It has been a very busy week here! Scratch that, it's been a really crazy month. I feel like I've been going, going, going since mid-May when I was in DC with Allison and Layla. Things should calm down here for a couple weeks, and while I usually loathe a weekend where we have zero plans, I am totally looking forward to this one. I mean I am thrilled at the thought of sitting in the blanket fort, playing cards, and hanging out.
But let's rewind to last weekend. Last year, like a week before Peyton's birthday, he asked if it would be possible to go to CEO. CEO is one of the biggest fighting games tournaments and it takes place the last weekend in June (so right near his birthday). It's held every year in Daytona Beach, so it's not all that far. But, it involves not only a competitor pass, but also you have to purchase spectator passes, and since it spans the weekend, it also requires a hotel stay. I told him with a week's notice it just wouldn't work out. But, if he wanted to do it next year we would look into it. So this year, I booked and paid for the hotel way far ahead of time and even got the group CEO rate, and got his pass early so you get a little discount there too. Hayden wanted to go too, so he got his spectator pass in his Easter Basket. Basically, it was an awesome thing to do for his birthday because I could pay for it all ahead of time. It's kind of rough to have Calib's birthday, our anniversary and Peyton's birthday within 32 days of each other. The competitions start around noon on Friday so we got up early and headed out. Calib took a pass on the whole thing, because he's requested off work a lot lately and he wasn't all that interested in going anyway. It was perfect, because then he stayed with the dogs, and we didn't have to worry about them either. (Older kids for the win!)
The hotel room, of course, wasn't ready when we got there are 10 AM. So I dropped the boys off across the street for our hotel at the Ocean Center. It was really nice to have our hotel so close to the event, it was basically just across the street. I didn't buy a spectator pass, because I didn't think I'd get $55 worth of entertainment. But, I did come along to be there for meal times and coordinating things for them (that also means all the pictures from inside the event are Asa's or Peyton's).
Peyton signed up to be in a couple tournaments. He didn't go all that far, but he was fine with that- he didn't expect to. However, he was thrilled with all the 'friendlies' available to play, and he likes just watching things and getting tips on how to get better too.
Plus some of his favorite people were there. He knows all the 'famous' people in the fighting game community, so he was super excited to see them. He wasn't there too long when he spotted Goichi, who apparently is known as like the best DragonBall Z Fighter in the world. Goichi doesn't speak English, but he does fist bump. He also kept talking about wanting to see SonicFox, and while he was watching some game, SonicFox just happened to sit right down next to him. (Asa and Hayden were back at the room at the time, and Peyton just sent us a selfie he took with SonicFox- and Hayden was totally jealous).
Since the room wasn't ready, I knew I'd need somewhere to explore on Friday morning, so I decided to head down to Ponce Inlet. There's a few lost cost (especially for just one person) things to do down there, and it's just about 30 minutes south of the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach. My first stop was at the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse.
It's the tallest lighthouse in the state of Florida, at 175 feet. (Plus it's such a striking color!)
It is 203 steps to the top, so be sure to bring your walking shoes. Notice #6 says "No flip flops", while I was wearing my Nike slides. And I thought, man, should I even do this? (I hate breaking posted rules, it's the Catholic in me, I think)
But ultimately I was like 'screw it, I'll go barefoot if it comes to that' (luckily, it never did. I was fine in my slides). Up the steps I went.
And the veiw from the top was pretty awesome, so it was worth the trip in my slides.
Then, of course, you have to make your way back down all those steps (and the spiraling does make you slightly dizzy, too). It was actually harder coming down in my slides than going up. But, I did that too.
The lighthouse sits among a couple of museums and old buildings where the lighthouse keeper used to live, so you can check those out too, while you're there. There's also some gardens. It's a cute stop, and for $7 for just me, I thought it was a reasonable ticket price. I nosed around and got my history lesson for the day.
And of course, I got a magnet to add to my collection. It's the only one I bought this trip, but I already had a Daytona Beach one, so I wanted something a little different.
I was ready for lunch about then, and while I had some uncrustables and things in the car with me, I decided to stop and have lunch at a little hideaway restaurant right next door to the lighthouse. I'm not often on my own for a meal (especially a sit down place), but it was nice and relaxing. And the coconut shrimp was yummy. The star, however, were the hush puppies. They were awesome.
And the veiw wasn't too bad, either. Living in Florida, I've really started to hate seagulls. They're so mean and they take your food. But Pelicans, pelicans are one of my favorite Florida birds by far.
After lunch I headed over to the Ponce Inlet Marine Science Center. It's just down the road from the lighthouse, and while it is a small little stop, the admission price is only $5.
I was there mostly to see the rescued sea turtles. But, as it turns out they are having work done on their roof and while that's being completed, they can't house any sea turtles. Empty tanks = Total bummer.
But, the whole complex works hard to save marine life, so I felt like my $5 admission when to a good cause.
And there was still some fish and such to see.
Plus I got to pet some sting rays and see some seahorses, so not a total loss of a trip.
There's a little trail outside the Science Center to take you to an observation tower. I followed along the boardwalk. It was a cute little short trail and mostly in the shade, which I appreciated on the hote Florida day.
By now Asa had texted me that the room was ready. We stayed at the Hilton Oceanfront. We've stayed there before when we saw the sunrise on the Atlantic and the sunset over the Gulf. But, also, coincidentally, this is the hotel I stayed at on my senior class trip. (I remember it mostly for the steps/tiered sides.)
There's two towers- the north and the south. We were in the north tower, along with a whole bunch of other people there for CEO. It was the hotel offering a special CEO group rate, and the one next to the Ocean Center, so that was kind of a given. The room was nice enough- especially for the rate- and oceanfront. It wouldn't be my first pick for a vacation, but Daytona Beach wouldn't be my first pick either. But, that's where CEO is held, so that's where we were.
There's not a fully balcony, but enough to kind of scoot out and look around.
Hayden enjoyed it, and I brought the air mattress so he wouldn't have to share a bed with Peyton. We put it right up against the floor to ceiling windows and he had a nice view from his bed. By the time I got to the hotel on Friday Hayden and Peyton were ready for naps. They are certainly not used to being up that early!
After awhile, they headed back over to the Ocean Center and I decided to explore the area. Not too far off the hotel is the pier, so I walked out there to check things out.
Last time we were there (and when I was there in 1999 for my class trip) the hotel had an indoor/outdoor pool area. But, they have since taken away the indoor part- and now it's all outdoor, although there is still an alcove to be in the shade, so that's nice on a sunny day.
They had lots of fun seating, too. I especially loved the U boat shaped loungers.
And with the hotel being just steps off the beach you could walk down there easy to stick your toes in the sand.
Plus, I've got that Ainsworth blood. If you're near a body of water, you're required to stick your toe in.
Being in the north tower we were close to the stage, too, where they have concerts on Friday and Saturday nights. You could hear them perfectly from our balcony (and you could even hear them pretty well from our room with the balcony door shut- but both nights the bands were pretty good, so I enjoyed the noise).
Saturday was our only full day over in Daytona, so I thought I would maybe leave and either hit Saint Augustine or the Kennedy Space Center (both are about an hour away- one north- one south), but parking was a sticky situation, and you were advised if you wanted the CEO rate of $7 a day, once you found a spot you didn't move from it. Otherwise, you'd end up in valet at like $30-something a day. Also, the valet had tons of complaints about having to wait like an hour for your car- so that didn't appeal to me. I decided I'd just hang around. After the boys got up and headed back over to CEO, I walked down to the beach and rented a bike to ride up and down the beach.
It was pretty hard to get my picture on my bike, since it was just me. But I did the best I could.
I love a good bike ride. I mean, Asa and I try and go on a good 8 mile long one at least once a weekend (which has been hard given all this time we've been gone lately), so I had a great time. Peddling in the sand was a little hard at times, but nothing too strenuous. However, by the time I was done I was rather warm.
I decided to hit the pool real quick. This time I went to the one much closer to our room. But, that pool isn't on the ocean side. Instead, you get a city view. And that city view was rather ominous looking. I knew the rain was coming for us. But, I had enough time to take a dip and cool off.
Over at CEO the boys were watching lots of games on the streams- but in person. Hayden would get especially excited when he got a front row seat.
They were ready for lunch, so they sent me a text and I got everything out to make a buffet of uncrustables, chips, and various snacks I had brought along.
Peyton was too entrenched in the gaming to come back for lunch (plus that kid eats like a bird), but Asa and Hayden were pleased with my efforts (which was good- because dinner was a repeat of lunch and nobody seemed to mind all that much.
After lunch they headed back over to catch back up with Peyton.
Meanwhile, the rain had started to come down and the beach had been completely cleared. I decided to go walk around the hotel to see what was going on, and they had brought everything inside- including an ice cream shop and a band.
I had packed my rain jacket though, and while there was a complete downpour, there wasn't any lightning and thunder was only off in the distance, so I decided I should go play in the rain on the beach.
But on my way down to the beach I noticed a straw, so I picked it up to toss it. Two steps later, another straw. So I picked that up and tossed it. I stopped counting when I got to 76 straws- and mostly because I found an unopened condom and a totally empty bottle of Fireball Whiskey. Like, really, Daytona? The whole thing reminded me of the Trump rally, where I was like 'there aren't really STILL people that openly racist anymore, right?' and then you see it and you're like 'holy crap, humanity can really, really suck.' This is like the enviromental version of that. I read about how straws and plastic end up killing all these fish and birds and whales, and I'm like.. 'people STILL litter, even like RIGHT ON THE BEACH?' I mean, we all know how terrible that is, right? And like, we all know we're totally Wall-E ing up the planet right (shout out to Disney)? I didn't even make it to the end of the hotel next door to ours. Not even the length of two football fields and I picked up SO.MUCH.TRASH. I spent an hour out there picking up all the plastic, straws, cans, hair tires, and abandoned broken toys I could see. There were lighters and cigarette cartons all over the place. I couldn't bring myself to pick up all the cigarette butts, but they were EVERYWHERE. Like, who even smokes anymore. Don't we all know that's terrible too? There was even one broken shoe. Like, just one. What happened to the other one? Twice I had to shoo birds away from bright neon straws. Who takes straws to the beach? I mean, I love straws. But, I can give them up for the good of saving the planet.
Sometimes it would just be one obvious big piece of trash sitting all by itself. Like, how did that get left? Did someone not care? Or did they not look around at all to see if they got everything? I mean, I know it was raining, and maybe people left in a hurry. But it certainly didn't come out of nowhere.
I didn't go from one trash can to another without having a ton of crap to throw away. Like, come on you guys, it isn't even that far from one trash can to another. And really Daytona? You can't even have lids on your trash cans. That's an issue too. One time I went to throw something away and a bird came flying out at me.
Even the area in front of the hotel, not on the beach, was messy with cups and plastic and straws. Enough with the straws, everyone! I used to think 'how in the world do all these straws get into the ocean?' Now. I know. I mean, there was even a broken phone charger that was laying on the ground by the doors to the hotel. It was nuts people.
After an hour I had cleaned up most of the area in front of the hotel and I felt pretty good about myself. I saved some birds. Or maybe some sea turtles. Or a whale. Who knows. But, I did good and I got a good workout walking up and down the beach and squatting over and over again to pick up trash.
I was completely drench and sandy. But I knew I was going upstairs to get dry so I was fine with it.
The wind must have been more intense than I thought though, because there was a ton of sand all over my jacket. I let it dry and then brushed it all off, but it was kind of crazy.
I did notice a sign by the elevators that wasn't there before on my way back up, though. Looks like those CEO gamers were getting rowdy.
The rain stopped not too long after I came in, so I decided to go treat myself to some ice cream and take a little walk around, you know, just to get more steps in.
I also nosed around some shops. I thought about getting another magnet, but all of them featured clean beaches and I thought that was disingenuous.
Also, gross. I'm not buying anything from stores that sell this crap. I mean, I know it's Daytona, but really? REALLY?
People were coming back to the beach since the rain had stopped, I was just hoping they weren't trashing it again.
After my walk, the pools were back open so I decided to go have another swim. Our pool water is getting really warm. It's so warm you just kind of jump in and come back up and say 'meh'. There's no actual cooling effect. This pool was just cool enough to still be refreshing.
And while my favorite seats were a bit drenched, I decided I was already wet in my swimsuit, so I relaxed there for awhile and read until the boys were ready for dinner and then I headed back up to the room to wait for them.
I set out all the food again. It was our second meal in a row with the same stuff, but there was enough variety nobody seemed to mind that much. And this time around I got Peyton to come back and eat, so that was a bonus.
But right after dinner the boys headed back and I entertained myself by listening to the band and watching some TV. I was pretty tired from the days events.
Asa and Hayden came back that evening so I did have someone to hang out with then.
They made their first trip down to the beach that evening too.
Hayden played in the waves a bit.
And Asa and I took a dip kiss picture (it's been awhile!)
After the beach they wanted to head up to the pool.
I passed since both my swimsuits were wet, and I hate putting on wet swimsuits. So I just hung by the pool while they swam.
And then that evening we watched fireworks off the end of the pier. I guess they set them off from there every Saturday night. It was a great view from our mini balcony.
It was late, and Peyton still wasn't back, so Asa went to 'check on' him. I say that, because I'm pretty sure Asa just wanted to go back over and play games until the wee hours of the morning. I went to bed, and they came back sometime around 2.
The next morning when I woke up, Peyton was already gone. He was having such a good time he spent nearly every waking hour over at the Ocean Center. Asa, Hayden and I stayed behind to pack up. Then the two of them headed back over and I soaked up every last minute I could be in the room.
So long ocean front view.
They wanted to stay to see the finals for some of the competitions though, so after I had to be checked out of the room I headed down to the pool. While the clouds built, it never did rain on me. I found a nice spot in the shade, under an umbrella and spent a few hours reading and hanging out by the pool and just getting in whenever I started to get too hot.
Eventually Hayden and Asa came over to grab some snacks from the pool bar with me, but then they headed right back.
We had to be out of the parking lot by 4, so around 3:45 I gathered the boys from the Ocean Center and we headed out.
I did tell Peyton since we didn't go out to eat in Daytona, we could swing by CityWalk at Universal for a Birthday splurge dinner for him. Of course he was thrilled at the prospect of going to Cowfish.
Everyone was pretty hungry by now. We just had snacks and hadn't really had lunch. Hayden got a double burger and ate the whole thing.
Asa also got a burger and cleared his plate, plus some of my food, and Peyton's food.
Peyton got his favorite sampler with sushi, nagiri and sashimi. I was sufficiently grossed out, and he was in heaven. It's like his favorite thing.
Menawhile, I got the Bento box with a california roll and grilled veggies. So good!
Since we were coming back to Calib who had to hold the fort down at home, and since he was missing Cowfish we decided to bring home some VooDoo donuts for everyone.
Peyton was asleep before we ever got back on I-4. He had a long weekend but so much fun. He's already told me this is what he wants for his birthday from now on, and he's looking at other tournaments throughout the year. I guess there's one in September in Orlando. And I'm like, geez, I could really actually entertain myself in Orlando for a couple days in September for sure.
I'll get to Peyton's actual birthday here next. But, before I leave I do have a few other pictures from pre-Daytona.
Hayden and I had been working on baking. We made rolls, french bread, and monkey bread all from scratch!
One night everyone was gone- to the library and at work- so it was just me and Asa. That meant he could work from the blanket fort in a quiet house.
Hayden was to and from the library A LOT last week. I think he had four events in five days. One day I waited for him (and sat down right under my Pout Pout fish ceiling tile I made last summer).
It's been so hot sometimes Asa and I have been waiting until the evenings to hit the bikes, but that just means we see a lot of deer. (They're the three brown dots in the back by the tree to the right of Asa's head).
And I leave you with cute animal pictures.
That's it! Whoo, that was a long one.
Next Up: Peyton's 17th Birthday!
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