Daytona Beach

When my husband and I lived in Daytona Beach we pretty much moved there without having been a tourist there first.  At least I did anyway.  We had been to the speedway for the races a few times, but never actually stayed in Daytona Beach.  When we moved down there, there really wasn't an opportunity or a need to stay in a hotel on the beach.

Well this past weekend my husband had his Monkey Bars Garage Storage System booth at the Daytona Beach Home Show for three days.   It was a great excuse to get a room on the beach, across from the convention center, and enjoy being a semi-tourist.  The beds were comfy, too!

I only went down for one night, as I had quite a bit of things to do that weekend in Jacksonville, but it was nice to hang out there again.  We had only lived in the Daytona area for three years, so we've actually been gone longer than we were there.

This was view outside our window.  It was the city view.  Pretty neat sunset.

Saturday, Tom and I had breakfast across the street from the hotel and then he went to the home show and I drove a curvy, non direct route through town to the expressway to go home.  Taking photos as I went along.

Skips is a Western Wear store.  I do believe it's been around forever.

I've always liked this particular building.  I can't remember what used to be in there, but it looks like it's still in great shape.  Daytona Beach has (had) a lot of cool 50s - 60s buildings, hotels and homes but in an effort to get rid of of the run down look that was happening to a lot of these places, they have been systematically torn down.  I can understand because a lot of the old motels were pretty seedy or scary looking - the old Florida look though, with those places gone, is just not there as much any more.  I'm so happy to see that some of the buildings, even if they aren't occupied, are kept in good condition. 

When I lived in Lansing, Michigan, I lived above a fur shop.  You don't see too many fur shops anymore, so I was happy to see this one was still around -- and yet thought it was quite odd that there would be a fur shop in Florida.  Since we are known for our long winters here! (Ha!)

This house is on a pretty great piece of land about a mile from the beach, but I'm pretty sure that this place needs to just be razed.  It was in a pretty sorry state, but I liked that someone painted the windows on the plywood. 

Daytona Beach has a little arcade/amusement area - Very Touristy and I don't mind saying - It's a bit cheesy.  I did like the Ferris Wheel all lit up at night though.  That was cool.

I would like to go back again and stay at the beach when Tom and I can stay the whole weekend and just be a tourist.   He got enough estimate sign-ups at the home show to make it worth it the trip, so that's all that really mattered this time.

Hope you have a great day!
Kristin