We flew in to Orlando Sanford Airport and that is where the enjoyable part of our trip ended. We rented a car from Alamo rent a car. We had to walk a LONG way to the rental desk and then we had to deal with a very rude customer service rep. Had to tell him our name three times for him to find our reservation. We prepaid for our car online for the whole week, but we had to pay for the taxes when we got to the car. That didn't make any sense to us, but when you they have your money already, what are you going to do. We rented an SUV for our trip. When I got the contract, the customer service rep. (I use that term lightly) pointed out the door and said "The SUV's are to the left, pick one." HUH????? Seems that all the cars out there had the keys in them, just pick the car you want and off you go. Not sure that is the best way to rent cars. Ours had some damage to the rear bumper but no one around to check it out, but we made sure that the girl at the booth leaving the parking lot was aware of it. Not sure it will make any difference, but we did what we could.
We got to Daytona and the fun just kept on rolling. We stopped at a "Popeye's" chicken for a quick bite to eat. Wish we hadn't done that after we saw the bathroom. I won't go into great detail, but lets say if the health department had stopped in, they would have been shut down in 5 minutes. So, we make it to our hotel. The Hilton Beach Front. HIlton. A good name in the hotel business right? We thought so when we booked the place. It took us 45 minutes (yes, I said 45 minutes) to check in. The person at the front desk could not speak english very well at all. He seemed to have a problem running a gift card we got for our trip. You know, a $100 gift card from Visa or American Express that is prepaid. We got those as apposed to using cash on this trip. Much safer and easier to replace if something happens.
So, anyway, after 45 minutes we get assigned out room. AT THE OTHER END OF THE COUNTY!!!! It took us almost 25 minutes to walk from one end of the hotel to the other, up 4 floors on a stuffy elevator, then down a long, LONG hallway to our room. A nice room, but backwards. We got a king room with a sleeper sofa for Katie. The king bed was in the front part of the room right when you walked in the room and the sofa sleeper was in the back part of the room near the balcony. It should have been the other way around. The air condition worked on Katie's side, but for her to sleep, we had to close the doors and that made out side very hot. Not to mention the bed was hard as a rock and I never sleep very good in a hotel the first night. Never mind the fact that I worked a wedding the night before until 11:30pm and got up for our flight at 6:30am the next morning. I was tired.
But, we did go out to the beach for a few minutes and Katie, Leeann and I had a great time playing in the surf. Katie loves the waves crashing down on her. It never got old for her. This is the view from our room the next morning:
We were going to stay in Daytona for two days, but after a very bad dinner and the fact we could not make phone call from our cells phone from our room, we decided to head on up to St. Augustine Beach and spend some time with Leeann's dad. The drive up A1A was wonderful. Right along the coast line, lots of beach and ocean views. We have spent nearly every day at the beach so far this week. Katie is loving playing in the waves and had learned to use a boogie board to ride the waves in. So has Leeann and they both have been having a blast. Her are a couple of pics from today:
Well, one more day at the beach and then it is back home Saturday for us. Hard to believe but Katie starts school on Monday.
I will tell you about our trip home when we get there.
1 comment:
I so wish I was there. St. Augustine is my most favorite beach. Be sure to eat at Harry's while you are there.
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