December 2018 was a busy month, Mommy and Daddy went to Spain (Barcelona/Valencia/Madrid) for a short trip earlier in the month and after Christmas, Amca (Uncle) and cousins Yagmur and Ruya came to visit from Germany. Another winter visit from the family meant another road trip to Florida! While we were not looking forward to a 24-hour drive, we were looking forward to some warm weather and sunshine. We decided to leave little brother home with nene and dede (grandma & grandpa) while we took the girls down south to some beaches.
The main goal this trip was South Florida, particularly Miami. We stopped at a hotel that had a pool to break up the trip a little. The girls loved it.
We made it to Miami and spent most of the day at South Beach. The weather was perfect, the beach was perfect, the girls loved it… except for one little part. Alara got stung by a jellyfish. We didn’t know what happened at first, Alara just started crying and said something bit her ankle. Luckily we were right near a lifeguard and told us that there were a lot of jellyfish in the water. He had some kind of vinegar liquid thing that he put on the area and she was back up and running after a few minutes of resting.
We got our fill of Miami and decided to stay outside in Boynton Beach. The hotel we stayed at had a wonderful pool. We certainly took advantage of that!
We started to head back in the direction of home and had two more favorite stops in mind: Downtown Disney and Daytona Beach. We decided on a quick stop to Downtown Disney before settling into Daytona for the rest of the trip.
We found a great hotel in Daytona Beach that had a kitchenette, ocean view balcony, nice clean pool and right on the beach. It was the part of the beach where cars are not allowed, so it was perfect for the girls to run between the pool and the beach.
We also spent some time in the Daytona Beach Main Street Pier area, spending lots of time at the arcade and having ice cream. We also spent some time at the Tanger Outlets Daytona Beach, which has great shops, restaurants and even a splash pad which the girls loved playing in.
Daytona Beach offers beautiful views of the sunrise, and while I don’t usually recommend waking up at 7am while on vacation, an advantage of waking up early with children is getting to enjoy this sunrise.
That concluded our trip to Florida. One of our favorite places to stop on the way home is Liberty State Park in Jersey City, NJ. It was such a long drive and we didn’t get to stop until the middle of the night, so Alara had to sit this photoshoot out as she was sleeping in the car. Just an excuse for us to come back on our next trip!
Alara & Adam Travels 