went to Ted's brother's home and had Mother's Day dinner with him, his wife, son and mother-in-law.  It was a nice dinner with wonderful conversation and stories.  We really enjoyed ourselves.  We stopped at Ben and Jerry's on the way back to the hotel.  Then straight to the hotel to finally sleep!!!

I reserved us an ocean--front room.  So - when you opened the drapes, the floor to ceiling windows - all you could see was beach and ocean.  It was so amazing!!!  I loved to just spend my time with the chair facing the windows looking out at the ocean. 

The next day, it just rained and rained.  But, there was a long enough break in the late morning that we could go play in the ocean and the pool.  We picked up some seashells.  Ran and played.  Then we went to lunch at Aunt Catfish's On The River for lunch.  Had some fish and shrimp.  Hit a couple of gift shops in the rain and the most important function of the whole day was picking up some rain suits at the Army Navy Store.  HAHAHA!

In the middle of the night, Ted got sick.  He was really sick.  This was only the second time in our married life I know of him throwing up.  I felt horrible for him.  And I felt horrible for me, since we were going  to Epcot the next day.

I asked Ted forty times on our way to Epcot if he was going to be ok running around Epcot. He kept saying yes.  I asked him again before we were ready to hit the parking lot.  I had a fear of spending $250 for tickets and even more for parking and he wasn't going to last an hour.  That old fart Marine made it all day.  He couldn't do anything fast.  He would fall asleep any chance he got, even standing up, he couldn't eat a damned thing and didn't eat at all that day.  He would walk ten minutes and have to rest.  But, he stayed and we made it through everything we wanted to do.  Even with the deluge rain storm that hit right in the middle of the day.  Good thing we had our rain coats!

Our plan was for an anniversary dinner that day.  Ted was still too sick.  So there was no all-you-can-eat lobster, crab and prime rib for us.  So - he still owes me an anniversary dinner.

We got checked into our hotel, got a Subway sandwich and Ted was gone, sleeping, passed out.  He was done.  We had to wake up at 4:30 to get to the airport early the next day, so it was probably good that he knocked out. 

Was it a horrible trip?  No - we had a great time still, even with weather, no sleep and illness.  Was it my favorite trip?  Not in the least, probably the very bottom rung.  But, it was an adventure.

The beach!!!  This was taken from our room.

I like this picture of us

This one - not so much.

Foot shot in the Atlantic

Footprints in the sand

I just thought he was cute

Ted's banana split from Ben and Jerry's

Where the Daytona 500 is.  This picture doesn't even do it a
bit of justice.  It's insanely huge.  Like crazy huge. 
And they use it once a year for a race.  My mind is boggled.

We needed a little string backpack
for Epcot to carry our fancy rain coats

Made it to Epcot - poor sick guy

Waiting for Soarin' - - he fell asleep standing up.  The people
behind him didn't know what to do.  When I realized he wasn't with me
I turned around and yelled his name.  He woke up.  

In our adorable yellow rain suits.  Kept the rain off us.

He finally was able to just rest.  Poor guy was exhausted.

We had a good trip home.  It was a really early flight - but, it was good.  We had the emergency exit row to ourselves.  The one good thing about flying, I catch up on movies.  I managed to get three in during the two flights.