Going to Beach with Melissa Today

 This morning would be the birthday of my late father and son.  Daddy would be turning 100 while Will would be 36.  Melissa and I are planning to stay overnight at a Daytona Beach Hampton Inn and then return home Monday.  After Saturday's double-lap walk through Depot Park, I got up early, around 4:30, and did ten minutes of running in place on the living room rug floor before brewing some coffee and writing this. Earlier yesterday evening I listened some more to a library audiobook about running and the first chapter of an annoying Hardy Boys adventure story...it reminded me of an old South Park episode titled "Mystery of the Urinal Deuce" when the gay lads keep "getting a clue" You know,  Joe and Hardy each sound like their privileged brothers, the only missing words being their "clues"that no one ever holds them accountable for . Later this morning, Melissa and I have a reservatioto at a Daytona Beach hotel, where we hope to enjoy the ambience of our room balcony and the poolside.  It sure would be nice to recover some walking and running fitness on that sandy beach, too.  The beach looks like the perfect location to practice running softly.  

Enjoyed Some Time at Daytona Beach

 

Melissa and I made a somewhat spontaneous decision to go to Daytona Beach for a couple of nights...we just got back this afternoon.  It was pleasant to see the ol' Beach again...nice to be able sit out on our oceanfront room balcony and take in the scenery.  Since we're talking Wednesday check-in and Friday check-out, this stood as the last full weekday stretch for a while in which kids weren't going off to school.  Hence there were a lot of families with children everywhere...and especially in the hotel's swimming pool.  We did avail ourselves of it Thursday...I think our local pool is a lot more convenient, though.  I went on a couple of walks along the beach, each in a different direction.  The weather was a mix of rainstorms and sun.  The tides seemed to come in a bit too strongly, impeding walking paths along the beach...I timed my walks to coincide with receding sea levels.  We also ate out at a couple of our favorite area restaurants.  The whole experience was fun...except for the sometimes exasperating drives from Gainesville to there, and back.  And it's good to be back...

Enjoyed Our Brief Stay at Daytona Beach

Yesterday Melissa and I took an overnight trip to Daytona Beach at our favorite hotel and got back into town (Gainesville) earlier this afternoon.  Nothing planned out of the ordinary: sitting on the oceanfront balcony, walking up and down the beach, swimming in their fine little pool, eating both our dinner and breakfast on site...and of course our room was very comfortable as always.  Sometimes I wish I had a little closet I could enter and step back out of, into a completely different location...this beach would be high on my priority list of such places.  Being there was great and being here at home is great...it's the tedious driving back and forth among the often distracted or overaggressive fellow motorists that I could do without...

Our Chicago Hotel Area and Walking the Downtown Streets

When Melissa, Will, and I visited Chicago, Illinois last month we stayed at the Hampton Inn in their North Loop zone, off Wacker Street near the Chicago River.  I thought the building looked somewhat modern, and when I looked outside our room's window facing Michigan Avenue I saw what looked to be an ancient structure: the Old Republic Building, pictured above.  However, both buildings were constructed back in the 1920s and have undergone renovations over the years...ours apparently the more recent.  Curiously, we had previously booked a room at the Congress Plaza Hotel overlooking Grant Park but had switched before our trip because of the rumors that it was haunted...we had originally mistakenly thought that it was the locale of Stephen King's short story 1408...which was adapted to a movie starring John Cusack and Samuel Jackson...but King was thinking of another hotel, in Manhattan, for his story.  Nevertheless, we decided to leave "haunted" buildings for Scooby Doo and instead chose Hampton because we liked their consistent quality as well as the location.  The irony of it all was that the room they chose for us was 1407...just one number off King's haunted room, which was just around the corner down the hall.  But nothing amiss occurred during our stay there...the room was a little more cramped then we were used to at a Hampton Inn, but then just about everything else in downtown Chicago seemed a little cramped as well...

Walking up and down the streets of downtown Chicago had some similarities...and well as differences...with our trip to Manhattan, New York back in 2010.  There were plenty of panhandlers throughout the area, although we never felt in danger of being accosted by anyone.  Unlike in Manhattan, where the buildings seemed to merge one into another, there were substantial gaps between buildings in downtown Chicago, and consequently lots of creepy-looking alleyways to walk past...I felt a little safer back in NYC.  As the evening wore on in Chicago...unlike New York...businesses shut down and the streets became much quieter.  And I didn't see so many dressed-up executive workers like in the Big Apple...folks out on the streets here were mostly either tourists or more casually-attired locals.  Drivers were equally rude and aggressive in both cities and sometimes we felt rushed walking across streets even when the lights were with us.  Chicago didn't seem as oriented for tourists and entertainment as was New York, but I have to qualify that statement with the admission that we only got there late on Sunday and left early Wednesday, hardly enough time to explore anywhere near what it had to offer.  Is a return trip on the table? Well, if there's a specific reason to go back, sure...but I think given the choice I'd rather travel to someplace else...