A Look Back at 2013 - MAY - Our Honeymoon (May 11th) - Daytona, Clearwater & Honeymoon Island

 DAY 6 - Daytona Beach, Clearwater & Honeymoon Island


DAYTONA BEACH 

I had spent a good amount of time searching for fun things to do in Daytona Beach and found Zeno's Boardwalk Sweet Shop near the pier and was shocked to see the number of different flavors of taffy they had.  Peanut Butter and Jelly, Candy Corn, Buttered Popcorn and Beer to name a few!  We got a large bag and tried a ton of different flavors!

We walked down the boardwalk and looked around a few shops and got the kids a few souvenirs, some stickers, shells and we got a stone turtle to put on Oliver's headstone since he loved his pet turtle, Hermione.

As we were headed out of town I had to snap a few pictures of the Daytona speedway, even though I'm not a fan of Nascar.  I loved the Mickey Mouse ears on the power lines and we even saw an open truck of oranges on the road. 

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CLEARWATER BEACH

We left Daytona Beach (The Atlantic Ocean) and drove about 3 hours to Clearwater Beach (The Gulf of Mexico).  It was crazy to cross a state in such a small amount of time!  Since we did the cheap time share presentation packages, we thought we'd splurge and spend at least one night in a nice hotel so I found the Hilton Clearwater Beach.  It was our very first time seeing the Gulf of Mexico and it was so beautiful.  The sand was so soft and whiter than the sand on the east coast.  I collected some of each and have it in a jar with some shells I picked up on the beach.

View of the beach from our hotel room.

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HONEYMOON ISLAND

I wanted to see more of Florida's natural beauty on this trip so I did a lot of searching and found this amazing island off the gulf coast of Florida.  Honeymoon Island is a state park so it isn't loaded up with restaurants and hotels.  Unfortunately it was an overcast day with a high chance of rain, but we went anyways.  It will definitely be a place we visit again in the future!  Even though it was overcast, it was still unbelievably stunning!

The sun was beautiful peeking through the clouds.

We headed over the bridge and paid a few bucks to get into the park and drove to a beach that was full of rocks and broken shells.  I spent a while looking for some shells, while Ed relaxed on a wooden beach side bench.  I loved seeing all of the different types of palm trees on the island as we drove from one beach to another.  Ed found a cool shell and had fun watching the crabs scoot from rock to rock.  

We drove to the other side of the island where the beach was a lot nicer.  Too bad the weather didn't cooperate as I wanted to go swimming in the ocean.  It was really shallow in most areas and I could picture the kids playing there in the future.  The sky looked very ominous, but beautiful.  It was EXTREMELY windy so I had to take of my hat for fear of it flying off my head and into the ocean!  Of course, Honeymoon Island, was the perfect setting for a wedding that was taking place as well as the perfect destination for our honeymoon!

One of my favorite shots!

Tampa Bay in the background.

I loved seeing the rays of sun shining down onto the water.

Tampa Bay in the distance after the storm clouds thinned out.

Stunning sunset over the ocean.  Of course we always thought of Oliver on the Florida beaches.

A bright rainbow against the black sky.

We left Honeymoon Island when the sun was setting and were getting hungry so we drove back to the hotel.  We took a walk down the street and found a small pizza place and ice cream shop to eat at.  We sat outside and talked while people watching and listening to the street musicians.  It was a really fun day!