Daytona Beach Recap

So, Mr. Giraffe and I went to Daytona Beach for our anniversary in June. The weather was gorgeous! Sunny, blue skies, and HOT! (I was grateful for the heat because I'm too wimpy to get in the ocean otherwise.)

We stayed at the Hilton (right behind the giant clock tower in the picture above). The location was perfect! It took us about 2 minutes to get from our room to the beach. And the view?

Beautiful. We spent time at the beach every day.

This trip was all about having fun and being lazy, not a sightseeing whirlwind. So we played chess on the hotel roof:

Watched fireworks:

Looked for lizards:

And played four rounds of mini golf (four separate courses at three different locations). They were only two or three blocks away from the beach, but the air felt 10x thicker without that ocean breeze.

Oh, and the eating. We ate so much! (This is the part where I'm supposed to show you tons of pictures of yummy things we consumed, but we took very few pictures of our meals. Oh well. We were too busy eating ;) )

We did squeeze in one little excursion - the Ponce de Leon Lighthouse. At 175 feet tall, it's the tallest lighthouse in Florida. It was only about a 20 minute drive and admission was super cheap - $5 a person! That gave you access to the nature paths, museum, most of the buildings on the grounds, and the lighthouse:

It was built in the 1880s, so there's only one way up:

203 steps! I took this on the second or third landing, so it doesn't show all the steps, but on a 95 degree day, it was quite the trek. The view was definitely worth it and thankfully the breeze was strong at the top!

The grounds were cool to explore too. I enjoyed the keepers' homes the most. They were still set up as if the families who worked here in the early 1900s were coming back that night. I love learning about how people used to live - just the day to day stuff fascinates me (okay, and I'm nosy). Makes me wonder if people will think the way I'm living now is outdated in 2113 . . ?

Then we flew home the next day. All in all, a fantastic trip. I came home feeling refreshed and ready to tackle my 200 page writing assignment for my college class. :)

What's your ideal vacation? Lots of activities or more laid back?