Our parents also joined us for the vacation, which began with five days in Daytona Beach, followed by three days in Orlando.
Daytona is renowned for its big wide beach that's open to vehicles during the day. The hard packed sand is perfect for running!
Our hotel was right on the beach!
We had a partial beach and partial city view:
There was of course a purpose to this vacation. One being the Daytona 500, which according to Wikipedia "is regarded as the most important and prestigious race in the NASCAR calendar, carrying by far the largest purse."
In the days before the BIG RACE, you could do a track tour with a guide!
They loaded us onto a trolley and we rode around the outside of the MASSIVE grand stands.
The view out the back of the trolley as we headed under the track:
We emerged in the middle of the track amidst a sea of RVs -- although there were still a few spots waiting for their owners to arrive.
Are they fixing the fence? Little did they know that a car would smash through it just a few days later...
We peeked inside the drivers' garages...
... but nobody was home except for the cars!
And of course we got to be winners on the podium for a moment.
Next we headed up to the private booths in the grand stands to a spectacular view of the track.
I'm not gonna lie; after our tour I may have gone back to the hotel room and watched the opening scenes of Days of Thunder.
