Weird Activities and Awkward Encounters at home and abroad
I briefly hit on Deland in my recent post about Volusia County towns. Deland a small town located just about equidistant between Orlando and Daytona Beach. Part of Deland’s charm is that it’s downtown/main street area has no chains and only local shops and restaurants. One such establishment is The Shoppes at Rivertown. The Shoppes…
Beach towns are a no-brainer for an affordable trip. The main attraction is gorgeous, tons of fun, and absolutely free (unless you’re in New Jersey, but don’t get me started on that). However when visiting Daytona Beach, if you get tired of sun and sand there are plenty of budget friendly options. 1- The Beach-…
It’s a little known fact that aside from being the shark attack capital of the world (according to the International Shark Attack File, anyone who has swam there has been within 10 feet of a shark) New Smyrna Beach also has a thriving arts scene. In fact, New Smyrna Beach is listed as one of…
Florida has become notorious for theme parks and thrills. We all know the biggies; Disney, Universal, Sea World, Busch Gardens, etc. But long before Walt Disney invented Orlando in 1971, there were a few other delightfully retro attractions that are still standing! I had visited Weeki Wachee once before about two years ago, but somehow…
I went to Tarpon Springs for the first time yesterday and immediately wondered where this place had been all my life! This bizarre little town was hiding just 2 hours away from where I live in Orlando. How have I not been here? Perhaps it’s because I’ve never once wondered what the sponge capital…
One of my favorite things about living in Orlando is that no one is actually from here. It’s such a diverse community of retirees and hospitality workers from all over the world and when you couple that with fact that it’s one of the top tourist destinations in the world that makes it a perfect…
Speakeasies have become a relatively recent trend in cities all over the country. Well, I guess you could call it an old trend. Necessity turned trend maybe? While I tend to avoid the overly trendy, my love of fringe, feathers, and fine cocktails wins out over my distaste with the tragically hip every time. As…
I had to share this because Cigar City Brewing is one of my new favorite places in Central Florida. It’s only an hour drive from Orlando, which for me is both a blessing and a curse. I’ve actually been twice in the past week or so. The first time I went in the afternoon and…
If you google vacation shaming, you’ll find many pieces on why it’s unfair to vacation shame the president. I know because I just googled “vacation shaming” in hopes that I made it up. While it may not be as original a concept as I had hoped, vacation shaming is certainly real and it needs to…
Lakeridge Winery is one of my favorite places to go when I need to escape the tourist nonsense that always takes over Orlando around the holidays. It’s about a 45 minute drive from the tourist attractions and I don’t think many out-of-towners know about it, which is great! I got off to a rocky start…
